150 Leaver Terrace, North New Brighton, Christchurch 8083
Kia Ora
Welcome to North Beach Community Preschool. Our centre has been operating in the North Beach Community since 1998 and is a not-for-profit centre. The centre is operated by a Management board (a group of parents and other interested community members) and a centre manager.
We are a well-established part of the local community and our high quality childcare programme has been established to cherish young minds, giving them the confidence to be inquisitive and engaged. Our centre programme focuses on enquiry based learning, inspiring and extending the curiosity of our young children’s minds. Teachers work alongside our children to enable them to take risks and develop positive attitudes towards learning and others.
Our Location
We are lucky enough to be located on site with Rawhiti School and enjoy a genuine and connected relationship with the school creating a genuine sense of whanaungatanga. Rawhiti School sees us as a vital part of their wider school whānau and our proximity means we are able to share resources and expertise and create seamless transitions from early education to primary schooling. We frequently access Rawhiti School, from playing and exploring the school grounds, visiting the school library, joining in Kapahaka practice, visiting assemblies and classroom spaces. We also welcome our Rawhiti whānau and friends into the preschool and often have our recently transitioned children join us throughout the day or at break times while the settle into their new learning environment. Tuakana-teina relationships are embraced with many opportunities for the older children to come in and help with our younger children creating meaningful and long lasting friendships
Nursery
We provide an intimate nursery environment with a low ratio of 1:4 with a maximum of 8 children. We have developed an attachment based programme where each child’s individual needs and routines are met through primary care giving.
Collective care giving with a small teaching team of 2/3 kaiako promotes emotional security for infants and toddlers and gives them the attributes necessary to reach their full potential in a nursery environment. Strong relationships between parents and teachers ensure children’s individual needs and routines are met in a flexible, calm and unhurried setting.
The nursery programme adapted from concepts of the RIE philosophy encourages infants and toddlers to explore in a natural, heuristic environment supported by highly experienced, passionate and loving teachers.
Preschool
NBCP offers an enquiry based programme for children aged two – six years, where teachers facilitate the learning of each child’s unique interests and skills and encourage them to flourish and reach their full potential.
By providing a richly resourced environment enquiry based learning is harboured and from here individual learning and group learning develops. Through in-depth observation and documentation children’s interests, development and growth is identified. From here we facilitate teacher led experiences or let children’s natural curiosity determine their own learning path way. We strongly believe in the value of relationships and view the parent as the expert on the child. We embrace the connecting relationships between centre and home to get a holistic view of the child. We have regular communication with our parents to maintain positive relationships and to ensure we are meeting parent aspirations for their child.
The preschool environment is designed to encourage active exploration and to support children in developing their interests, abilities and understandings of the world. North Beach’s richly resourced community promotes many local outings and experiences.
Our small group sizes (max 35 children in the preschool) mean we can provide intimate learning experiences which provide opportunities for children to understand social competence, respect for others and the environment. They also acquire the skills to ask questions, express idea and to develop their life-long learning.
Profile books
Each child is given their own profile book that will document their journey of learning during their time at NBCP. Significant learning and events are documented by key teachers and parents/whanau are encouraged to share special events, stories, photos from home. We believe that the early years are the most valuable time of a child’s life and this carefully considered documentation will provide a meaningful record of your child’s time at NBCP.
Our Vision
Kaiako, tamariki and whānau will promote an aspiring community of inquisitive life-long learners, who have the freedom to become explorers through purposeful learning experiences in a natural, sustainable environment.
North Beach Kaupapa
Our Place
North Beach is a fun & unique community where learning is exciting and successes are celebrated.
What it means to be part of North Beach;
Whanaungatanga
Relationships are everything to us. We aspire to have a sense of connectedness with our whānau and community. We believe that learning happens with and alongside each other, and our learning environment extends far beyond home and the preschool. This also extends to our intimate nursery environment where we place the value on collective care-giving as it thus creates close and trusting relationships. We love learning about our whānau cultures and identities. We want tamariki to be proud of who they are and where they come from. We embrace diversity and celebrate learning together.
Confidence
In our centre you will see how confident our tamariki are. They are encouraged to take risks, to test theories, to share ideas. Our tamariki know that their voice will be heard and valued. We want tamariki to be connected and to grow and aspire to be valued participants of the community. We create an environment where curiosity and wonder are a natural part of tamariki everyday experiences.
Engagement
For us, Ako represents our passion for learning with and alongside each other. Tamariki learn through play and our enquiry based programme, guided by the principles and strands of Te Whariki nurtures their natural curiosity, creativity, and imagination. We want our tamariki to be confident in their identity and strive to be the leaders of the future.
Passion drives the learning at North Beach. We see passion supported by fun and fun is a value that is prized and cherished.
We want every day our tamariki come to North Beach to be the best day of their life.
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