Mairtown Kindergarten Philosophy
At Mairtown Kindergarten manaaki
(care) underpins everything we do. Our kindergarten provides a safe, nurturing
and fun environment. This enables children to develop skills and knowledge that
will support them in being capable, confident and competent lifelong learners.
Relationships and partnerships, based on trust, respect and open
communication are central to our philosophy. Kanohi ki te kanohi (face to face
conversation) is something that we value immensely. When these genuine,
authentic and reciprocal relationships are established, Mairtown Kindergarten
becomes a welcoming, safe and inclusive place for children, whānau and
teachers. This secure and warmly
respectful environment supports children to explore, play freely and fosters
their ability to be learners and leaders. We believe that everyone in our
learning community is beautifully unique and has a wealth of knowledge, which
we love to honour.
We cherish the dual heritage of Aotearoa/New Zealand and work to
uphold the spirit and intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, fostering an environment
where children will experience the values, traditions and language of the
bi-cultural heritage of Aotearoa. We celebrate Māori success and acknowledge
our tamariki Māori as leaders in their own learning journey and as being able
to positively recognise their learning progress and potential. Inherent in our
practice is our focus on being welcoming and inclusive of the diversity of all our
children and whānau. We love to acknowledge and celebrate cultural diversity
within our community, and value the opportunities that enable us to learn about
different people, their beliefs and way of life.
We seek to promote an excitement for learning by recognising and
responding to a child’s individual interests. Play is an essential means for
learning and development that we support and nurture. We believe in
following a negotiated curriculum and our programme is hugely influenced by
inquiry based learning, art as a language as well as nature based education. We
value Papatuanuku as an important teacher; in nature herself the possibilities
to learn and grow have no limits. We utilise our wider community regularly in
our teachings; alongside this, respect for each other, our environment, our community
and resources are both encouraged and promoted. Our teaching team sensitively
scaffold and role-model these expectations. Time and space is also a
fundamental aspect of our philosophy. The value of respect sees that our
children and whānau are heard and time to learn is unhurried. We see knowledge
as a process, a way of discovery, a way of building understanding.
Our core curriculum components,
literacy, numeracy, physicality, science, social science and the arts are
interwoven throughout our learning environment. We honour the holistic manner
in which children learn and grow, and we support children in developing their
social and emotional learning through enabling them to experience the values of
turn-taking, sharing, resilience, risk-taking and empowerment. By listening to
and observing children we carefully prepare an aesthetically pleasing
environment and provide open-ended resources and learning opportunities that
reflect and extend children's current strengths and interests, whilst fostering
their imagination and wonderment.
As a teaching team we are
reflective, regularly reviewing our practice and our environments to provide
successful and rewarding learning outcomes for children. We all share a passion
for inspiring young minds through our dedication to excellence in
teaching. We believe life is a learning journey for all, and are
committed to our own ongoing professional development and professional
dialogue.
May 2018
