Welcome to Owairaka Kindergarten!
The outdoor play area at Owairaka Kindergarten is inviting and interactive, with natural areas for children to explore, learn and develop their own interests.
Owairaka Kindergarten’s professionally qualified teaching team are committed to embracing cultural diversity. Everyone is welcome.
Our quality programmes encourage children to actively engage in learning – with a focus on integrating literacy, numeracy, science and information communication technologies.
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.
