Te Ruma Ruru
Age 0-2 / 2.5 years
Named for our guardian resident Ruru (morepork) Molly, Te Ruma Ruru caters for our infants and toddlers in a calm, unhurried environment designed to evoke the comforting feeling of home. The thoughtfully resourced and staffed environment reflects the belief that our infants and toddlers deserve the very best start in life. Teaching practice in the Ruru Room is heavily influenced by the RIE/Pikler philosophy. Here your infant or toddler will be supported and cared for in an unhurried, calm and respectful manner that follows their individual routines, preferences and rhythms.
A huge feature of our infant space is that we have arguably the largest Under Two outdoor space in the Waikato. Spacious flower and vegetable gardens and mature trees allow for endless engagement for the active explorer, setting the scene of a magical learning space where new discoveries are made each day.
Another special feature is the resident Tui, Dove and Keruru birds that have created home in our trees above. Our tamariki have lovingly named these bird friends and enjoy feeding and calling them in each day.
Te Ruma Tui / Kea
Age 2 - 6
The environment in Te Ruma Tui/Kea is designed to facilitate choice, challenge, wonderment, self-direction and inspire tamariki to follow their interests.
Depending on the age needs of our roll, we will operate two programs that engage our younger toddler tamariki (Kea Room 2-3 years), and a older children (Tui Room 3-6 years). Our kaiako in the Tui/Kea Room guide a program which is child-led, individually planned around each child's interests in a thoughtfully resourced environment to cater for a wide variety of interests, ages and preferences. School readiness and key competencies (social skills, pre-literacy and pre-maths etc) are interwoven throughout the daily routines of Te Ruma Tui in an organic manner, setting a culture of responsibility, kindness, respect and integrity.
We actively explore in our outdoor Nature Kindy, utilizing our acre site and exploring the wonders that papatuanuku produces. We aim to extend our physical skills by testing our bodies climbing trees and engaging in group learning moments. Our outdoor environment is vast, and we enjoy having no fixed playground, allowing for children to become creative at building their own structures, setting their own challenges and doing so in a social capacity amongst peers.
We pride ourselves on delivering a curriculum that is focused on authentic relationships between tamariki, kaiako and whanau.
"Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul."
Freidrich Froebel