110 | Maples Early Learning Centre: Cambridge Homes COMMUNITY PROUD TO SUPPORT MAPLES EARLY LEARNING CENTRE Where the youngest can thrive The Maples will have three classrooms each with their own name catering for up to 100 children. T T Virginia Wright “My passion is giving a safe place for children to grow and to learn and explore and be confident and ready for school as their next step.” Te Awamutu is set to have a new purpose-built childcare centre in the Frontier Estate subdivision just three minutes’ drive from the town centre. As co-owners already of the Old Macdonalds Centre in Morrinsville, Tracey Aubin and Daynah Smallwood bring a wealth of experience in early childhood education (ECE) to the new facility, as does its Centre Manager Katherine Shaw. She’s been in ECE for close to 20 years including the last nine as Centre Manager for a Hamilton facility where she’d already been teaching for eight years. “My passion is giving a safe place for children to grow and to learn and explore and be confident and ready for school as their next step,” she says. While the lure of working much closer to home with significantly less travel time helped with the decision to join them, finding that the values and philosophy behind The Maples Early Learning Centre aligned with her own was the key. “The strong connections with the families and the wider community, respecting each child holistically through all aspects, embracing a child-led hands-on approach to learning, and with a reserve on our doorstep the ability to explore and be more grounded in nature was appealing for me.” The Maples will have three classrooms each with their own name catering for up to 100 children: Seedlings caters for up to 20 babies, Shoots up to 35 toddlers, and Saplings up to 45 pre-schoolers. Each has their own outdoors area and while the babies have two sleep rooms the toddlers and pre-schoolers share a designated sleep room allowing them to sleep at their own time, at their own pace based on parental requests rather than an inbuilt schedule. Katherine has been involved with resourcing the centre from early on, combining her hands- on experience with Tracey and Daynah’s as they chose the materials and equipment they thought would most benefit the children. As well as the focus on natural materials, safety and durability, other factors were taken into consideration. “We bought equipment from a specialist supplier designed for children’s playing, learning and growing. “All the indoor and outdoor equipment has been picked by us specifically for each room and what we think is needed to encourage imaginative play, develop the skills and be safe for each of the ages and stages,” she says. Specialist company Playscape was involved in ensuring the outdoor landscaping was also safe while giving the different age-groups scope to play and connect with the outdoors according to their abilities. When they come in hungry the on-site chef is there to provide morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and late snacks. With an emphasis on fresh, nutritious food made from scratch the menu will change weekly and according to whether its winter or summer. Established to support the growing needs of the local community and supported by numerous local project partners The Maples Early Learning Centre opened on August 31 having been fully reviewed by the Ministry of Education. While the centre is located in Frontier Estate there’s no zoning so children from anywhere are welcome to come and enjoy its beautifully appointed, age-appropriate design. From babies to pre-schoolers, with better-than-standard Ministry staff-to-child ratios, Katherine is looking forward to providing early childhood learning opportunities to them all.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=