Bayfield Early Education Centre

Nursery

Our Nursery comprises of two rooms, the Pukeko room for babies aged three months to approximately one year and the Tuatara room for older infants aged up to two years. We have a maximum number of 25 children in our nursery (around 8 in the Pukeko room and 16 in the Tuatara room) We have a strong focus on RIE/Pikler practice and your child will have a primary care giver who is responsible for their well-being throughout the day. Our curriculum is based on the Early Childhood Curriculum, Te Whariki and we also implement the Virtues Project and use Baby Sign in our programme. In both rooms we stress the importance of natural movement in all aspects of your child’s day. This means that we will not put your child into a position that he or she can not get into by independent means (such as being sat or propped). A feature of our room is that our older infants have the independence to move freely between outdoor and indoor play. This allows them to choose exactly where they wish to play.

All meals and snacks are provided for your child (including freshly prepared mashed vegetables if your baby is just starting out on solids). You will need to provide nappies for your child as well as prepared bottles of formula. Nappies will be stored in your child’s individual basket and it is appreciated if you bring at least two changes of weather appropriate clothing as well as a summer and winter hat. It will help immensely if you name all of your child’s clothing as it will enable teachers to ensure items are returned to you.

Toddlers Room

When your child is about to turn two, the teachers will begin to settle him/her into the toddler room. The toddler room caters for children from two to three years. We have a staff/child ratio of one to six, and a roll of twenty five children.

Our toddler room is a busy, active place full of two year olds! They engage in a variety of activities during the day which allows them to enjoy free flow to both inside and out. Here they will find a range of activities involving creative play, music and movement, arts and crafts, playdough, clay, water, bubbles, messy play (gloop) mat times and small group activities.

A nutritional menu is provided – morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and a late snack (as with the rest of the centre) and the toddlers eat around eleven thirty, and then go down for either a sleep or a rest at around twelve o clock. During this stage many of the two year olds are toilet training so our Toddler room is especially geared towards this aspect of their development.

As for the nursery centre our Toddler parents need to provide nappies, and at least two changes of clothes. We recommend day care clothes here at the centre as most of our children are active explorers and have access to most of our resources especially arts and crafts. Remember also weather appropriate clothing, winter hats and warm clothes for winter and summer hats and cooler clothes for the summer. Again please name every item, things get lost easily otherwise! Baskets are provided in the change room for the children who use nappies, otherwise the rest of the children will use their school bags located in the locker area. We ask that you check the contents daily and replace or add to them as necessary.

When your child is nearly three , very confident in using the toilet independently and ready socially then we will start the transitioning into the Preschool room.
If you have any enquires or concerns please communicate them to the Toddler Room Head Teacher.

At around three years of age your child will begin settling into our preschool area. The preschool caters for children from three to five years. We have a child/staff ration of one teacher to eight children and the maximum roll in our preschool is fifty children.

The preschool programme is displayed on the wall. As with the other rooms, the preschool children have a diverse programme which incorporates some child initiated play, some adult guided times such as mat times and music and movement, outdoor play, creative play, science, maths , literacy and computer times.

The teachers plan a range of learning experiences which are generated from the interests of the children. After morning mat time and morning tea the children have a period of time called 'investigation time' which is an opportunity for children to work on particular interests and projects that they have begun (they work with small groups of children and their teachers for this time).

As with the other rooms, each child has their own profile book which is kept on display in the room for the children to share with their whanau (families) whenever they want to.

Our preschoolers enjoy a slightly more structured programme with higher expectations placed upon them. Just for the morning period the three year olds and the four year olds spend their time in separate rooms (generally from around 9.00 am until lunchtime). This affords the younger children an opportunity to settle into preschool with children of their own age and ability and it also gives the older preschoolers an opportunity to enjoy some concentrated learning opportunities with their peers. In the afternoon, after rest time, the two age groups spend time together.

Emergent literacy and numeracy are an integral part of the preschool programme. The children have a sign in area and they are encouraged to find their name and begin to practise writing.

Each week our letter of the week is introduced to the children. This is done in an informal manner where the children are encouraged to bring objects from home that begin with the letter of the week. These are placed in the object basket and discussed during mat time. This encourages children's familiarity with letters and their meaning.

This programme is offered once per week and aims to improve basic movement skills and refine sport skills and techniques in young children. The playball coaches also promote the emotional, social and cognitive development through using group games and turn taking. Positive encouragement from the playball coaches at all times results in improved self concept and confidence for the children. All this while still having fun! Playball is outsourced to the company by the same name "Playball" and costs parents accordingly.

We encourage and teach children Te Reo and many other languages as well. Many of our teachers come from various cultures. We also have a special language class which is also outsourced to a language school – this is usually French or Spanish depending on the interest of the current families.

A specialised language class is offered once per week.

This is offered to the eight oldest children in the preschool in order to give them some specialised learning before they start school. It generally occurs after lunch time and usually lasts for around thirty minutes. This can involve a variety of activities or games such as learning a new virtue for the week, a physically active game or something involving learning about maths, science or literacy development.

As with the other rooms the preschool children are provided with a nutritious diet. They have morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and a late afternoon snack. Our meals have been advised by a registered dietician to ensure we cater to the nutritional requirements of young children. After lunch some of the children have a sleep and the rest of them have a quiet rest time called 'dream time' where they lie down on the mat and listen to relaxing music or a story.

During the summer months we often have water play or messy play outdoors so a suitable change of clothing at all times needs to be available in your child's bag. We also require that the children wear hats at all times, warm hats in the winter and summer hats in the summer. These are to be kept at the centre in our hat box.

Please do not bring toys from home (apart from objects for the object basket relating to letter of the week)