Lollipops North Harbour

Our Story

At Lollipops North Harbour our curriculum promotes respectful, reciprocal and responsive relationships in which children develop their own knowledge and theories.

We believe that children’s experiences inform their developing theories as they think about, make sense of, and try to understand the world through the experiences that they choose to participate in.

We foster inquiry and curiosity by supporting children when they take an active interest in something occurring in their family, centre, community or cultural settings, or through providing stimulating experiences and opportunities that encourage self initiation and a desire to explore and find out more.

We follow the socio-cultural principles of learning based on the theoretical works of Vygotsky, whilst being mindful of the developmental stages explained by Piaget.

This socio- cultural approach to our curriculum is based on a desire to nurture learning dispositions, promote biculturalism and provide a holistic context. We believe that young children are unique individuals who are capable and confident. Their ethnicity is to be celebrated and their individuality respected.

Our programmes encourage links for children between home, community and previous learning.

We see children as individual learners who bring their own skills, experiences and interests into the Centre.

We acknowledge and embrace these aspects into the programme which provides opportunities for children to challenge and refine their working theories, build on existing knowledge and develop new knowledge and understandings which moves them closer to becoming confident and enthusiastic learners.

Children’s play is viewed as meaningful and enables them to continue to grow and develop and extends the child’s understanding and skills, developing a natural curiosity about the world around them. To do this successfully we must genuinely know about the child.  We learn about them through observations, and shared dialogues between the child, family, whānau and teaching team.

Teachers assist to structure the physical and emotional environment to support healthy interactions and relationships and provide inviting opportunities for children to actively participate and develop their learning through exploratory play. This occurs individually, and within small and large group settings.

Teachers follow children’s interests to determine both the planned and spontaneous curriculum.

ERO Report

The Education Review Office (ERO) is the New Zealand government department that evaluates and reports on the education and care of students in schools and early childhood services. ERO’s reports are used by parents, teachers, early childhood education managers, school principals and trustees, and by government policy makers.

Early childhood services are reviewed on average once every three years. Reviews will be more frequent where the performance of a school or centre is poor and there are risks to the education and safety of the students, or less frequent where a school has a stable reporting history and demonstrates good self-review processes and use of its assessment information.

You can read our centre’s ERO review

Nursery ERO report click here

Preschool ERO report click here