At Engadine Preschool, sustainability isn’t a ticked box, it is embedded in the service’s philosophy:
Our vision is to empower the children to make changes themselves. We believe one person can make a difference in the world, and that a group of people making small changes can have a big impact.
These guiding beliefs recently came to life when two staff members led an ambitious project to create an educational storybook, with the children, for the community.
More than just a storybook, The Journey of Lily’s Lost Plate embodies Engadine Preschool’s guiding principle that children are capable, informed citizens. It is also a call to action that encourages children and families to explore how rubbish travels through drains and waterways to the ocean.
So valuable is its message, the book was recently launched by Keep Australia Beautiful NSW as a resource for its NSW EnviroMentors® Keeping Waterways Clean incursion workshops. At the launch, it was road-tested by the children at Engadine Preschool in the first interactive workshops that will be rolled out across the state.
Filling a gap
Like all good creative projects, this one began as a ‘pie-in-the-sky’ idea, proposed by ECT Jessica McLean. Jessica had been speaking with a friend at Keep Australia Beautiful NSW about early learning curriculum materials. She discovered that while the organisation offered sustainability programs for primary schools and early childhood, there was a gap for early childhood education resources.
“I couldn’t find anything appropriate and thought, why don’t we just make it? Why don’t we create something meaningful and turn it into a child-led project” Jess recalls. “Children teaching children is so much more powerful than finding a generic book written by someone else.”
Jessica and educator Tahne Mobbs began working together on this project as a Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) item, focusing on the preschool’s strong sustainability commitment and working with outside community organisations; and the idea quickly gained momentum.
Jessica and Tahne meet with the Keep Australia Beautiful NSW team
At the time, the children were exploring sea creatures and asking questions about rubbish, drains, and oceans. It didn’t take long for their curiosity to take hold in the form of a narrative that explored environmental awareness.
The children's knowledge of sea creatures helped to shape the book's narrative
After talking with the Engadine Preschool team and Keep Australia Beautiful NSW, Jessica and Tahne, along with the children, wrote the story. Inspired by their excitement for protecting local waterways and marine life, the children added vibrant illustrations that brought the tale to life.
The goals of the project
The storybook project directly supports the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), which highlights the importance of: “The collaboration of educators, families and children to support and enhance children’s connections and capabilities, and for children to actively participate as citizens.” (Department of Education, 2022, p.6)
Director Eve Hawkes says that by embedding sustainability into pedagogy, leaders provide children with opportunities to build knowledge and dispositions that prepare them to make a difference for both local and global sustainability.
Engadine Preschool records its activity in a sustainability calendar
She believes that considering global leadership in this way enables ECEC leaders to guide pedagogical and curriculum development towards sustainability.
“It ensures that sustainable practices are not add-ons but are embedded across teaching, learning and organisational culture, preparing children to contribute to a just and sustainable future,” says Eve.
“We believe in shared leadership at Engadine Preschool and staff work together on developing our QIP items together each year. We choose these projects through critical reflection of our educational program, implementing our self reflection tool, our strategic plan, as well as child and parent feedback.”
The storybook project set out to:
1. Empower children as active citizens who understand how their actions influence waterways and marine health ( EYLF Outcome 2.1)
2. Embed sustainability in curriculum design, enabling educators to plan play-based, developmentally appropriate experiences informed by expert knowledge
3. Strengthen the educator’s capacity to think innovatively, reflect critically, and collaborate with an external organisation (Keep Australia Beautiful NSW) to improve practice
4. Foster partnerships with families and Keep Australia Beautiful NSW, aligning with NQS QA3.2.3 (environmental responsibility) and QA6.2.3 (community Engagement), ACECQA, 2020
A story of its time and place
The Journey of Lily’s Lost Plate follows a family enjoying a picnic at local beauty spot, the Camellia Gardens, when a plate is swept away in the wind. The plate travels through drains, pipes, and creeks before emerging into the sparkling Port Hacking River nearby and meeting local marine life, including Guriwal, the humpback whale, whose name comes from the local Dharawal language. (A painting of Guriwal by local Aboriginal artist, Amy Lee Hill Trindall, is proudly displayed in the preschool’s entrance.)
A page taken from the book, showing Guriwal, the humpback whale
Eventually, the family finds the plate washed up on the beach alongside plastic wrappers, straws, and a chip packet; a gentle but powerful reminder of where our rubbish ends up.
“The story just kept expanding and growing,” says Jessica. “We wanted to use local places and to make it topical and relevant for children in the area, so they recognised themselves in it.”
The children’s existing fascination with sea creatures led them to adapt their drawings to fit the story’s themes. Their illustrations became windows into their understanding of ecological systems, custodianship, and cause-and-effect.
Tahne worked with Jessica on the story and led the digital design process with the children, using Canva on a locked screen. By doing this the educators were able to scaffold the children’s contributions to the co-created book, aligning activities with EYLF Outcome 2: “Children are connected with and contribute to their world.”
“It was amazing to see the children’s different learning styles as they made decisions about the layout,” says Tahne. “In the end, the project has empowered the children to take responsibility for teaching others about environmental issues. Children are the teachers.”
All the children contributed their individual drawings to build the illustrations
Collaboration as culture
For Jessica, completing the project coincided with her finishing her Early Childhood Teaching degree. She submitted the work as her final university project and received a High Distinction; worthy recognition reflecting both her dedication and the value of child-led pedagogy at Engadine Preschool Kindergarten.
The book’s success is also testament to Engadine Preschool’s collaborative culture.
“Collaboration is very much a part of our work culture,” explains Tahne. “Taking that load off one person and making sure it’s shared is really important to maintain the integrity of the EYLF.”
Director, Eve Hawkes, encourages all staff to develop QIP ideas and ensures they are given protected time to bring their inspired thoughts to fruition.
“It’s really important to give staff time to work on their ideas without interruptions,” Eve explains. “Staff feel valued and this directly leads to professional growth, strengthens trust and collaboration between staff, families and external partners.”
The service embraces open leadership with an emerging management team, ensuring every staff member feels trusted and encouraged to pursue their strengths and interests.
“Finding something your staff are passionate about and working with a strengths-based approach makes an enormous difference,” says Tahne. “The difference in productivity within the team is phenomenal.”
The Journey of Lily’s Lost Plate is a perfect example of this in action, showing how passion and collaboration can create real and lasting impact.
Keep Australia Beautiful NSW launch their EnviroMentors® Keeping Waterways Clean workshop with the children at Engadine Preschool
This project highlighted the critical role of leadership in shaping change within early childhood education. The role of the leader is not to dictate outcomes, but to facilitate collaboration by inspiring children and educators with a clear vision and creating opportunities for shared ownership of a QIP project.
Further reading
Keep Australia Beautiful NSW's EnviroMentors® ECT incursions are designed to support services to achieve an Exceeding rating in Quality Area 3, particularly 3.2.3: Being Environmentally Responsible.
As Keep Australia Beautiful Education Programs Manager, Shani Patel, says, “Working with educators who are experts in early learning has been vital to helping us understand the curious minds of pre-school-aged children, and how we can best connect with them and tap into their inherent care and passion for the environment.”
More information on EnviroMentors® can be found here: EnviroMentors® - Keep Australia Beautiful NSW