Childcare options in Sunnynook

At Our Family Early Learning, we understand that choosing a preschool for your child is one of the most important decisions you will make. The team at Our Family Early Learning strongly believe in ensuring there is a positive family connection between home and preschool. The success of a child’s learning will be stronger if the positive connection is enforced between home and preschool. Knowing your child is in an environment where they are safe, happy and secure in their daily surroundings will also enhance this connection. We hope Our Family Early Learning becomes an extension of your home. Your home away from home.

Our philosophy

We strive to provide a challenging environment, with a high level of self-choice, empowerment, independence, and intentional teaching. This is where children can explore, investigate and create both collaboratively and independently. We encourage children to be competent, confident and capable in their learning. As educators, we believe our role is to work alongside our children, learning from them and teaching each other. It is important to us that all our families from a wide range of cultural backgrounds feel valued, respected and accepted. At Our Family Early Learning, we place a high value on providing a family environment where our children, families, and teachers feel safe and secure to express and explore. Our children are free to move throughout the inside and outside of the centre, creating and exploring in the space they want to be in.

Why choose us?

The owners, Debby and Dale Evans are well supported by a small, stable and dedicated teaching team. Debby has a Bachelor of Early Childhood and is fully registered. She has many years of teaching experience and prior to purchasing the centre in 2016, managed the centre for nine years. Debby still manages the day-to-day running of the centre.

Our centre is licensed for 35 children aged 2-6 years. We offer 20 hours of ECE for children aged 3-5 and we operate on a 1:7 ratio. The centre has a dedicated, stable and passionate teaching team who are fully qualified and have current first aid certificates. As a teaching team, there is a strong emphasis on Te Whāriki; this leads and guides us through our planning, assessment, and evaluation for the individual learning plan created for your child. We highly encourage family’s regular input into these plans as it further deepens the positive connection between preschool and home. We provide a comprehensive transition to school programme which is led by a teacher who is Early Childhood and Primary school trained. We provide three home-cooked meals a day that are based on the Healthy Heart Foundation's guidelines. We are a NUT FREE centre and can cater for all allergies or religious beliefs.

Nau mai, haere mai and welcome to Totaravale Playcentre

Playcentre is unlike any other early childhood education organisation. At Playcentre, both children and their parents / caregivers attend alongside their children and come together to play with the specific interests, personalities, ages and passions of that specific group of children.

Totaravale Playcentre is a welcoming second home, with parents and children from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures. We are open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for 0 – 6 year olds and Thursdays for 3.5 – 6 year olds (our Big Kids session). There is also a SPACE programme for bubbas on Tuesday mornings and afternoons and Wednesday afternoons. Please see times below.

Each child is given the chance and freedom to explore, create, climb, read, sing, experiment, play music, wear costumes, paint, garden, do carpentry with real tools, bake and cook, build sandcastles, swing, slide, dance, spend time in nature and best of all – get messy!!

The wonderful activities Totaravale Playcentre offers changes every day. Playcentre parents all bring different skills, interests, and cultural backgrounds to add to the rich learning environment. We go on exciting trips to extend learning, and also welcome guests to speak or teach us new skills at centre. Perhaps you have a unique passion or skill you’d like to share with the children too?

Playcentre welcomes families with children aged 0 – 6 years. Mixed age play allows children to engage with others older and younger than themselves creating a unique family to belong to. Tamariki learn how to communicate, share and negotiate with empathy for their peers.

JeMMa’s Home-based Education and Childcare was founded on the belief that early childhood education plays a major role in a child’s ability to develop skills and learn throughout life. 

As a kindergarten teacher, Jenny Tyrrell could see that children who had a focus of learning whilst in a home environment appeared better equipped to learn in the future. As well as this, children who were well socialised with other children of different ages appeared to cope better than others. 

It was those two key observations which cemented her belief; that a child, learning with other children, in a homebased environment rather than an institutional environment, was the best way to go. And that’s how JeMMa’s started. The name is derived from a combination of the two directors names, Jenny and Martin. 

At JeMMa’s we believe that home-based education and care is the next best alternative to learning at home with Mum or Dad 

Children who learn in a comfortable home-based environment seem to develop strong problem solving, social and learning skills. Because they are in a comfortable, uncrowded environment children they get the chance to develop and learn at steady pace with all the help they need. 

JeMMa’s children receive lots of one-on-one time with their educator, as well as interaction with other children in different age groups. These are two core components in the development of happy, energetic, sharing, respectful, thoughtful, problem solving and fun loving kids. 

