Just off one of the main arterials, in a quiet street in Kuils River, a suburb on the outskirts of Cape Town, there is a cleverly designed Eco-friendly building, named Little Earth Pre-School.
It is set back from the road behind a spacious parking lot and greenery. Inside, natural light fills the space and reflects off the walls in subdued, warm colours.
Visitors are often confused when entering the first time, wondering if it might be a boutique guest house as the good designs and interior create a peaceful sense of calmness and serenity. The owners believe that each newborn only deserves the best and knowing that a pre-school is a child’s first official place of learning, they wanted to create a safe, spacious, and beautiful haven.
The owner and “Mother Earth” of the Little Earth Preschool Esmé van Heerden, believes the basis of its safe and calm atmosphere is the careful design of every aspect of the spacious building, from the high slanted ceilings, the water cooling tower, the natural flow of air, the fact that every classroom opens up to a carefully designed playground, beautiful little bathrooms adjacent to each class. The separate and kitchen gardens supply the two chefs with healthy options to cook for the little ones. The whole layout of Little Earth leans towards teaching our little ones to be kind and respectful towards nature.
But the major source of the tranquility of Little Earth Preschool is the love and respect with which the 53 staff members interact with every child. This is the most important and difficult aspect of building a preschool, says Esmé – training everyone, from the classroom assistants to the teachers, that no child is naughty, that they need love and respect, eye contact, and a laugh and a chat when the babies have their nappy changed.
Although Little Earth started as a retirement project for Esmé and her husband Kobus, and as a career launch pad for her daughter Nandi who had just finished her education degree, the school is the culmination of Esme’s 40-year career, which must count as one of the richest in pre-schooling in South Africa.
She started her first pre-school in Bellville, Cape Town, in the early 80s, shortly after graduating from Stellenbosch University with her own degree in education. It was a time when society made young mothers feel guilty for working, says Esmé. “I wanted to start a preschool where a young mother would feel proud to put her child while she pursued her career.”
She did, and six years later sold the school in her first of many string of successful business deals. Across the highway in the brand new Tyger Valley centre she started her second school. A property developer wanted her site so badly that he gave her a nearby property on which she built her third and even bigger school.
There, scouts from a major corporate school franchise came by and were awestruck by what Esme had built. Here was the model preschool that they were looking for to roll out throughout South Africa. At the time most preschools in South Africa were tiny, but Esmé had managed to build a centre of excellence with hundreds of happy children. They bought the school and employed Esmé to roll out her model nationwide as their franchise.
Although she was heartbroken to leave her staff, some of whom were with her since her first school, Esmé relished the unparalleled insight that the project gave her into pre-schooling – she studied the interaction of communities, schools and properties throughout South Africa, and oversaw the launch of dozens of preschools.
But it also gave her insight into the interplay between the corporate world, franchising and pre-schooling. She found that certain essential elements get lost when a school model is put through the corporate production line and is copied and pasted onto communities.
At the age of 52, Esmé finished her stint at the corporate and was facing a comfortable early retirement, but her husband Kobus would have none of it. He also happened to have sold his own successful tour operation business at that time, and urged Esmé to start a preschool as their retirement project together with their daughter Nandi who was ready to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Kobus believed that he and Esmé always made a great team when it came to supporting one another’s businesses, that it would be a shame for all of Esme’s experience to atrophy, and that retirement must have a purpose. “He was right,” says Esme.
They found a large open plot that happened to be zoned for education near the Zevenwacht wine estate. The risk was that they did not know the area, which was being newly developed as one of the fastest growing parts of Cape Town, but it was a perfect clean slate for Esme to envision and build a preschool with all of her experience.
They bought it, had Esme’s vision drawn up by a thoughtful architect, and they put in their own money to get construction going while the bank processed their finance application which they had approved in principle. Then came the shocking news that the bank had reconsidered – they felt the area was too unknown and that Esme and Kobus were too old for a mortgage. “We were stuck,” says Esme, “with most of our savings poured into a project that we couldn’t complete.”
Fortunately, they were referred to Business Partners Limited, who did not hesitate when they saw the plan and the track record of Esme and Kobus. “Within a week, the finance was approved,” says Esme.
It’s been six years of hard work and growth for Little Earth which has become entrenched in the young Kuils River community. This year the school has finally reached the point where the staff have all internalised the values of the school and are pulling together as one team, says Esme, who can at last step back slightly to hand over the management to Nandi and a new principal who is set to start in the new year.
Esmé will remain “Mother Earth” and continue to derive her deepest satisfaction from seeing among the young parents who happily drop off their children at Little Earth are some whom she nursed as toddlers in her schools all those years ago.
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