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Welcome to Riverside Educare!
Riverside Educare, is located at 8 Rifleman Street, Albert Town, Wanaka and is next door to open landscaped areas featuring a man-made lake and copious planting. It is situated on 3 residential sections in the new Riverside development in Albert Town a few minutes drive out of Wanaka and has ample parking both on and off site.
We are a Wanaka based early childcare centre focusing on relationships, nature and the outdoors, free play, rituals, authenticity, risk taking and supporting independence.
We love to PLAY, we love to EXPLORE, we love to CREATE, we love to IMAGINE, we love LEARNING TOGETHER!
Our Vision
To provide quality, authentic and meaningful early childhood education for all of our tamariki and their whanau.
Our Mission
To promote a quality learning environment that supports play, with respectful and authentic relationships at the heart of all that we do
At Riverside, building warm, trusting and meaningful relationships is our number one focus and underpins all that we do. We believe that by building these strong relationships between teachers and children and their whanau, and by providing a calm, respectful and caring environment based around free play and exploration, children are able to learn and grow at their own pace and in their own space and will grow 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” (Te Whariki 2017). With strong secure relationships, children are emotionally satisfied and it’s only then that they can be ready to engage in quality learning.
Our amazing, spacious, outdoor play area makes us special -we have a separate outdoor space for our infants and a large joint outdoor space for our toddlers and preschoolers. Our grounds feature open spaces for running and energetic play, large sandpits, an all weather track perfect for riding bikes as well as a ‘mountain’ and 'stream' ideal for numerous activities including mud play, digging and water play. Our playground equipment is movable so new and exciting challenges are offered regularly. The outdoor area is designed to physically challenge children as well as to inspire their imagination, exploration and creativity.
Playing outside - in all weather- is a huge part of who we are and our values at Riverside. We love exploring in nature and getting out into the great outdoors! "Teaching children about the natural world should be treated as one of the most important events in life" (Thomas Berry)
Our Kanuka kids programme (our outdoor exploration programme offered to our 4 year olds) is a really special programme and we try to get out and explore as many of the amazing places Wanaka (and Luggate, Hawea and Alberttown) have to offer! During our Kanuka kids excursions, the tamariki are learning all about the natural world, developing their natural sense of wonder, as well as learning to take risks and problem solve.
Our daily programme at the centre consists of free play, child-led activities as well as teacher initiated and teacher led experiences, all while working within the framework of Te Whariki - the New Zealand early childhood curriculum. Interwoven throughout the day are experiences that enable all our tamraiki in each room opportunities to explore, to be creative, to be imaginative, to communicate and to be inspired.
At Riverside, we believe in helping our tamariki be as independent as they can. One of the ways we do this is during our Kai times. Our kai rituals are seen as learning experiences and teachable moments - the tamariki have opportunities to pour their own water, drink out of glasses, eat off ceramic plates and use stainless steel forks, they put their plates away and wipe their own faces when they are finished eating. The children in the preschool room serve their own lunches and, in all rooms, the children sit together, along with their teachers, enjoying this dining experience