Our Vision

Distinction in early childhood education and care by being a centre of innovation for teacher professional development, teaching pedagogy, and teacher professional practice.

Our Mission Statement

Our aim is to provide excellence in the education and care of young children so they gain a strong sense of identity and a life long passion for learning and discovery, seeing themselves as capable people and competent learners being able to direct and control their own learning.

Director & Educational Co-ordinator :
Dr John Menneer

John has a PhD in the Physical and Biological Sciences and for a number of years worked as a research scientist studying the impacts of anthropogenic activities on the environment. John has also been involved in teaching at tertiary level, but his interests now lie with the education and care of young children through inquiry based learning.

“What we do at Explorers is all about empowering the children to be creative with their learning and embark on a life long journey of wonderment and discovery”
- John Menneer PhD

Our Philosophy

At Explorers we investigate and explore the world alongside the children using an educational style called the Reggio Approach, which supports the New Zealand curriculum (Te Whāriki). The Reggio Approach is an educational philosophy founded in Reggio Emilia, Italy, sixty years ago and developed since then. Our goal is not to duplicate a pre-school in Reggio Emilia, but to weave their teaching practices into our own New Zealand cultural fabric and develop a holistic curriculum suitable to our own identity as Aotearoa.

The Maori word ‘ako’ best describes our concept of a teaching and learning relationship. The concept of ako views the teacher as learning from, and alongside the child as a fellow researcher, and where the teachers’ practises are informed by the latest research and are both deliberate and reflective. Teachers and children at Explorers focus not simply on learning but how to learn. Teachers view the child as rich in potential, competent, resourceful, curious, imaginative and inventive.

The teacher is also a provider of care by meeting childrens’ daily needs, and by cherishing and nurturing relationships through providing an environment and relational interactions that culture a strong sense of wellbeing and belonging. We see this in our children through the expressions of trust, happiness, joy, comfort and friendship.

Together our teachers and children are on a daily journey of discovery but carrying out in-depth investigations (projects) that are motivated by the curiosity of the children. These projects may come from their own talk, through community or family events, or seasonal interests, or as suggestions from the teacher. At our daily group meetings our children discuss the projects, and some children choose to work in small groups and carryout in-depth study of the project under the guidance of a teacher. Teachers encourage the children to collaborate, dialogue, critique, compare, negotiate, hypothesise and problem solve through the group work. Key components of children’s learning (e.g. literacy, numeracy, science, technology) are continuously being integrated into the project work by the teacher.

Our children are encouraged to present their ideas and hypothesis through the arts, such as music, drama, story, construction, sculpture, painting and drawing. The arts, in their many forms, are considered a means of expression and communication, ‘the hundred languages’, to use a Reggio phrase. To enable the children to articulate their feelings, thoughts, and ideas with fluency our teachers spend their time each day developing the children’s skills and ability to communicate by exploring different art media.

Our learning community (e.g. children, whānau>>, parents, teachers, and local community) are encouraged to take in active interest in the children’s education and care at Explorers, by contributing their skills, resources, knowledge, and ideas, as we develop and carryout project work. We promote this involvement by making the children’s learning highly visible in the centre and within the local community.

by admin on December 4, 2009 · 0 comments