Childcare options in Andersons Bay

Our kindergarten is nestled in a back section with a large outdoor area bursting with native flora and fauna. We pride ourselves on modelling sustainability through our vegetable gardens and worm farm. We foster a sense of environmental responsibility through our animals, whose habits, life cycles and care the children learn to respect and nurture.
Our extensive outdoor play area provides ample opportunity for development of motor skills, social skills, exploration and discovery; and our indoor environment is resourced with stimulating, engaging equipment, with an emphasis on art, ICT, music, science, and bicultural learning.

Ours is an active and co-operative community of learners, with staff, children, families/whānau and the wider community working together to ask questions, find answers and explore ideas.

At kindergarten your child will experience:

Learning for Life

Learning occurs naturally at kindergarten. Children learn through interactions with others in meaningful ways, helping them make sense of their world. Children have the freedom to be imaginative, creative and practice skills. Children learn to be part of a group and be socially competent.

Excellent Indoor Resources

Our kindergartens are well resourced to provide tools and props for children and teachers. A typical kindergarten has everything from paint brushes to digital cameras, books to laptops, drums to iPods, and magnifying glasses to digital blue microscopes. Your child is well provided for at kindergarten.

Exciting Outdoor Environments

We value the outdoors as an important learning space for children. Each kindergarten provides a range of experiences such as sandpits, swings, slides, water-play, gardening, carpentry and more. Children are challenged and supported in their discoveries. Five of our kindergartens take regular trips with their oldest  children to off-site locations to really connect with nature.

Family Involvement

When you enrol your child at kindergarten, your family becomes part of a supportive and connected parent community with the shared focus of providing the best before-school education for your children. It’s a place to make new friendships and to become involved in Kindergarten life, to whatever extent you have the time or inclination to be. We welcome families’ participation at our kindergartens.

Community Focused Programmes

Dunedin Kindergartens are intentionally situated throughout the suburbs of the greater Dunedin area. This allows families to access kindergarten in their own neighbourhood and build friendships and links with other families and the nearby schools. Children are given opportunities to connect with the wider community through outings, walks and visits from a range of people in the community.

100% Qualified Teachers

Children deserve nothing less than 100% qualified teachers!

At Dunedin Kindergartens this is our benchmark for quality. We have a high level of professional accountability with teachers being registered through the New Zealand Teachers Council and complying to the ‘Professional Standards for Kindergarten Teachers.’

Dunedin Kindergartens supports the GreatStart 100% campaign which was set for Government to recognise the benefits of quality early childhood education.

Our Philosophy

Our dream for our tamariki is that they will live their lives following their passions and seeking to make the world a better place.

Our curriculum encompasses both the intentional and the spontaneous and follows the principles and strands of Te Whāriki.  Children learn through fun and play in both imaginative and real/authentic contexts.  We take every opportunity to learn in and through the natural environment where children can learn about their world and its challenges.

Our Kindy is on a journey towards being a bicultural learning environment.  We actively seek to build our community’s knowledge and understanding of the cultural heritages of both partners to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.  Building our Te Reo Maori competency is a key part of this journey.

Our children are competent and confident learners – each with their own mana and individuality.  We want them to be eager communicators and contributors.  We foster social dispositions and skills so that our tamariki build, maintain and learn with and through relationships with older and younger children and adults.

Learning to respect, understand and value difference and fairness is an important part of learning and our teaching strategies seek to open doors to this learning.

Our tamariki, whānau, teachers and wider community collaborate as a community of learners to identify aspirations and experiences for learning.  We follow the principles of whanaungatanga to build strong relationships with all our whānau, to listen to and support each other and to respect the culture and values of all.

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