Learning through play

“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold ” 

Joseph Chilton Pearce 

We welcome children into our New Entrant classes with a focus on easing the transition from the Early Childhood Education environment to the school environment. 

Learning through Play helps us to transition between the Early Childhood Education curriculum, Te Whāriki, to the school-focused New Zealand Curriculum.  This transition is so important because it can affect a student’s whole experience of school. We make this a positive and productive experience through our personalised approach to learning, which teaches the children as they like to learn—through play.   

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Our approach to Learning through Play provides our children with the freedom to make their own choices. There are also times when they come together as a group with a literacy, maths, PE or inquiry focus to learn to listen to each other, share information, follow rules and partake in group activities and workshops.  

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During Learning through Play, students have the opportunity to follow their own interests. They are encouraged to initiate activities and be self-directed with the support of their teachers. They learn to take ownership of their learning. They will be gently moulded into independent children with initiative and the confidence to take risks, knowing that there is no right or wrong way.  

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Through play, children are able to develop socially, emotionally, physically, and cognitively. During Learning through Play the teachers can easily observe the key competencies whilst the children are surfing on surfboards made out of cardboard on a pretend ocean, or creating potions to make a mystical creature grow, every day brings something new from the children.  

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The Year 1 and 2 classes have sessions of play within their daily timetables to continue the Learning through Play approach.