Our Philosophy 

JeMMa’s is a quality privately owned family focused Homebased Education and Childcare Service that is committed to ensuring that all children, parents, whānau and kaiako are welcomed and encouraged to play an active role in promoting positive outcomes for our learners. We are guided and inspired by Te Whāriki our early childhood curriculum which encourages us to appreciate that children come into the world eager to learn and we see this as a privilege where we can work in partnership with children, parents and whānau to empower our learners through responsive engaging environments and experiences where they can reach their highest potential and develop an enthusiasm for ongoing learning. 

Building and sustaining quality learning focused relationships with everyone is the essence to who are and what believe is valuable for outcomes for children and their ongoing wellbeing and development. Our nurturing relationships will be underpinned through our Christian values and connection with people within our service and our wider communities.  Our environments will embrace cultural diversity of Aotearoa and our commitment to Te Tiriti O Waitangi will be authentic. 

We view all children as unique learners where they will have endless opportunities to learn through play and develop a range of knowledge, skills, and learning dispositions. This will spark children’s independence, urge to lead their own learning, social skills, curiosity, creativity, discovery, ability to express themselves and things that are important to them. Our kaiako will dedicate quality time with our children where they will nurture those in the moment opportunities and offer the guidance, support, and encouragement that our learners need to blossom and thrive. 

At Koru Montessori we seek to inspire creativity, curiosity, imagination, leadership and the potential goodness and greatness in each and every child. At Koru we believe learning should be fun and independence fostered through hands on meaningful activity in an environment where children feel welcomed, respected and part of a community of learners.  At Koru children relate positively to others and learn to be proud of who they are, where they come from and what they can do. They learn to make decisions and active choices for themselves and develop a love of learning which it is hoped will last throughout their lives. 

We Offer: 

• A small, quality, child centred environment for children from 2-6 years of age. 
• A philosophy that aligns teaching practices to Montessori method and Te Whariki- the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum Family friendly centre licensed for 28 children Teacher / child ratio of one teacher per seven children (minimum Ministry of Education requirement is one teacher per 10 children) 
• Highly qualified, caring and experienced teachers with many years teaching at Koru who take pride in providing children with meaningful learning opportunities through positive and responsive interactions. 
• Individual observation and planning to meet the needs , interests and development of each child 
• Emphasis on close communication between Koru and family / whanau

The centres are Kiwi owned and operated by husband and wife team, Tony and Jodie Hight. 

Jodie's story behind the scenes… “Many moons ago, whilst studying hard to achieve my Diploma in Childcare, I had to come up with a name to call my ‘dream’ centre. After sleepless nights it came to me! ‘LITTLE PEOPLE’… I believe that too many people treat children as ‘children’ instead of ‘little people’, with little feelings, little minds and little feet… Just like you and me. Children deserve the same respect, interactions and love like us. The footprints you will see on our sign symbolizes the path and journey of each individual person. As you can see my ‘dream’ came true. I will now focus my energy on providing a ‘dream’ place for your children to be. 

We look forward to spending time with you all on this very special journey at Little People. It is important that you feel comfortable and secure with the decision you are making, so please feel free to ask us any questions or spend time with us to ensure that you are happy. Our mission is to provide the highest quality child care and education for children attending Little People Learning Centres. A place where children and their families/whanau experience ‘a home away from home’.

Sunnynook Community Early Learning is a non-profit community mixed-aged early childhood centre. It offers all day and sessional options with children of mixed ages and provides quality early childhood education and care.

The centre’s programme is based on Te Whāriki which is the New Zealand Early Childhood Education curriculum. The centre is available to families / whanau from all areas to provide support in a friendly, caring atmosphere. Our costs are very reasonable with the aim of making our service accessible to all of the families in our community.

We are licensed by the Ministry of Education to have 25 children – 8 under two-year-olds and 17 over two-year-olds.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

To provide an environment where every child and their family feel safe, secure and nurtured; where each child’s self esteem is developed and where their play is valued as meaningful learning experiences.

PROGRAM

Our programme is based on the principles and strands of Te Whāriki (New Zealand’s Early Childhood Curriculum). We encourage and support freedom of choice for our children. The way in which we do this is to set up challenging and interesting experiences for each child to enjoy and explore.

Each child learns in his or her own way. It is our role to provide an environment that encourages and supports children strengths and interests. By providing children freedom of choice we are encouraging them to take responsibility for their own learning at their own individual pace.

By supporting our children in this way we are encouraging them to become competent and confident learners. Te Whāriki, Ministry of Education, 1996.

OUR PURPOSE 

The purpose of the Sunnynook Community Centre is to enhance social and cultural well-being by providing accessible and affordable opportunities for people of all ages, cultures and interests to come together in a safe and supportive environment..

OUR VALUES

We will endeavour at all times to: Have a strong community focus driving the decisions we make. Provide a warm and welcoming environment for all centre users. Embrace and celebrate the diversity within our community. Be family focused and safety conscious. Provide quality facilities for users.