Parents’ Wisdom To Shape Future Of Kindergarten

Kidsfirst Kindergartens, 5 July 2010

Pioneering New Structure Draws On Parents’ Wisdom To Shape Future Of Kindergarten

While many community groups and organisations struggle to muster support, Kidsfirst Kindergartens – the South Island’s largest early childhood provider - has kicked off a fresh era in early childhood education.It is the country’s first provider to offer parents and staff wide ranging input into strategic decisions that will shape the future of the Kidsfirst’s network’s 63 kindergartens, through the establishment of two new advisory groups.

The two groups – a Parent Advisory and Teaching Advisory Group - will provide input to the Kidsfirst Board of Directors on significant issues that will impact early childhood education in the Canterbury and West Coast regions.

Kidsfirst Kindergartens Chief Executive Sherryll Wilson says the new groups will ensure that parent and staff input better reflects the diversity across Kidsfirst’s 63 kindergarten communities across Canterbury and Westland.

“The Advisory Groups will give us a wider range of the views from our kindergarten communities, and help us understand and continue to respond to the unique, and ever-changing needs of the 63 neighbourhoods we work in.”

“As we continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of the early childhood sector, it becomes ever more important to draw on all the wisdom and experience we can to make sound strategic decisions that meet the needs of the people who use our services now, and critically, in the future.”

The formation of the Advisory Groups, each with six members, is set to build on, and protect, two of the unique key aspects of kindergarten – being education led and parent involvement.

“Parent involvement has been at the heart of kindergarten since its inception nearly 100 years ago, but this is the first time we will be able to hear from a truly representative cross section of parents. The new representation also addresses the issue of families being part of kindergarten in ways that suit them best with the demands of busier lifestyles and working parents.”

Ms Wilson says the new Teacher Advisory Group gives teachers an important – and direct – voice to the Kidsfirst Board.

“Education is at the heart of everything we do. We want to give teachers the opportunity to shape the future they will be working in, as well as tapping in to the wisdom they have, often grounded in decades of working with children.”

“Our drive continues to offer a consistently high quality of first educational experience for the children of Canterbury and Westland – it is vitally important to get it right in the early years, as their entire learning career is built on them.”

Ms Wilson says the new structure marks Kidsfirst’s ability to adapt and grow as it heads into its 100th year in Canterbury and Westland.

“Kidsfirst has navigated its way through a plethora of societal changes in the past century to remain relevant to today’s families, and at the heart of the communities it serves.

“Giving our teachers and parents more of a say, more often on the critical issues facing kindergarten and the early childhood education sector is the best path forward for Kidsfirst to continue to evolve and develop to meet the needs of new generations of families, while protecting the things that make kindergarten so unique – a balance between learning and play, parent involvement, and being responsive to the needs of children, and their communities.”

ENDS

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