Our Philosophy

• We aim to provide quality childcare and preschool education in an environment that is homely, safe, caring, happy and stimulating meeting the needs of each child and their whanau.
• We use a mixture of structure, freeplay and carefully planned experiences in both the inside and outside environments. We also use people and places within our Poppies and wider community to expand our children's learning environment, to inspire and nurture in children a love of and confidence to become life long learners.
• For our full philosophy click here.

Our Programme

Our programme is based on the curriculum for early childhood centres -  Te Whāriki.  We provide children with opportunities to explore a number of activities including messy play, sand play, water play, books, carpentry, manipulative play, painting and collage, music, blocks , baking as well as a physically challenging outside environment.

We carefully plan our indoor and outdoor environments to meet the children's individual learning goals providing stimulating and fun activities including dress up days and excursions into the community. 

Learning Journey

We record your child’s learning journey and participation at Preschool through an online secure site called  “Storypark”.  We keep this up to date with photos, learning stories and milestone achievements.   

Using Storypark you are able to contribute to your child’s Learning Portfolio.  You can also invite other people, for example, extended family members to view and contribute to your child’s Portfolio. 

Transition to School Programme

At Poppies we work to ensure your child's transition to school is as smooth as possible by fostering independence, and encouraging children to take responsibility for themselves and their belongings.

In the mornings the older children take part in "getting ready for school mini group". This group time focuses on ensuring the children are ready for school. We work on the five key concepts of maths, literacy, self help skills, social skills and children's choice. 

We have good relationships with local primary schools regularly visiting the main schools we feed into.  We are also part of the local Community of Learning COL. 

Sustainability

We believe in sustainability and respecting our precious environment, each other and our resources.  We follow the enviroschools programme and have vege gardens, worm farms and hens.  You will see some of our produce and eggs available from time to time.