The Tree House embraces a homely family environment where children’s enthusiasm for learning can be explored through investigating ideas with open endless opportunities and engage in relationships with others. The Tree House is a space where children feel welcomed, embraced, respected and safe, allowing them to develop and transform at a calm and unhurried pace. The Tree House is a place where children's ideas, thoughts and feelings are valued and respected and where children are viewed as competent and capable in making decisions and choices, especially those that affect them. A retreat to be ourselves. The tree house is a space where children can be free to be children and gain a sense of empowerment of who they are as a person to develop and transform. We recognise the importance of relationships, taking on different views and respecting others. We aim for the relationship between Whanau and The Tree House to be forever flowing harmoniously and all work together to provide high quality early childhood education and care. Our environment reflects the idea that our role in early child education is to facilitate learning where we support and embrace the children and protect their rights as a learner, so they can grow into competent confident members of society. We recognise Te Whariki, the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, as it guides our practices and inspires us to meet best practice. The Tree House is inspired by:
Magda Gerber’s principle of Respect where uninterrupted time for play is paramount and the need for consistent limits and boundaries
The holistic approach to learning where children learn through free play and open ended resources
Reggio Emillia’s principle that the environment is the third teacher where children can contribute to the programme and engage in collaboration
We aim to support learning by:
Providing provocation in the environment where ideas and thinking can be discovered, trialled and imagination can be explored
Allowing time and space for children to achieve their desired outcomes on their own or with minimal support when appropriate
Engaging in respectful relationships where communication is valued
Viewing the children as competent, full of ideas and having a natural curiosity for learning
Allowing children to engage in social interactions that allow them to collaborate equally and have their ideas, thoughts and feelings valued by their peers as well as adults
