Long time Burnside teacher retires

Off busy Magill Road is a small council owned community centre that has been home to Burnside Kindergym for many years. The building backs on to the leafy Mellor Reserve, a little pocket of green in Beulah Park.

Long time Burnside Kindergym teacher, Trisha Blanks, has decided to retire. “After 25 years I felt it was just time,” Trisha says. “I was ready to do other things.” Those things include travel with her husband Robert and spending more time with her two grandchildren Lotti and Oscar.

While living in Victoria and raising her two young children Trisha, a primary school teacher, helped start up a Kindergym in Horsham. Kindergym is a multi-movement based program designed specifically for children five years and under and their caregivers. The program promotes the development of the whole child – physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively, in a safe, structured, multi-sensory environment, indoors. Children from babies to five-year-olds attend a one hour session once a week with their carer. They climb, dance, use ball skills and play.

Moving with her family to SA in 1995 Trisha worked at Burnside Kindergym two days a week and one day a week at Mount Barker. “As my children became more independent I worked my way up to five days a week,” Trisha says. Twenty five years and countless children later Trisha has retired. “I am a very social person and I loved the communication with the families,” she says. “I watched the children develop and I became good friends with some of the parents and carers.”

She was also very sensitive to the needs of carers who were often sleep deprived or juggling busy lives. “I knew when someone needed a hug or if they were struggling,” she says. “These days lots of Mums go back to work after just 12 months off.”

Trisha says Burnside Kindergym was like a second home to her. “It has been the most amazing 25 years, it gave me more than I gave it,” she says. “I loved every minute and not everyone loves their job all the time. To see a child do something for the first time is special.”

So what does 2020 hold for Trisha? She will travel but not for pleasure. “I am going to Nepal with a group of empowered women who are making and donating sanitary products to give to women in impoverished villages,” she says. “Maybe later in the year I will have a holiday.”