Dedicated to providing your child with
quality early childhood education
in a caring, fun, family environment.

Our teaching program and processes are based on the guidance and links
from Te Whāriki (Early Childhood Curriculum).
 
Our educators observe, document and assess your child’s learning progress through your child’s voice,
as well as parents’ and teachers’ voices, which truly establishes your child’s early learning years as a whole.
 
We encourage parents to share the child’s special moments from home, which can simply be a photograph,
a story, or a picture of an item, that has a deep meaning to the child.
 
Thank you for taking the time to read this portfolio and being deeply involved in
your child’s early years learning journey.
 
From The Learning Ladder Team

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Te Whāriki

Early Childhood Curriculum

Te Whāriki is the Ministry of Education's early childhood curriculum policy statement.

It is a framework for providing tamariki (children's) early learning and development within a sociocultural context.

It emphasises the learning partnership between kaiako (teachers), parents, and whānau/families. Kaiako (teachers) weave a holistic curriculum in response to tamariki (children's) learning and development in the early childhood setting and the wider context of the child's world.

The Principles

There are four broad principles at the centre of the early childhood curriculum:

Empowerment
The early childhood curriculum empowers the child to learn and grow.

Holistic Development
The early childhood curriculum reflects the holistic way children learn and grow.

Family and Community
The wider world of family and community is an integral part of the early childhood curriculum.

Relationships
Children learn through responsive and reciprocal relationships with people, places, and things.

Click image to enlarge

The Strands

The strands and goals of the curriculum arise from the principles. Each strand embodies an area of learning and development that is woven into the daily programme of the early childhood setting and has its own associated goals for learning.

There are five strands:

• Well-being – Mana Atua
• Belonging – Mana Whenua
• Contribution – Mana Tangata
• Communication – Mana Reo
• Exploration – Mana Aotūroa

The strands are defined in terms of the goals and learning outcomes needed to achieve them, of each strand’s relationship to the principles, and of adult responsibilities associated with each strand.

The Goals

The goals identify how the principles and strands can be incorporated into programmes at a practical level.

The goals for learning and development within each strand are described in terms of:

• learning outcomes for knowledge, skills, and attitudes;
• questions for reflection;
• some examples of experiences to help meet these outcomes for infants, toddlers, and young children.

Goals for Strand 1 - Well-being:  The health and well-being of the child are protected and nurtured.

1. Children experience an environment where their health is promoted.
2. Children experience an environment where their emotional well-being is nurtured.
3. Children experience an environment where they are kept safe from harm.

Goals for Strand 2 - Belonging: Children and their families feel a sense of belonging.

1. Children and their families experience an environment where connecting links with the family and the wider world are affirmed and extended.
2. Children and their families experience an environment where they know that they have a place.
3. Children and their families experience an environment where they feel comfortable with the routines, customs, and regular events.
4. Children and their families experience an environment where they know the limits and boundaries of acceptable behaviour.

Goals for Strand 3 - Contribution:  Opportunities for learning are equitable and each child’s contribution is valued.

1. Children experience an environment where there are equitable opportunities for learning, irrespective of gender, ability, age, ethnicity, or background.
2. Children experience an environment where they are affirmed as individuals.
3. Children experience an environment where they are encouraged to learn with and alongside others.

 
Goals for Strand 4 - Communication:  The languages and symbols of their own and other cultures are promoted and protected.

1. Children experience an environment where they develop non-verbal communication skills for a range of purposes.
2. Children experience an environment where they develop verbal communication skills for a range of purposes.
3. Children experience an environment where they experience the stories and symbols of their own and other cultures.
4. Children experience an environment where they discover and develop different ways to be creative and expressive.

 
Goals for Strand 5 - Exploration:  The child learns through active exploration of the environment.

1. Children experience an environment where their play is valued as meaningful learning and the importance of spontaneous play is recognised.
2. Children experience an environment where they gain confidence in and control of their bodies.
3. Children experience an environment where they learn strategies for active exploration, thinking, and reasoning.
4. Children experience an environment where they develop working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical, and material worlds.