FolkestoneSt

At Folkestone Street, recent conversations with whānau have highlighted differing perspectivesaround the use of tamariki home languages in early childhood settings. Some families sharedexperiences where languages such as Chinese were discouraged, raising questions aboutwhether speaking a tamaiti’s first language in a centre environment is beneficial. Thesediscussions prompted us to reflect on our practice and how […]

Now that COVID has entered our community, we at Folkestone Street are taking some extra steps to reduce the spread within the centre. It’s reassuring to hear that “COVID-19 is almost always a mild illness in children” (Shepherd & Mulligan, 2022), however, we are taking caution as we would any other viral illness.Research shows us

Research about children’s understanding of COVID and lockdowns shows that across settings post-lockdown tamariki are now more likely to gravitate toward small group play that offers an opportunity for rich learning and are eager to maintain connections with tamariki their own age (Pascal & Bertram, 2021).In a post-lockdown world our ‘COVID babies’ are making up

Who am I? Poipoia te kakano kia puawaiNurture the seed and it will blossom The discovery of who I am begins with the discovery of the physical self, and develops into what I can do, and what other people say I am (Reschke, 2019). The infant’s developing awareness of their own body progresses to the toddler’s

At Folkestone Street we pride ourselves on being a home-away-from-home for our tamariki and whanau. Because of our small group sizes, great ratios, and homely setting, our tamariki are able to participate in familiar, intimate experiences that connect the pathways between home and centre (Ministry of Education, 2017) such as baking and cooking. Our bakers

At Folkestone Street ensuring that the tamariki in our care are well-rested is a top priority, and nothing serves this cause more than having four individual sleep rooms. Having four sleep rooms means that when your tamariki first enrols at Folkestone Street they are able to settle to sleep in a room of their own

One of the things that makes Folkestone Street such a unique ECE setting is the fact that our centre is licensed for tamariki from birth to only three years of age. The choice to cap our age limit at three means that our toddlers are seen as ‘the big kids’, and are given opportunities for

There’s a reason we hear the expression ‘there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing’, So often in ECE (early childhood education). When most people’s (read: adult’s) first instinct is to hibernate at the first sight of rain, you’ll instead find us jumping in puddles, collecting the water or maybe making mud, as

Working within a child-led philosophy, we trust that children will let us know when they are ready to move to another space, and because of this, we have no allocated age that children move from the infant’s space, to the toddlers.There’s no set age, there’s no set stage – if they want to go, then

Effective Early Childhood Education (ECE) Transitions Are Critical Finding and settling into an ECE environment is an experience that is daunting for both tamariki (children) and whanau (families); no matter whether your first child or your third. ‘The way transitions are experienced not only makes a difference to the children in the early months of