Childcare options in Surfdale

Kia ora and welcome to Waiheke Kindergarten

Waiheke Kindergarten is an inclusive kindergarten with well-established links to school networks and to the local Waiheke community.

With a strong focus on sustainability, Waiheke Kindergarten is proud to have achieved Green Gold Enviroschool status. Children are actively engaged in learning ways to protect and preserve the planet.

Waiheke Kindergarten is proud to offer children a safe and enriching environment based on high quality learning programmes.

Christine, Marion, and Allana welcome you to Waiheke Kindergarten.  Waiheke Kindergarten’s curriculum is based on Te Whāriki. Te Whāriki is the Ministry of Education’s early childhood curriculum policy statement. Te Whāriki is a framework for providing children’s early learning and development within a sociocultural context. It emphasises the learning partnership between teachers, parents, and families.  Teachers weave a holistic curriculum in response to children’s learning and development in the early childhood setting and the wider context of the child’s world.

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.

TE WHARE KŌHUNGAHUNGA O WAIHEKE

Our centre is a community centre, we celebrate inclusiveness and recognise the diversity of our community as a tremendous strength.

Children are the heart of our centre culture. Achieving positive outcomes for all Tamariki of all cultures, genders and ages is our main goal.

We respect the aspirations of all cultures and honour and support the articles and principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. We believe learning begins at home. We honour and respect the aspirations of Whanau and family. We value relationships with children and Whānau and we seek partnership with parents to understand and nurture each child according to their physical, emotional and spiritual needs at any given time. We believe all children and adults have a right to a caring, safe, healthy, socially just and respectful environment.