Kindergarten Awareness Week

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 7, Issue 340, 19 June 1990, Page 3

Kindergarten Awareness Week

This week is Awareness Week at the Ohakune Kindergarten. Awareness Week is designed to provide parents and interested members of the community with the opportunity to participate in and observe just how the kindergarten operates. Kindergarten is an important part of preschool education and both the kindergarten

staff and the Committee encourage parents to take an active role in kindergarten activities. Awareness Week is an extension of that encouragement. An open day is to be held on Thursday and all parents are urged to attend. Ohakune Kindergarten is one of the first kindergartens in the country to try the new format of mixed age group. Introduced on a trial basis for this term following discussions between parents, staff and committee members, the new structure appears to be most successful, with excellent interaction between the older and younger children. Kindy Awareness Week provides an opportunity for those people interested in the progress of the new system to observe and discuss how it is working. The kindergartens new charter is also on display in completed form for reading. Parents are encouraged to read the Charter, which is to be the guiding principle for the kindergarten under the new tomorrow's Schools/Before Five Education system. The

kindergarten staff will be happy to discuss the charter, which was drawn up after consultation between kindergarten committee members, staff and parents and interested community members. Kindergarten enables children to develop in many different ways, the most fundamental of which is playing. Children learn through

playing, and the structure of kindergarten is to assist children to learn as many new things as possible whilst "playing". Encouragement from adults is important which is why Kindy Awareness Week hopes to encourage parents to take note of how their children are learning to be independent, to work with others and to share and co-operate.