A young child dancing with ribbon streamers on the grass while families sit on rugs behind

Bellfield Community Garden, Heidelberg West

Musical magicfor little ones

Original songs, dancing and storytelling for children aged 0 to 4 and the grown ups who love them. Friday mornings in the garden, every week for the past eight years.

Save a spot this term See a session

8 yearsRunning every week

0 to 4Ages welcome

Fridays10:30am in the garden

Free playMorning tea after every session

What happens

Forty five minutes of songs, stories and shakers

Every session is built around original songs written for this group, with dancing, storytelling, rhythm and a first taste of how music is put together. Grown ups join in rather than watch from the side.

1
We open with a welcome songThe same one every week, so even the smallest ones know it by heart.
2
Songs, movement and instrumentsShakers, ribbons and plenty of room to move. Nobody sits still and nobody has to.
3
A story with music underneath itTold live, with the songs woven through it.
4
Morning tea together in the gardenAn unhurried half hour where the children play and the parents actually talk.

Young children playing together at the garden sand table

Come along

Ways to sing with us

Everything below is run by Rachel and Ollie themselves, so numbers are deliberately small.

Rachel singing with a baby in a carrier alongside a clarinet and violin player

Weekly

Musical Storytime

The Friday morning session at the Bellfield Community Garden. Songs, dancing and a story for children aged 0 to 4, with morning tea and free play afterwards.

$250 per family, per term

A musician playing keyboard and singing beside a clarinet player

We come to you

Playgroup and kinder visits

A session brought to your playgroup, kindergarten or childcare centre. Dynamic songs, rhymes, dancing and stories, with everyone joining in.

$150 per facilitator, 45 minutes

The Little Sirens musicians and families posing together on the grass

Seasonal

Family friendly concerts

A concert each season in the garden, open to everyone. Local musicians, a shared table of food and people of every age in one place.

Dates shared with families first

Rachel and Ollie

Two musicians who kept turning up

Rachel and Ollie Macindoe are performers, songwriters and trained facilitators. Little Sirens started as a small weekly gathering and has run every week for eight years since.

Alongside the Friday sessions they write personalised songs for families, run songwriting workshops with children, young people and community groups, and play at concerts, festivals and weddings around the inner north.

The Unfurl Songwriting Project grew straight out of this room. They wrote a song for each of the thirty families coming to Musical Storytime, recorded them, and released them with an interview of the family behind each one.

Say hello

The same thing happens at their place

Rachel and Ollie do not put the music down when they get home. Their own garden has a rope swing, a trampoline that never gets a rest, a couple of beehives at the back and children in the fruit trees. It is the same feeling they bring to the Friday session.

Two children hanging upside down from the branches of a blossoming fruit tree

Rachel swinging out across the garden on a rope swing, laughing back at the camera

Ollie mid backflip above the trampoline with gum trees behind him

Two beehives sitting at the edge of the garden on a bright spring morning

A wooden swing set and slide under the gum trees in the back garden

A garden arch and stepping stone path leading through the fruit trees to the glasshouse

In the garden

What Friday mornings actually look like

Photographs from a recent session and concert at the Bellfield Community Garden.

An older child carefully carrying a toddler across the grass

Families of every age sitting together on a garden wall watching the music

A parent lying on a picnic rug playing with a laughing child

Two parents talking while holding their children beside the garden beds

A long shared table of food with families serving each other on the lawn

A busy shared lunch in the community garden with children running between tables

A father sitting on a yellow chair with a small boy on his lap watching the concert

A parent holding a sleepy toddler on a chair beside the herb beds

Parents, grandparents and children gathered on rugs on the grass, waving and laughing together

A wide view of the whole garden during the concert, with families spread across the lawn

Adults and children sitting along a brick garden wall watching the music, one child pointing up

A guitarist and a cajon player performing beside the garden beds under strings of bunting

Four women standing behind the food table they set up for the shared lunch

Families lining up along the long table to serve themselves lunch

A parent holding a toddler beside a table laid with cakes and shared dishes

The cajon player keeping time during a song at the garden concert

Parents standing on the lawn chatting while their children play behind them

Parents and children helping themselves from bowls of food at the shared table

An older child carrying a small one across the grass past the garden chairs

Children and parents crowding around the lunch table with big bowls of food

Families

What people say about it

Filmed on the day, in their own words. The two written ones underneath are published on the Unfurl Projects website.

It is such an easy space to get involved in. Rachel and Ollie are such welcoming people. There is no pressure on the kids.

A dad who comes most weeks

It is such a welcoming community. We do not make the kids do anything, we all just join in. It is just so inclusive.

A regular at the Friday sessions

Something like this just tells me that we moved to the right place. There is something about the different generations all coming together.

New to the neighbourhood

A really nice way to spend the morning. Very relaxing and lots of fun for the kids. My kids are dancing and loving it.

A parent at Little Sirens

It has been beautiful. Lovely community. Really nice to hang out with people and see everyone have joy for the music.

At the community concert

It was our first time, so we felt a little bit anxious, but it was nice, and the children looked like they enjoyed it a lot.

First visit to the garden

Filmed at the community concert in the garden. These are unedited and the names can go on once Rachel confirms them.

My little one is 2.5 years and Little Sirens is her happy place. She wakes up asking every morning if it is a Little Sirens day. Ollie and Rachel bring so much magic and wonder to the sessions, it is impossible not to be part of the playful magic too.

Leoni, parent

At Banyule Supported Playgroup we have welcomed them back many times. Apart from the magical music they create they have an amazing ability to make everyone feel safe, secure and respected whilst giving all participants a sense of belonging.

Banyule Supported Playgroup

Get in touch

Come and sing with us

Sessions run on Fridays at 10:30am at the Bellfield Community Garden. Places are limited each term, so it is worth getting in early.

If you are a playgroup, kindergarten or childcare centre looking for a visit, tell us roughly how many children and we will come back with a time.

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Fridays, 10:30amEvery week during term.
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Bellfield Community GardenHeidelberg West, Victoria.
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Children aged 0 to 4Grown ups join in, siblings welcome.