Michelle Bosch owns three Aucklandbased early learning centres, Peekaboo Pinehill, Peekaboo Forrest Hill and Lakeview Private Kindergarten and shares the experiences of working under Covid19 restrictions. During the lockdown and level 3 what did distance learning look? We use Educa for our communication so this became a very vital tool for us in terms of updating parents about alert levels, operating guidelines, etc. We also posted stories and activities this way. In addition we have become heavy users of Facebook, posting twice a day for our families, with an activity to do and a story for our community to enjoy. We have utilised ZOOM for twice weekly mat times and found these a particularly popular way for children to connect visually and emotionally with our teachers and being able to interact. Were there other ways you supported your whānau and tamariki? Just lots of ideas for parents to engage in learning through play with their children and also some fun entertainment ideas. This has been everything from teachers’ videoing themselves having a disco at home with their own children, to gloop / playdough Kaiako Yvette Louw shares the experiences of working under Covid19 restrictions in her early learning centre Folkestone Street Infant and Childcare Centre in Mairangi Bay, Auckland. How did you connect with whānau? One clear benefit was connecting and building relationships for all concerned. As a team, we collaboratively communicated to all our parents through platforms such as Zoom, Facebook, WhatsApp, or Messenger to provide support to families needing emotional support and a familiar voice. This included singing and reading stories to give parents a few minutes to themselves. Some parents preferred no video calls or daily contact, with a message once a week being sufficient. Kaiako posted recordings on our Facebook community page of themselves reading stories, baking, sharing music familiar to the tamariki, or activities they might want to try at home. This allowed tamariki to keep their connection with their kaiako. Managing health & safety? Another benefit was gaining new perspectives on health and safety during the pandemic. Limited resources are out at any one time and rotated daily, ensuring appropriate health measures, with regular cleaning and sanitising becoming part of our daily duties. Managing bubbles in level 3? Currently (at the time of writing), we have a bubble of ten tamariki and kaiako working according to a roster for a few hours each day. Parents have been respecting the health and safety measures by wearing masks at drop offs and pickups and waiting patiently in the car until it is their turn. Tamariki within this bubble are content and settled and enjoy the meaningful interactions with their kaiako and peers. Furthermore, kaiako found ways to support families not part of our current bubble through meeting at the park, providing some families with wet weather gear from the centre and making resource packs for families in need. What were the challenges? There were obvious challenges to overcome. First, navigating technology proved to be difficult, but kaiako didn't take long to take their creativity to another level. For example, to engage tamariki our online zoom mat times became a creative platform where singing, playing ukulele, reading, and puppet shows took centre stage. Although dancing and performing with tamariki daily comes naturally to kaiako, entertaining them online and in front of our parents tested even the most outgoing of kaiako. Another challenge was exhaustion among the kaiako, having to juggle between family life, dealing with the everyday feelings of isolation alongside connecting to our Folkestone Street community to support the learning of our tamariki. How has well-being been implemented? Management supported the wellbeing of our kaiako throughout the lockdown through continuous updates from the Ministry of Education, open communication and adapting to individual needs. Further challenges within our community of learning was in supporting the wellbeing of parents, whānau, and tamariki while maintaining their sense of belonging. Consistency is key in supporting tamariki with their sense of belonging. Therefore, our team had two online mat times each week, which was a welcome distraction for some of our parents. Every tamariki at different times took part, whether through gestures, singing, showing us their special toy, or requesting a favourite song or story. As time went on, fewer families joined the mat times, although we had our regular tamariki excitedly engaging in the various interactions with kaiako and peers. Parents and whānau supported our efforts by joining in on our movements and singing to keep their tamariki engaged. Over time we reduced mat times to once per week, as it became clear whānau were settling into their new routines at home with their tamariki. Final thoughts? Overall, lockdown at Folkestone Street had many benefits, as we had to learn a new way to connect to our parents, whānau, and tamariki through various online platforms and digital tools. It also increased our awareness of health and safety measures to protect our youngest tamariki. Many challenges tested our community throughout the lockdown, however our team and families have adapted, by providing learning materials online through technology and maintaining the wellbeing and sense of belonging among our parents, whānau, tamariki and kaiako. December 2021 { 27 }
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=