Educa announces Preferred Supplier partnership

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Educa announces Preferred Supplier partnership with Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand (MANZ)

Wellington, NZ, March 8th, 2013 – Educa, an online e-portfolio communication system specifically designed for New Zealand early childhood education providers, teachers, parents and children today settled on a preferred supplier agreement with Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand.

Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand (MANZ) is a collective of early childhood centres and schools, organisation and individual members who work together to provide and promote Montessori education in New Zealand. The Montessori movement is the single largest educational philosophy in the world. MANZ in association with Massey University is currently launching the Montessori Journey to Excellence pilot programme, aimed to create and model a community of reflective Montessori practitioners.

Montessori early childhood centres and schools taking part in the pilot of the Montessori Journey to Excellence’ initiative can use Educa with ease, because Educa’s practices are consistent with the core values behind MANZ approach to promoting collaborative inquiry related to the Montessori philosophy.

“As a Montessorian and teacher I know that two-way communication is vital to providing each child with a quality education. Educa is a fantastic tool that allows teachers to lift parental engagement with ease, for the good of the child and all stakeholders. Now Educa will be used to enhance collaboration between teachers in different Montessori early childhood centres,” said Sophie Hamilton, Educa’s Education Development Manager.

Both Nathan Li, company founder and CEO, and Mrs. Hamilton have strong links to the Montessori community and are committed to supporting Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand.

Educa’s revolutionary technology will provide the Montessori Journey to Excellence pilot participants with an online platform for communication for use throughout the project. Ana Pickering, Executive Officer of MANZ, is excited about Educa’s ability to record the discussions that will be held between participants over the next year. “It will be highly valuable to be able to retrace the journey we are about to embark on, to have an easily recorded online journal.”

Historically early childhood services have struggled to attract strong parental engagement when using traditional paper-based child portfolios. Educa’s unique e-portfolio ability increases parental engagement dramatically,
by allowing information to be posted and read easily by teachers and parents.

Teachers using Educa are delighted with the ease of online communication – information is easy to post and current and family engagement is often instant.
Parents report that they feel more engaged with their child’s learning, they love having access at any time, and appreciate the array of technologies they can use to access their portfolios, and love being able to easily share their child’s learning experience with extended family members engaged with their child.

For more information please visit www.educa.co.nz

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