Our Family Early Learning

About Our Centre

Our owners Debby and Dale Evans are well supported by a small, dedicated teaching team. Debby has many years of teaching experience and prior to purchasing the centre in 2016, she managed the centre for nine years. She still manages the daily operations of the centre.
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Our Family Early Learning is YOUR home away from home, where reciprocal trust, respect and acceptance come first. Inspections are always welcomed, with no appointments required.

We strive to provide a challenging environment, with a high level of self-choice, empowerment, independence and intentional teaching

This is where children can explore, investigate and create both collaboratively and independently. We encourage children to be competent, confident and capable in their learning. As educators we believe our role is to work alongside our tamariki, learning from them and teaching each other. It is important to us that our families from a wide range of cultural backgrounds feel valued, respected and accepted. At Our Family Early Learning, we place a high value on providing a family environment where our children, families and teachers feel safe to express and explore. Our children are free to move throughout the inside and outside of the centre, creating and exploring the space they want to be in.
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Our Philosophy

Our learning community is a collaborative space embedded with a wide range of cultures. It is important to us that all of our whānau cultures are valued, respected, accepted and represented. We want all of our tamariki to be promoters of their own identities. We acknowledge the dual heritage of New Zealand/Aotearoa and are committed to developing knowledge and understanding through participation, protection and partnerships of the Treaty of Waitangi and Tikanga practices. We ensure Te Reo Mäori and Hauora Mäori is deeply interwoven and valued.
We strive to provide an environment designed to strengthen, broaden and enrich learning. We understand that an environment needs to be expansive, interesting, trustworthy, challenging and collaborative. With a high level of self-choice, independence, empowerment and intentional teaching our tamariki can explore, investigate and create both independently and collaboratively.
Our teaching team uses Te Whäriki as a foundation which underpins and supports our planning, assessment and evaluation practices. Encouraging tamariki to be competent, confident and capable in their own learning. As educators, we believe our role is to learn and grow alongside our children.
Our Family Early Learning is YOUR home away from home where reciprocal respect, trust and acceptance come first. We believe in open, honest communication and have an open door policy.

Communication

Here at Our Family Early Learning, one of our core values is communication - between our team, between the children and the team and between you and our team. We aim to keep the lines of communication open at all times so that you are aware of how your child is doing. We encourage regular formal and informal discussions with our team or management so we can continue to provide a high-quality service for you and your child. The communication lines are always open through our daily noticeboard, parent information area, monthly newsletters, parent events and meetings, emails, and text messages.
We use Storypark to post monthly learning narratives, announcements and events and have a closed Facebook group for parents where we share the fun, learning and excitement we get up to everyday! We love seeing what our families share from home too!

Private Facebook Group

We have a private Facebook group for our families which we use to share daily updates of our activities. This gives our families an insight into what their child is doing everyday! It is also an awesome method of two-way, open communication where families can share their adventures outside of preschool!
Communication

Family Events

Family events are extremely special to us!! We love connecting with our families and bringing our big family together all as one! We have many different events over the year like picnics, concerts, information evenings and more!!
Family Events

Storypark

Storypark is the online portfolio platform we use to share monthly learning stories, planning, and documentation with families! It is also another key way of communicating with families.
Storypark

Whānau Korerō

Whānau korerō are important tools for us to learn more about your child and family while creating an individual learning plan to support and guide your child along their learning journey.
Whānau Korerō

Kai and Celebrations

Julie prepares a wide range of healthy snacks and hot homemade lunches, packed with vegetables. All our tamariki are encouraged to drink water and eat fruit before they eat the rest of their morning or afternoon tea. We use our meal times to try, taste and become familiar with the food, helping our fussy eaters become familiar with a wide variety of foods in a calm environment. During our day we have water breaks to ensure our children are having a good amount of fluid in their day and in the cooler months, we offer warm water.
Every milestone in our centre is important to celebrate, especially birthdays and graduations. When we celebrate birthdays we come together, sing happy birthday, share morning tea and spend time together as a whānau. We make the day as special as we can, encouraging our tamariki to choose songs, stories and activities for the day while sitting on the birthday chair!
On our tamariki's graduation day we invite their whānau and have a graduation ceremony, complete with a certificate, korowai and graduation cap. We take this time to reflect on their years at preschool with us through their art book, portfolio, Kēreru (homework) book, and the book of pictures their friends draw for them! After this we share kai together, sing a goodbye song and share cake.
Contact Us
(09) 410 - 1261
info@ourfamilyearlylearning.co.nz
Opening Hours
7.30am - 5.30pm Monday - Friday
1 Jonathan Place, Sunnynook
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