Arrowtown Pre-School Programme.

Arrowtown Pre-School provides morning (older children) and afternoon (younger children) sessions, as well as an extended day session (8.30am – 2.30pm) for three and four year olds.

Through extensive Professional Development, we have become increasingly inspired by the Reggio Emilia Philosophy within the context of our community. Our practice and culture reflect some key principles of this philosophy, including the use of natural and sustainable resources, inclusion of family and whanau, and links with the wider community. We believe in Teachers listening to children and respecting them as learners with ideas and knowledge to share. We discuss and share our interests, and discoveries we’ve made at our (group) morning meeting, or mat times and as these investigations develop we may record and publish them in our Learning Journey Albums.

Our environment plays a vital role in children’s learning and we create protected areas for children to work, provide opportunities to re-visit and display work and encourage a sense of belonging within our environment, so children and families feel valued and included.

Every child and their family and whanau are unique within our Pre-School community. This supports children to develop a sense of belonging and well being within our programme, empowering them to become confident explorers. Through discussions with families and whanau and interactions with children we develop an understanding of each child’s strengths and interests and extend upon these.

We are a community of learners and our Profiles and Learning Journey Albums are collaborative between children, Teachers, and family and whanau. We invite families to share these with their children and Teachers and add any thoughts, ideas and Parent Voices. We record and publish individual and group learning stories in children’s individual profile books. These stories are our assessment, and link to our curriculum Te Whaariki.

“Assessment is the ways in which, in our everyday practice, we observe children’s learning (notice), strive to understand it (recognise), and then put our understanding to good use (respond),” (Drummond, MJ, 1993).

We also provide a Transition to School Programme on Fridays for our eldest (15) children. This is a small group and ensures maximum opportunities for smooth transitions between Arrowtown Pre-School and School. We have reciprocal visits to and from the New Entrance class at Arrowtown School and we also support transitions to other Schools in the Wakatipu area.

Afternoons – Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 12.45pm – 3.15pm