Atawhai Kids
Here at Atawhai Kids, we pride ourselves on providing high quality care and education for children aged from 3 months of age until they start school. The centre operates on a group size of 50 children maximum at any time, with a high ratio of teachers to children. All teaching staff are either fully qualified early childhood teachers, or are in‐training teachers. We are an all‐day childcare centre, and our hours of operation are: Monday to Friday, 7.45am to 5:15pm. Children may be enrolled for mornings, afternoons, or for the full day. We are open year‐round; however we are closed for public holidays and also annually for a two week break over the Christmas / New Year period. We are a teacher‐led childcare centre; hence participation from parents in our program is warmly welcomed and highly valued; however there is no mandatory involvement required. Our primary means of communication with parents and whānau is through daily conversations at drop‐off and pick‐up times. We also have Storypark (online communication and assessment site). We have an open‐door policy, so parents and whānau are welcome to visit the centre anytime, and stay for as long ﴾or as short﴿ as they wish. We take pride in our community focus and relationship with our local community. We have strong relationships with our two local primary schools, Clifton Terrace School and Hira Rural School. These relationships enable us to provide a seamless transition program for children to transition onward to school. We have a team of highly qualified and experienced Early Childhood teachers, high teacher‐ children ratios and an educational programme that ensures each child is supported, encouraged and challenged to learn in a positive and safe environment.
Documenting your child’s learning journey
Your child's learning will be documented in a profile book (a documented account of their learning at Atawhai Kids) and on Storypark. Storypark is a secure online version of your child's learning log. Full time tamariki will have at least 6 learning stories and 2 six monthly ‘Journeys of discovery’ a year, part time tamariki will have at least 4 learning stories and 2 six monthly ‘Journeys of discovery’ a year; we also use Storypark as a communication tool with families / caregivers. We believe that these should reflect a two‐way conversation between home and the centre, and as such we encourage input into both forums from parents and whānau. Learning stories will show areas of interest your child is engaging in, the learning they are gaining from this engagement; and further extensions for their learning that we may be able to offer. All the teachers are responsible for contributing to learning stories to ensure your child's learning is viewed from multiple perspectives but your child’s whānau teacher will be the main contributor to your child’s learning journey. Profile books are kept on display in the centre, and children are free to access their own and other’s books. The benefit of storypark is you can share your child's learning journey with other whānau and friends you wish to invite and add stories from home so the kaiako can see what the tamariki do when they are away from the centre.
Bicultural and Multicultural Practices
Atawhai Kids Preschool is very proud of the culturally diverse range of families we engage with and provide service to. We are fully committed to providing a learning environment rich in Maori language (te Reo) and practices (tikanga); in addition to the many other cultures represented in our local community. Please ensure your communicate any special cultural practices you value and would like to see embraced by the centre.
Behaviour Management Practices
At Atawhai Kids, our working philosophy with children is to encourage positive relationships, both between peers and also between adults and children. We are advocates of working in partnership with children; where children are empowered to make decisions about interactions that affect them. Teachers provide a positive influence through their words, actions, tone and engagement with children. We believe that adults who model examples of kindness, respect, caring and consistency set the tone for children to follow. Some examples of how pro‐social behaviour in children is encouraged are as follows:
Encouraging children to express themselves assertively, whilst showing respect for their own and others' feelings.
Offering children choices about what is happening to them.
Allowing time for children to make decisions within acceptable boundaries.
Calmly supporting children and being available to assist in their learning, but empowering and allowing children the opportunity to problem solve themselves as much
Waiting List
If you would like to see about availability at Atawhai Kids please fill our waiting list for by clicking here.