Inside Our Whitford Childcare Centre

Under 2’s

Our Sweet Peas enjoy a peaceful, unhurried learning environment, where primary caregiving, ensures all interactions are filled with kindness, consideration and respect. Two teachers will be assigned to each child in the Sweet Peas Room to complete the majority of all care rituals from feeding, changing, settling to sleep and daily transitions into the room. This creates a consistent and nurturing atmosphere for each baby, where their natural rhythm and routine is followed. Intimate and trusting relationships are important for our babies and their emotional well-being.

The partnership between the teachers and the child’s family is a collaboration of care and a way of ensuring that we fulfil the family’s aspirations for their child. We treasure each child; their gifts, passions and curiosities, and make work out of knowing each child deeply. We have a familiar rhythm each day, creating a safe and predictable environment for our youngest tamariki to blossom and grow.

Our Sweet Peas enjoy an open-plan room filled with natural light, and an indoor-outdoor flow into their beautiful playground. A separate sleep room with calming music allows for a peaceful slumber. Enriched with an array of open-ended natural, cultural and play resources, our babies are empowered to explore the wonderful world around them, whether independently or with their friends. 

Toddlers

Our Bluebells experience a space where play is seen as precious and valuable in the search for knowledge and meaning. We promote a culture of curiosity through a literacy rich environment and unlimited access to a wide range of open-ended resources. We explore, construct and share our ideas through discussions and through the many languages young tamariki use to express themselves. We offer endless opportunities to explore different art mediums including painting, clay, drawing, ephemeral art, and in the process our tamariki develop confidence with these expressive tools.

The environment and learning moments are carefully planned and implemented to appeal to all senses and to encourage hands on experiences, thus developing their identities as autonomous learners. Independence and self-help skills are fostered through offering tamariki choices, agency over their own learning, and opportunities to take responsibility. 

Through role modelling and gentle coaching, our loving teachers encourage interactions of kindness, empathy and respect.

Together we learn to manage ourselves, express our feelings, and develop resilience. Emotional literacy, or social competence, is an important life skill and includes learning to take turns, problem solve, negotiate, develop empathy, along with other social skills, thus supporting our Bluebells to develop and maintain friendships. In the process we learn about ourselves and others. 

We have a flexible rhythm to our day, with a rest or sleep offered after lunch. Our Bluebells and Cherry Blossom Rooms are joined by a barn door, which is open in the morning and late afternoon. This encourages the tamariki to interact with their peers. By the time your child is ready to move to the older room, they will be very familiar with the tamariki, teachers and environment which eases the transition process significantly. 

Preschool

Our Cherry Blossoms experience a thoughtfully designed environment that invites them on an investigative journey of learning and self-discovery. Through posing open-ended questions and thoughtful learning experiences, our teachers guide the tamariki to wonder and question about the world and explore their interests. Through self-directed projects, group discussions and by multiple methods of self-expression, our tamariki develop the skills to synthesise, interpret and evaluate their thoughts and theories. We focus on the process of learning, rather than the outcome of learning. We believe when tamariki are empowered by the methods they use to explore their interests, a deep level of thinking, learning and motivation is activated.

We encourage our tamariki to be part of our programme planning, as we know that when tamariki choose their learning focus, or project, they are more interested in learning and committed to achieving the goals they have set for themselves, with support from their teachers. Our experienced and skilful teachers meaningfully incorporate all curriculum areas into the chosen projects, ensuring that the tamariki experience a rich and holistic learning programme. Our vision for our Cherry Blossoms is to experience a learning programme that fosters curiosity and instils wonder, so that they develop a lifelong love for learning.

A strong focus in our room is the importance of relationships and how we interact with one another and the environment in which we live. We have a culture of kindness and respect, and we guide the tamariki in understanding the need for compassion and empathy. Equally, we support tamariki on their quest to building resilience, so that they are set up for dealing with challenges and change.

A space for “digging with one’s own hands and one’s own mind, and for refining one’s own eyes, through the practice of visual arts” Lella Gandini

In our cottage we have a creative space for research and discovery. A dedicated space where tamariki are encouraged to wonder and to experiment with the possibilities of different tools, materials and techniques and how these can be used to communicate ideas and feelings. This space is available to our Cherry Blossoms tamariki and teachers to enrich and deepen learning and project work.

Our programme, throughout the centre, is focused on igniting curiosity and empowering tamariki to question, investigate their interests and build on their knowledge. We encourage tamariki to share and evolve their ideas with others, not only through verbal communication, but also through drawing, painting and a multitude of different methods of expressions. These methods of communication are referred to the “100 languages of children” and a way for tamariki to express their thoughts, theories and wonderings about the world around them.