Innovation
Round 1
A’oga Fa’a Samoa
The A’oga Fa’a Samoa in Auckland is the only licensed Samoan education and care centre connected to a primary school with a Samoan-English bilingual unit. The key innovation at the a’oga is that small groups of children stay with the same teacher from point of entry as an infant through the different groups in the centre and as they transition to Richmond Road School on site. Proven strategies are used to steep children in their Samoan culture and language at the centre in order to nurture their cultural identity, strengthen bilingualism, and build their confidence.
New Beginnings Pre-school (formerly Linwood Childcare Centre)
The integration of visual arts into the curriculum and the provision of more meaningful educational experiences to children and parents via the project approach to learning and teaching. Visual arts are used to enrich children's projects or inquiries and to strengthen the relationships with the families.
Roskill South Kindergarten
Integrating a wide array of information communication technology in innovative ways into everyday practice; thereby giving children additional tools and approaches for learning and teaching. Enhanced use of ICT in assessment documentation created new ways to communicate children’s enthusiastic and thoughtful learning with multilingual families.
Te Kohanga Reo O Puau Te Moananui A Kiwa
Mokopuna early learning and whānau development co-exist in Kōhanga Reo o Pūau to strengthen te reo me ona tikanga Māori. Whakapakari i te reo (Māori language development) is utilised by kaitiaki (teachers) to develop language skills.
Wilton Playcentre
Children and families work together as a community of learners, using group supervision. Wilton Playcentre is also notable for using schema learning theory in teaching and learning.
Wycliffe Nga Tamariki Kindergarten
The fostering of good relations, tolerance and appreciation of different cultures in the children, parents and whānau, the embracing of families from the local Samoan Upu Amata within its community of learners, the provision of bilingual experiences and the use of information and communication technology to enhance communication between the Samoan families and the Kindergarten.
Round 2
Citizens Preschool and Nursery
Citizens Pre School and Nursery employed a Whanau/Family Support Worker to provide families/whanau extra support, advice and assistance if needed. The service focuses on services working together to support learning for infants and toddlers. Family support has been identified under three headings: Teaching Practices; Family Whanau; and Management Systems.
Massey Child Care Centre Inc
Educational leadership within a community of practice and the use of attachment-based learning prioritizing secure attachments for infants and toddlers.
Te Marua/Mangaroa Playcentre SPACE programme
The Playcentre runs a SPACE session one afternoon a week for first-time parents and very young babies. Led by trained facilitators, the sessions provide opportunities for parents to meet and network, discuss information on infant development and parents, and introduce rhymes, books and music for infants to enjoy. Invited guests lead many discussion sessions, often at the instifation of the parents in the group. SPACE programmes have had rapid take-up in recent years, see www.space.org.nz.
Te Kōpae Piripono
A range of whānau development initiatives were undertaken to strengthen and distribute leadership. The innovative leadership model focuses on four responsibilities – Ngā Takohanga e Wha: having responsibility, being responsible, taking responsibility, and sharing responsibility.
Round 3
Botany Downs Kindergarten
Focus on inclusion as a non-negotiable, unconditional right for all people, including children with special needs and the use of visual communication tools to support engagement.
Greerton Early Childhood Centre
Teaching children to ask questions (domains of knowledge) – The use of children 'question asking' and 'question exploring' to generate working theories. This includes communicating with pre-verbal infants and toddlers by reading the body and sign languages with which pre-verbal children express their curiosity and their developing understandings about the world.
Kidsfirst Kindergartens Bush Street
The dramatisation and telling of stories by children, teachers and parents about the world they live in as a means for children to collectively share their feelings and thoughts and explore the past and future.
Hutt Family Day Care Limited
Processes used to develop a four way collaboration between educators, parents, children and coordinators that support the transition from home to the home-based service, in ways that engender positive relationships focused around the child.
Mangere Bridge Kindergarten
The kindergarten's focus on transition from early childhood education to school extends beyond the usual 'school pre-entry visits' to understanding children's interests and strengths, and emphasising the meeting of the differently based school and early childhood curricula to get greater alignment between learning in school and in early childhood services.
Wadestown Kindergarten
Use of 'multiple literacies' to emphasise the many ways that children communicate and make meaning through a range of other communicative and expressive modes that are wider than print based literacies (the 'hundred languages of children'). Children are encouraged to express and interpret knowledge, ideas, attitudes, and feelings through multiple literacies that include music, dance, images, art, drama, movement, construction and ICT. Documentation is a key tool in ensuring these literacies are valued and visible.
Round 4
Childspace Ngaio Infants and Toddlers
Integrating their peaceful 'caregiving as curriculum' approach with the care component from the RIE/Pikler approach in the context of New Zealand and into Te Whāriki model in particular. Relationships are founded on responsive and respectful interactions which empower all involved in the partnership. In their role as a Centre of Innovation, Childspace Ngaio will be exploring the key components of their integrated approach which include: a primary caregiver system; sensitive observation; and promoting free and active movement. This will be done through use of an action research approach.
Otaki Kindergarten
The integration of biculturalism to make environmental use of indigenous knowledge and promote citizenship by interweaving community and children.
Te Kōhanga Reo o Mana Tamariki
An innovative approach to the intergenerational transmission of language.
Round 5
First Years Preschool
A fearless approach to science learning with young children.