About
Local curriculum
Curriculum by definition – The sum total of the experiences and activities direct or indirect which occur within an environment and are designed to foster tamariki learning and development. This includes home, wider community experiences and what happens at Grafton. Te Whāriki: Te Ara Whānui emphasises the development of knowledge, skills, attitudes and dispositions that support lifelong learning. Our Learning Waka:To Tatou Waka Ako shares examples with you of how we progress your child’s learning.You will find our learning priorities on our Our Learning Waka:To Tatou Waka Ako. Our learning wall is a partnership with you and your whānau. Your photos, feedback, comments and shared experiences are important to us.In partnership with you and your wider community we include your photos, feedback, comments and shared experiences, which all reflect the holistic way in which your child learns and grows.
Kiwiana and Kaitiaki
We use the concepts of Kaitiaki to foster children’s desire to learn and acquire new skills. Our unique programme takes our older children out of centre to explore the Kapiti Coast and be Kaitiaki and guardians of their own learning as they make discoveries supported by Kaiako, their teachers.
Kiwiana Trips
“It is our forest. Our bush. Our ngahere” (Swings and Roundabouts, 2018)
Unique to Grafton and the Kapiti Coast, our Kiwiana Trips take up to six tamariki out in nature to allow our children to explore. Our trips may be flying kites and fossicking at the beach, exploring the rocky shores, and the local ‘forests’ of the Kapiti Coast or places we discover in between. Through these experiences, tamariki make discoveries about nature and the outdoors, learn how to be a kaitiaki of the land and are able to develop ideas and working theories for how to care for the environment and ideas around sustainability. Being involved in these trips our children are learning to build resilience and self-confidence by taking acceptable risks outside the kindy walls. Importantly, we are connecting to the past and helping children to appreciate and value the “kiwi experience” that we ourselves had as children growing up in Aotearoa.
Kura Club
At Grafton Private Kindergarten we see the children, our Tamariki as the Kaitiaki of their learning and the knowledge they gain, which they in turn share. “Kaitiaki is defined as a minder, a guardian, a caregiver” (Maori Dictionary, 2020).Kura sessions give our older children a unique opportunity for greater exploration and learning in a range of skills. The important factor in the Kura Club is that the children are having fun while extending their knowledge in the concepts we have introduced during the general Kindergarten day and their Kiwiana adventures.As ākonga of Literacy, Mathematics, Creativity and Science, the children learn new skills with their peers as they become responsible for their own learning, discovering ways to ask questions and making new discoveries, healthy in mind, body and spirit. These ideas link to the NZ Curriculum which has a vision for young people to be confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners who will develop values, knowledge and competencies to enable them to live full and satisfying lives. (Te Whāriki, 2017). Children develop understanding and recognition of the alphabet, learn multiple ways to develop their confidence and creative ways to express themselves. They learn to investigate mathematical concepts ensuring a sound base for future learning and learn ways to be constructive with simple tools in hands on ways.
He waka eke noa
We are all in this together
Perceptual Motorskills
Our Perceptual Motorskills Programme (PMP) encourages children to use their senses to perceive how/where/when to move. The children have fun using stimulating activities that give them plenty of opportunity to practice with the support and encouragement of the teachers. PMP is woven into our daily programme, incorporating activities that focus on large core muscle groups to combine co-ordination, balance, laterality, eye tracking, sequencing and spatial awareness to develop the skills that eventually lead to the control of their bodies and the refinement of their fine motor skills. Skills that are essential to children’s learning and developing the ability to learn in the classroom environment at school. A wonderful part of our PMP activities are the opportunities that our older tamariki have to become leaders and demonstrate their skills to our younger tamariki in the true sense of tuākana-teina.
