LATEST STORIES
Our Local Region
Here at BestStart Hokowhitu we have committed ourselves to ensuring that our local region is authentically and passionately incorporated into all areas of our daily teachings and in our centre environment. We do this by acknowledging the Manawatū region and our Hokowhitu suburb through storytelling, waiata and provocations. Last year, teachers worked with a local kaumātua to ensure we were honouring the ancestral knowledge of the area in a unique and meaningful way. This was the start of our journey and we as teachers engaged in quality professional learning development workshops and compiled extensive research to bring the local stories to life in the centre. With this knowledge, our teachers have been able to design and implement a curriculum, and environment, that effectively acknowledges and celebrates the cultural histories and heritage of the Manawatū. Through these experiences children have had the opportunity to learn and re-tell the stories themselves, act them out and gain knowledge about the area in which they are a part of. When children engage in their community around them it gives them a sense of belonging and promotes that connectedness, it also links into their real-life play and construct of the outside world.