Our Teaching Philosophy

Our Teaching Philosophy

Our Philosophy encompasses the values and beliefs we as a team use to guide our everyday practices and programme. This supports the NZ Early Childhood Curriculum “Te Whāriki”.

Assessment

Our principle form of assessment is shared dialogue between parents/whanau, children and teachers. The richest source of shared information happens at the beginning and end of your child’s day. The teachers will share with you details regarding your child’s day at Aspiring Beginnings and what they have been involved in. They will often ask “what has been happening at home?” and “how we can best support that learning?” to meet parent/whanau aspirations for your child.

Snap shots of your child’s learning are captured in narratives (learning stories) and compiled in an interactive E-Portfolio.  This record belongs to you and your whanau and is a valuable memento of your child’s time at Aspiring Beginnings. We warmly welcome and encourage you to add stories from home as well. This cements strong relationships between home and centre, strengthening the learning taking place.

The teachers in both areas assess and plan a programme for the children through:

Noticing: what the children are doing.
Recognising: what the children are learning.
Responding: through provoking learning, interactions, providing resources & other teaching strategies.

 Teaching and learning review

Currently our teaching team are focusing on enhancing our ICT practices with the tamariki, supporting the Te Whariki philosophy:

“Children should grow up as competent and confident learners and communicators; healthy in mind, body, and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging and in the knowledge that they make a valued contribution to society.