Centre Programme

Our Principles

Our aim is to make our centre a place where:

Security

Tamariki feel happy, secure and confident in their environment.

Partnership

Parents and Kaiako work in partnership. Consultation with Whānau is an ongoing process.

Respect

Tamariki are respected as individuals and their efforts and ideas are valued.

Development

Tamariki are able to work at their own pace and level of development.

Multi-Cultural

Tamariki experience a multi-cultural perspective.

Environment

The environment is hands on where the tamariki can explore and experiment.

Our Centre programme is child initiated. Our programme is flexible, catering for children's individual needs, strengths and interests. Individual programmes are developed through ongoing observations and assessment. Staff scaffold and facilitate children's development through play.

Our Centre programme is based on the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum, Te Whāriki. This curriculum is founded on the following aspirations for children:

To grow up as competent and confident learners and communicators, healthy in mind, body and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society

There are four broad principles at the Centre of the early childhood curriculum:

Whakamana – Children will be empowered to learn and grow

Kotahitanga – Children learn and grow in a holistic way. There intellectual, social, cultural, physical, emotional and spiritual learning is interwoven across all their experiences.

Whānau tangata – A child’s whanau and community are recognized as part of the learning experience.

Ngā hononga – Children learn through positive relationships with people, places and things.

The term "CURRICULUM" is used in Te Whāriki to describe the sum total of the experiences, activities and events, whether direct or indirect, which occur within an environment designed to foster children's learning and development.

CHILDREN'S PROFILE BOOKS

Children each have a profile book these contain information collected about your child during their time at our Centre.

This is a celebration of your child's holistic achievements.

This profile may contain:

Learning stories. These observations are written as a story about your child's interests and learning as it happens.
Artwork collected during your child's time at the Centre.
Photos. These may show your child's work or interests

STORYPARK

As well as the paper based profile books we also use Storypark, Storypark provides each child with an online community which you (their parent/guardian) own and control who has access to, for as long as you wish. You can choose to add your own stories or leave comments and feedback for children and our teaching team. You can also choose to share these stories with family members if you wish. We hope that you will invite your extended family so that the children have an authentic audience who are genuinely interested in their learning. Obviously we have considered the aspects of cyber safety and made sure our teaching team have the knowledge and skills to ensure we are cybersafe. Storypark takes security very seriously. Storypark is not open for anyone to read, it is a password-protected private space for you, your child’s teachers and your family. Content we add will only be shared with our teachers and the family members you choose to invite. No personal information is shared with any third party.