Our program is based on the Early Childhood Curriculum – Te Whāriki and Kei tua o te pai – and reflects the holistic way children learn and the way in which children form relationships with those around them and with their environment.

The Villa

(approx. 0 – 2 yrs)

Teachers believe in a loving, calm, nurturing environment that is physically and emotionally secure.  We place a high value on partnership between parents and teachers.

We provide the children with open ended resources that allow them to explore at their own pace and in their own way. Our resources are all accessible to the children at a height that enables them to explore freely.

We have a homely environment that acts as a second home for our infants and toddlers helping with the settling in process for new children and supporting the ability to develop a sense of belonging.

We have a communication book that goes home with the children and this enables our team members to share information with the family of the child (their bottles, nappy times, meals etc.). We encourage our parents to fill this in every day so we have information for the day.

We foster a flexible approach encouraging children to explore the environment through music and movement, stories, art, tactile experiences while catering for each individual needs.

The Cottage

(approx. 2 – 5 yrs)

In our over two’s area through different child initiated focuses, we offer an innovative program system which celebrates individual children’s interests and strengths in their journey of learning and development.

We extend the children’s strengths, abilities and interests by noticing what is happening/what the children are doing, recognising the specific learning, and responding in a way that enables the children to further develop their learning.  We provoke thoughts, ideas, discussions, interests, questions and creativity by providing provocations in many different forms.  We do this by setting up the environment/displays, following interests and asking inquiry based questions.  All of this provides and invitation for the children to explore, learn and create.

Storypark

At Sure Start your child’s day to day learning is shared with you via an online portfolio system known as Storypark.  This is a private online space for teachers, families and children tailored specifically for early childhood centres like ours.