Haven ELC

We are a small, privately-owned centre offering quality nursery and preschool education for children from 0 to age 6.

We offer:
Warm family environment
Winner of the national ECC Centre of Excellence award 2024
Excellent child/staff ratios, using fully qualified teachers
A small intimate nursery for 0-2
A culturally diverse group of both children and kaiako
Tuition in NZ Sign Language
Specialised curriculum includes water safety classes, a toothbrushing programme, Chinese calligraphy
Regular local excursions
A school readiness programme for 4-year-olds

Special offers (conditions apply):
20 hours for $20 for children aged 2 years 6 months and over
30 hours for $30 for children aged 3 and over

Please contact Tracy or Mark for further information, or call in for a visit:
www.havenelc.school.nz
Haven ELC, 375 Worcester St, Linwood, Christchurch
Tel: (03) 389 2483
Email: [email protected]

At Haven ELC we love to explore our local area, including the parks, river, and malls! Welcome to the first trip of our 'Haven Explorers'. Once we have our high viz vests on, and have tuned in our 'explorer goggles', we are ready to set off. This time we headed down to Beverley Park where we had a picnic lunch and then a play on the playground. We really enjoyed the rock climbing wall!. Then off to the awa (river) to see local and native plants, and the river system. We saw ducks (rakiraki) and kept a close eye out for tuna (eels). Then it was back to Haven to rest our legs. We plan to do more of these spontaneous trips as the weather improves :)

Grouptime is an exciting part of the day for our 4 plus children. We all come together to work on the skills we need to move onto primary school. This includes basic literacy, and maths skills. Today we looked at colours and learnt about the primary colours (red, blue and yellow), and how we can mix the colours to make the secondary colours, then another mix and we have tertiary colours. One more mix....and we make brown!!!! Lots of brown.

Sue, our StoryTeller from the Christchurch City Council visits us once a term to engage our tamariki in reading and literacy. Her visits are always welcome as she brings in new books, resources and technology to capture imaginations and attention. We appreciate the people in the community who contribute to enhance the learning programme here at Haven ELC.

The children in nursery are loving the new blackboard that Chrissy has made and put up for them. We are so lucky to have Chrissy who is super handy and our fixer, repairer, plumber, painter, gardener, concrete layer, and creative designer! Here Inayat and Luna are practising their writing skills and names.

Look at all our keen gardners! As the seedlings begin to grow, the children are taking care of the young plants by regular watering, weeding and care. Showing kaitiakitanga - taking care of the world around us.

Haere ra to Tricia who has spent the past 2 weeks with us as she completes her teacher training in ECE. Tricia spent time in both nursery and pre-school and as well as reconnecting with old faces made some new friends! We all wish the best in your future career Tricia.

To celebrate Maia's last day before leaving to go to primary school, we held a bike day and children were invited to bring along their special wheels. Can you guess who is who?

Happy Diwali! We had a fabulous day this week celebrating the "Festival of Lights", a festival observed largely in South India. It celebrates the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil. We honour this tradition by the sharing of food, making rangoli patterns, using henna on hands, creating diyas (a traditional clay lamp), and making our own fireworks! दिवाली मुबारक! Happy Diwali!

To round off our week of Pasifika celebrations, we took a short trip to Polynesian Choice, a local shop which is a treasure trove of Island fabrics, clothing and accessories. While there we looked at the different brightly coloured fabrics, studied the polynesian flags on display, and practiced speaking our Fijian with Cherie. We also talked about the Tanoa I(wooden bowl) and the importance of kava (a plant native to Fiji). We learned that during the kava ceremony, we clap once, accept the tanoa, say Bula! meaning cheers, and drink the kava in one go, then we clap 3 times in appreciation. The drink is shared until the tanoa is emptied. Bula!

To celebrate the crafts of Fiji we also made flower garlands for our heads. Traditionally a salusalu is worn around the neck, and we used frangipani and hibiscus flowers for decorating. Thank you to tisa (teacher) Jocelyn for leading this activity.