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Our Localised Curriculum
Over the past six months we have been working on our cultural narrative here at Best-Start Fendalton, this has been a big for our team and I would like to share what we have created for our tamariki. After looking into the history of our local area we felt that Pūtaringamotu (Riccarton bush) was highly significant. This is one place that we have visited consistently and has lead to great engagement from our nursery and preschool tamariki, we have been lucky enough to participate in wa korero/story time alongside our community at Riccarton house which is situation next to pūtaringamotu . We also know that a lot of our kaiako and whānau spend their spare time exploring the forest and surrounding area.
One of the key significant things about pūtaringamotu is the kahikatea tree, so we felt this was the perfect focus for our cultural narrative. We have broken down the different parts of the kahikatea tree to showcase the different areas we are focusing on for our tamariki and their whānau. The roots of the kahikatea tree symbolise partnership, and the importance of collaboration with whānau. The kahikatea roots spread wide and huddle with others for stability, at Fendalton our philosophy values belonging and partnership.
We feel that these are the key foundations when growing our tamariki into strong, successful leaders. One of our centre priorities and strategic goals is social and emotional competence and we wouldn’t be able to support our tamariki, specifically our 2 year olds, without that strong foundation. For us the roots of the kahikatea tree reflect the belonging and wellbeing strands of Te Whāriki. Our strategic goals around strengthening transitions, culture, language, and identity support the growth of strong roots for our tamariki. Once tamariki roots are established and stable, their trunk can begin to grow tall and strong as they grow into leaders of their own learning with their Kaiako, whānau, and community providing support and encouragement.
As our tamariki grow and become more confident in themselves as leaders, their branches and leaves grow and move through the forest canopy as they take more control within their learning; we feel that this links strongly with the Te Whāriki strands of exploration, contribution, and communication. Our second centre priority and one of our strategic goals, ‘Set for School,’ provides rich learning opportunities within each of these strands for our tamariki. Another strategic goal of ours; revitalising curriculum areas, and ensures our learning environments are well resourced to provide tamariki with all that they need to explore these curriculum areas in ways meaningful to them.