Pigeon Mountain Kindergarten

At Pigeon Mountain Kindergarten, we offer each child and their family a safe, nurturing, educational setting in an environment which values play as a foundation for learning. We believe children learn through play. Planning for children’s learning and development happens through teachers noticing, recognising and responding to children’s dispositions, strengths and interests.

Our beautiful environment provides opportunities and possibilities to support this. We are very lucky to have a large outdoor play area that challenges and excites our tamariki. Our spacious indoor play area is well-resourced and stimulating.

We are working towards our Healthy Heart accreditation through the Heart Foundation. Our tamariki are encouraged to get aboard their wellness journey early, by being involved with season vegetable gardening that we appreciate together in a shared meal.

As a community kindergarten, we believe in building strong, affirming, responsive and reciprocal relationships with our tamariki and their family/whānau. We provide a respectful and responsive environment, and we encourage whānau participation and partnership.

We are based at the bottom of Ōhuiarangi, Pigeon Mountain where we see the maunga as an extension of our environment. Frequent walks up the mountain are part of our curriculum programme. We also partner with Tūpuna Maunga Authority to plant native shrubs on the mountain.

The kaiako/teaching team are qualified, passionate, enthusiastic and caring. Our learning programme provides stimulating and enriching learning opportunities and possibilities for children and is based on Te Whāriki, the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum.

We acknowledge and value Te Tiriti O Waitangi. Tikanga Māori and Te Reo Māori is used to promote bi-cultural awareness and understanding. Ōhuiarangi, Pigeon Mountain, is our turangawaewae, our place where we feel empowered and connected. We also include and embrace all ethnicities and celebrate cultural diversity.

Our learning philosophy

For the past 110 years, the Auckland Kindergarten Association has been igniting young minds by encouraging them to explore their imaginations through play. For many of us, kindergarten was where we began our life of learning; it was where we started learning skills like sharing, tolerance, patience, respect and self-confidence.

We view children as capable, competent, life-long learners, and our philosophy encourages children to make their own learning choices, problem-solve and observe and explore at their own pace…with support from teachers, parents, wider whānau and their peers. We value the importance of child-initiated, play-based experiences. Our kindergarten teachers nurture your children’s interests and natural curiosity by working alongside them, expanding language and introducing mathematical and science concepts, as well as literacy, digital technology and sustainable practices.

Our centres have gardens and natural outdoor spaces where children can create, explore, be imaginative and expressive. There’s plenty of room to safely run about, being imaginative and physically active. In fact, the natural world is essential to free-range play. AKA encourages each kindergarten community to explore and enrich their diversity and uniqueness. Some have regular excursions into the local community; some are Enviroschool kindergartens that live and breathe sustainable practices; while others engage in long-term research on child interest-based programmes of learning.

As an organisation, we formally acknowledge the dual heritage of Aotearoa / New Zealand, and work to uphold the spirit and intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in each kindergarten. We are accessible, secular and welcoming to the wide diversity of tamariki and whānau who attend our centres, and value ongoing partnerships between teaching teams and leadership staff with families and whānau. We value ongoing learning for teachers, parents and whānau, and the sharing of knowledge, skills and attributes is fundamental to achieving the best learning outcomes for children. Teachers and staff can access collegial professional time to ensure that quality practice is enhanced so current theories of learning and development within New Zealand’s world-class Te Whāriki early childhood curriculum are shared and understood.

Children learn

Children in our kindergartens have the opportunity to:

• Feel confident, develop responsibility and a sense of independence
• Play meaningfully alongside other children and adults
• Develop effective communication skills
• Persevere, problem-solve and take risks
• Explore limits, boundaries, routines and conflict resolution strategies
• Practice fine motor skills such as threading, writing, cutting and grasping
• Develop gross motor play such as physical games like climbing, throwing, kicking, balancing and lifting
• Develop creative expressions through painting, music, collage, movement, dance, finger-painting, drawing, cutting, pasting and story sharing
• Develop early numeracy, literacy and science skills
• Learn techniques through trial and error
• Explore the world through experimenting, questioning and curiosity
• Develop confidence and celebrate both attempts and successes
• Develop a passion for learning and a love of life
• Have fun!

Older children will be supported in their transition to school to make this process as simple and seamless as possible. Book a visit here on Kindello today, we’d love to meet you.