Update for July 2011

This year 2010 has been an exciting and busy year for us all here at your local Community Centre. Here is just a snapshot of some key activities / events.

Spoiled for, or overwhelmed by, choice? The Ministry of Education has a useful booklet called Choices in Early Education which identifies the different types of childcare options. (It can be found on the web by googling the name of the booklet, through ecd.govt.nz/earlyeducation or through the Ministry of Education.)

Best described as a cluster of homebased caregivers (often mothers who already have children at home) who are vetted, police-checked and linked up by a central co-ordinator. Homebased care networks, like other licensed and chartered early childhood services, receive government funding and operate within education and other relevant legislation regulations. There is still some debate whether all home-based providers are yet able to offer education as effectively as they provide care, but they’re also reviewed by the Education Review Office (ERO).

At this stage they still offer sessional education for children between three and five, and all staff are qualified and registered early childhood teachers. Kindergartens are often criticised for failing to adapt to the needs of contemporary working parents. Defenders point out that their sessional educationally orientated sessions are extremely intensive for the children and require extensive and ongoing preparation by the teachers.

Playcentre was developed in and remains unique to New Zealand. Each of the centres around the country is run as a family cooperative, which demand certain commitments, or “non negotiables”, from its members.