What do you love most about what you do?
I love mentoring and working with our teachers each day. I am proud to have the pleasure and privilege of leading our team, mentoring and guiding their teaching practice. I love the learning that happens for everyone when we share our ideas, and perspectives and then collaborate with each other to improve our teaching practices and the learning for children. It’s exciting to see their development and confidence grow, and the flow on effect of this for children and whanau.
I love working with whanau, learning about their needs and educating them about our unique centre philosophy. It’s special when families return to the centre again when their second or third child is born, and we’re able to pick up our relationship again. We have a great centre community here at Active Explorers Grenada where everyone helps everyone. It’s exciting to be part of that and to have the support of the community to shape our teaching practices.
What does your leadership look like?
I’m a collaborative and compassionate leader and I lead from alongside our team. I believe in providing an environment where teachers can try new approaches, ideas and strategies, and then we can evaluate these as a team. We have regular team meetings and informal team events which help to develop our positive team culture and continue our strong relationships with each other. I believe open communication and an environment where we acknowledge each other as learners is important. I enjoy mentoring teachers and celebrating with them as their teaching practices create positive experiences for our tamariki. I believe centre policies are our foundational platform so I always share the updated policies with the team and with parents (if appropriate) as they come to hand. I have a love of internal evaluation for improvement as I like to be able to see our developments and learning over time.
What are some of the things that make your centre special?
First and foremost, our dedicated teaching team, most of whom have worked at Active Explorers Grenada for 3+ years. It is special when whanau return to the centre with their second or third child and can pick up the relationship with the same teachers again. We have a strong mentoring programme for provisionally registered teachers that develops our provisionally registered teachers and also our emerging leaders within the centre.
Our philosophy is very special, as it is inspired by the principles of RIE and Pikler. Seeing these principles brought to life each day and the positive effect of this on the learning and development of children is a delight. We use the primary caregiving approach to ensure that every family has at least one special teacher in their child’s room who knows them and their child really well. I have a particular soft spot for our wee infants and love seeing how empowered they feel when we provide them with the time and space to explore their movements and abilities at their own pace.
We run enrichment programmes at our centre -Baby Yoga, Jingle Jam and Hey Dee Ho music which are a highlight each week for tamariki and kaiako.
We’re lucky to have four individual spaces that cater to each of the different age groups (Kakano, Koru, Rakau and Ngahere). Each space provides age-appropriate learning experiences and challenges. These environments are always being enhanced as teachers notice children’s interests and share ideas to bring these interests into the environment.
Our location is pretty spectacular too amongst the hills in Grenada Village. We even have pukeko visit our carpark sometimes! We are truly part of our community and work together with whanau to ensure that their aspirations for their child are met.
