About us

Our aim is to help children develop a love of learning in an environment where all children’s contributions are recognised and valued.  We work in partnership with parents and whanau to provide a secure and welcoming environment for our children.

Our philosophy

PHSCC is a loving, engaging and inspiring place of learning for our children, parents, whanau and teachers.

We aspire to create a culture, and teaching and learning environment where:

• Children flourish;
• Investigation by children (and adults) is integral to our curriculum, and children and adults demonstrate a passion to explore and learn;
• Rich, authentic child-led play, is at the heart of our progamme.  We believe that play is the vehicle through which children learn best.
• Children and family members feel welcome and their culture respected; and
• Close connections with the wider community are valued and utilised, to extend on children’s interests.

Our number one objective is to provide high quality early childhood education and care. We aspire to live and work by the following values:

• manaakitanga - be warm, welcoming, caring and hospitable
• whanaungatanga - foster family relationships and engage whanau in all aspects of our programme
• respect - for and by children, parents and whanau, teachers, management and community, and respect for our environment
• engage in careful listening and responsive communication
• intentional, holistic education empowerment.

We acknowledge Te Whariki, the New Zealand early childhood curriculum. It guides and inspires everything we do as teachers. Our pedagogy is inspired by Bronfenbrenner, Vygotsky, Pikler, Magda Gerber and Reggio Emilia.

We believe in children experiencing the bi-cultural heritage of Aotearoa New Zealand where Te reo and tikanga Maori are woven into our daily practice.

We support the cultural identity of all children, affirming and celebrating cultural differences where children develop a positive awareness of their own and other cultures. 

We provide peaceful and consistent ‘educare’ through key teacher relationships.

We believe each child has a valuable place within our centre.  We encourage the contributions that each child makes and acknowledge them as confident and competent learners.  Recognition of children’s learning dispositions help us to understand them better, and our hope is that our children develop the skills needed in a technological age, and a lifelong love of learning, as they explore and discover amongst our stimulating environment.

We value aesthetics and the natural environment. We aim to support a sustainable environment as an influence on learning.

We trust children, believing that all decisions regarding children should begin with consideration for their well-being, thinking and perspectives.

We believe learning, leadership and responsibility should be shared amongst everyone in the PHSCC community, including teachers, parents, whanau, children and others, and through this we support older children caring for our younger children.