“Kohikohia ngā kākano, whakaritea te pārekereke, kia puāwai ngā hua”

Gather the seeds, prepare the seedbed carefully, and you will be gifted with abundance of food.

This whakataukī highlights the importance of creating a carefully prepared, well looked after environment that empowers us all to grow and flourish.

Ferndale Kindergarten is situated in the park-like grounds of Ferndale House in Mount Albert. We’re proud to be part of the Enviroschools programme with a focus on sustainability and empowering children with knowledge and skills to make a difference in our world.

Working together – Shared leadership characterises our community as we work together to create a healthy, peaceful, sustainable environment through learning and taking action together. The kindergarten is very much about community partnership and working in collaboration with our whānau and the wider community.

Learning programme – We have a team of fully qualified and registered kaiako/teachers, passionate about implementing a high quality programme guided by the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum, Te Whāriki. Our kaiako continually research best practice and reflect this growing knowledge within their practice. Kaiako also contribute to articles, books and present at conferences for the wider early childhood community.

Learning outcomes – We design learning opportunities to nurture our mokopuna/children’s curiosity which foster creative, innovative thinking, kindness and sociability, where the curriculum is wrapped around individual ākonga/learners. We ensure we have long periods of uninterrupted play where ākonga/learners can explore their working theories in our richly resourced environment.

Parent/whānau group – We enjoy a strong relationship with our Parent/whānau support group. This team of dedicated parents and friends of the kindergarten, organise fundraising events, social events and support our kindergarten community in many ways. We recently enjoyed a very successful Bikeathon.

Celebrating together – We celebrate a number of events such as, Matariki, Chinese New Year, Diwali and more. These are great opportunities for our families to come together, have fun and learn about each other’s cultures.

Learning together –  To enhance our learning programme we have people from the community visit us such as  the fire, ambulance, police services, Project Jonah plus many more. We are part of the ‘We Can Keep Safe’ programme as well the Mt Albert Kāhui Ako learning community. The children from our learning community mostly attend schools in the local area, including Gladstone Primary and Marist Primary.

We welcome you to visit our kindergarten. We’d love to show you all we can offer your child.