Fox Street Preschool educator Christine Bush retires from Ballina job

A former leader of the first Northern Rivers preschool will retire in a couple of weeks after teaching more than 4000 children. Were you in her class?

Christine Bush has educated more than 4000 children in 47 years of working with children, 43 of which were spent at Fox Street Preschool in Ballina.

She is now getting ready for retirement, and while that means no more full-time teaching, it does not mean she won’t be busy.

These days adults walk into the centre and say “Miss Bush!” as they recognise their own preschool teacher, who is about to educate their children.

Ms Bush was 24 when she moved from Sydney to the Northern Rivers in 1978.

She became not just teacher but also one of the directors of Fox Street and Durrumbul Community Preschool in Mullumbimby for some years.

“Fox Street was the only preschool on the North Coast, and I would drive an hour and a half from the hills of Mullumbimby to come and work here first as a volunteer and then as teacher,” she said.

Ms Bush also worked at TAFE and represented Fox Street Preschool at early childhood education conferences in Vietnam, Japan and the USA.

She said her style of teaching was based on the image of the child as “capable and confident”.

“The role of the educator is a provocateur, facilitator and to value each child’s strengths and value their input into their learning,” she said.

“It needs to be done in partnership with families.

She said authentic relationships, where people trusted each other, were at the core of her pedagogy.

“I do believe that quality education is the key to greater humanity,” she said.

Fox Street Preschool Ballina teacher Christine Bush, Blue Teddy and centre director Lea May. Picture: Javier Encalada

She estimated more than 4000 children had fallen under her tutelage.

“I love it when parents walk in and recognise me because I educated them here, they get very excited and yell ‘Miss Bush, it’s you!” she said.

She said she had a number of projects ready to tackle when she finished full time teaching in a few more weeks.

“I think you can tell I’m not just going to go home and seat in the sofa,” she said.

“I have a couple of books that I am writing based around education, one of them is around Blue Ted, besides looking after my 90-year-old mother.”