UniSA Alumni
In February 1907, 11 students began the course of studies for kindergarten teachers with Lillian de Lissa - the first principal of the Kindergarten Training College. Archival records show that The Kindergarten Club was well established by 1911, and this was the first of many names of the present de Lissa Association of Early Childhood Graduates Inc.
The Graduates have a continuous and unbroken historical link with kindergarten teacher training in South Australia despite relocations, amalgamations and the many changes which have occurred since 1907.
Minute books from 1911 show that teachers met as a group with the purpose of "the binding together of graduates for mutual social and intellectual benefit".
There is a plaque commemorating the vision of past principals of the Kindergarten Training College which reside in the foyer of the de Lissa building on the Magill campus of the University of South Australia. This plaque has been donated to the de Lissa Institute of Early Childhood and Family Studies. A gallery of framed portraits of former principals of the de Lissa Institute of Early Childhood and Family Studies and its antecedent institutions is also on display.
The Association's logo is a replica of the sculpture by South Australian artist Ieva Pocius. This sculpture titled Education Embracing Little Children was made by Ieva Pocius when one of her nieces was in her final year at the Kindergarten Teachers' College in 1966. The sculpture can be seen on the western wall in the entry courtyard of the de Lissa Building at the Magill Campus of the University of South Australia. Memorabilia associated with the kindergarten movement since its establishment in South Australia in 1905 are also held in the care of the Association.
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