In-home educational service helps minimise childcare costs

MEDIA RELEASE
17 April 2012

Unique in-home educational service helps minimise childcare costs for families

One-of-a-kind educational service, footsteps, says its free programme is helping keep childcare costs down for the 900 families it supports throughout New Zealand.

“According to Statistics NZ, around 10% of children between the ages of 0 and 5 are cared for in the home. footsteps works with some of these families to provide a unique educational service that works alongside parents’ chosen in-home caregivers.

“Our service is free, so parents get the assurance of a quality education during their child’s formative years without the financial burden of paying an early childhood education teacher.

“Over the last 11 years, our qualified teachers have provided over 5000 families free educational assistance through our Ministry of Education-funded programme, which is a huge saving for each and every one,” explains footsteps CEO, Kevin Christie.

With the costs on the rise, Kevin Christie says his staff is seeing more and more parents arranging childcare at home with someone they know and trust - like a grandparent, family member or friend. He says the challenge for parents in this situation is figuring out how to fit an educational component into their child’s daily experiences.

“footsteps’ unique programme solves this dilemma. Our 50 qualified, early childhood education teachers travel to the homes of their families each month. Their role is to provide caregivers with one-on-one support, advice and ideas.

“The time spent with a child and caregiver is 100% focused on providing enriching learning experiences at home in the crucial years of birth through to age five,” explains Kevin Christie.

In partnership with the caregiver, footsteps’ teachers identify a child’s educational needs and abilities and together work out ways to reach important milestones. Teachers provide caregivers with a range of fun learning resources and ideas about how to enrich a child’s discovery and exploration.

“Every parent, at one time or another, has heard how important a child’s early years are for setting a strong foundation for their overall development and wellbeing for life.

“In fact, in a study performed by the Brainwave Trust in 2009, it was discovered that around 85% of a child’s brain develops before school age.

“Our experienced staff know how critical it is to provide children with meaningful educational experiences during the first five years. And footsteps’ unique service helps parents get this right,” says Kevin Christie.

In its eleventh year now, footsteps is continually expanding its service to support new urban centres and rural communities across the country. The company is headquartered in Tauranga.

www.footsteps.co.nz.

-ENDS-

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