Selwyn House Pre-school

As part of our ongoing Enviroschools journey, we were lucky to receive a dwarf apple tree last month for our garden from Vic at Environment Canterbury 🌱

To celebrate this special addition to our outdoor space, we held a small tree planting ceremony. Earlier in the day, a group of tamariki worked together to dig a hole ready for the new tree 🍎

As we gathered together, Kaiako Jess shared a karakia:
Whakataka te hau ki te uru,
Whakataka te hau ki te tonga.
Kia mākinakina ki uta,
Kia mātaratara ki tai.
E hī ake ana te atatū.
He tio, he huka, he hauhu.
Haumi e! Hui e! Tāiki e!

As we gently placed the tree into the ground, the tamariki made a promise to it:
"We welcome you to our preschool. We promise to water you. Please grow tall for the birds."

The children carefully covered the roots with soil before stepping back to admire their work. We look forward to caring for our apple tree and watching it grow alongside our tamariki for many years to come.

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🔗 https://selwynhouse.school.nz/our-pre-school/

Our Selwyn House Preschool kaiako Megan Johnston took part in an inspirational professional development opportunity delivered over term break by the Primary Drama Collective 🎭

The "Auaha: Unleashing Literacy through Creativity" conference was held in the Selwyn House School Performing Arts Atrium.

Megan is looking forward to sharing many fun new ideas with ngā tamariki.

"We explored how drama and pretend play bring stories to life. When children act out different roles, they naturally develop their oral language skills - picking up new words and learning what they mean through active play. It’s a super fun, hands-on way to build a strong foundation for reading and writing.

"Get ready for lots of storytelling, starting this week with 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears.'" 🐻

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Whakamihi ki a koe! Congratulations to you, Emma Gordon, for a fantastic milestone with our Selwyn House Pre-school team.
Today we celebrate your 10 years of service. We thank you for the care and creativity you bring into this amazing space each day.

We are incredibly fortunate to provide our pre-schoolers with an incredible level of consistency and commitment in our highly experienced team 💜

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Read Emma's full story 🔗 https://hail.to/selwyn-house-pre-school/article/lAPNJS2

We love every visit to the Selwyn House School Library 📕📗📘

It's an inviting, inspiring space with its colourful shelves and captivating stories.

Storytime last month was even more special, with the announcement of 64 new books in our collection 🥰

One of our Zebra students, Eve, and the Fowlie family gifted one of these brand new titles, as part of the Selwyn House Parents' Association Library Legacy Project 🙏

Eve's name will feature on the inside cover forever 💫

The SHPA Library Legacy Project contributed a phenomenal total of $27,083.78 to purchase the brand-new collection of books chosen by our families, as well as the bespoke shelving that has modernised our entire reading environment.

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During today's School Group session, ngā tamariki explored the conceptual understanding of measurement. They began by brainstorming different ways they could measure, and then came up with ideas of what they could measure, heights, hands, feet, ingredients for baking, and building materials. The next step was hands-on exploration, weighing classroom objects, measuring heights, and comparing painted prints.

Demonstrating the PYP Approaches to Learning, Thinking and Research skills, they made predictions, investigated and acted as reflective learners by drawing evidence-based conclusions afterward. Through these experiences, the children are not only growing their knowledge about mathematical relationships in quantity and space, they are also building self-efficacy by seeing themselves as capable researchers and thinkers.

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On Mother’s Day, we honour the wāhine in our world who lift our mana and bring out the best in our resilient, curious and courageous selves 💜

A special surprise at Selwyn House School's Leading Ladies event added to our Mother's Day memories this year 🥰

Our Head of Preschool Rachel Johnston brought an incredibly inspiring guest to the party on Thursday - her mum, Mary Sanderson.

It was an unforgettable day, and a milestone week, celebrating Rachel's 25th year of service to Selwyn House Preschool.

This afternoon the running shoes were on and the spirits were high as ngā tamariki took part in our second annual Selwyn House Preschool Cross Country.

After the success of last year’s event, the children were excited and ready to race again! This year saw slightly different race rules, to give ngā tamariki a new challenge; run as many times around Acland Field as you can! Teachers were stationed to give children a stamp for each lap they did.

What amazing runners we have, ngā tamariki demonstrated such grit and determination. We awarded four trophies to those who demonstrated exceptional sportsmanship, tried their hardest and had a great sense of pride in their efforts.

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On Mother's Day it is incredibly special to reflect on the wāhine toa who give us strength and inspiration.

As we celebrated the "Leading Ladies" in our lives through the week, a highlight was certainly afternoon tea on Thursday.

In addition to acknowledging Rachel Johnston's 25 years of service and dedication to Selwyn House Preschool, we enjoyed a surprise visit from Mary Sanderson - Rachel's delightful mum.

Thank you our families and friends, caregivers and kaiako, for the roles you play, encouraging and inspiring the next generation 🌱

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In May 2001, construction of Selwyn House Preschool was underway. Acclaimed children’s author Margaret Mahy would assist with the grand opening in September. And the appointment of experienced educator Rachel Sanderson (now Johnston) received rave reviews in The Press 🗞️

“The programmes will have an emphasis on partnerships between the children, parents and teachers. Not only is it an important part of the Reggio Emilia philosophy, but it’s the key in the development and happiness of the child.”

Today we acknowledge the extraordinary dedication of Rachel Johnston, who has served Selwyn House Preschool for 25 years.

On behalf of our Selwyn House School and Preschool teams and wider community, thank you Rachel for leading with manaakitanga. The joy of our tamariki learning and growing is truly your legacy.

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It's a special week for our phenomenal Selwyn House Preschool team 💜

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