Our Centre
Secret Garden ELC is Located at 428 Albany Highway, opposite Massey University, providing a convenient centre for parents to drop off their children on their way to and from work.
We are licensed for a total of 50 Children, and split into two rooms, the baby’s room for the under two’s, and the preschool room for the 2-5 year olds. Our babies room is only licensed for 10 enabling us to provide very intimate and loving care, in a very safe environment. Our preschool room is licensed for 40 Children, with high teacher / child ratios, to ensure we maintain a very high quality of education in a very warm, loving, and caring family focused environment, where every consideration has been made to the children and their family needs. The baby’s and preschool rooms ensure that each child has the opportunity to develop a sense of belonging and identity, with Children only transiting from each room when parents and staff feel that the child is ready.
At Secret Garden ELC, we have an open door policy for our parents/whanau, and maintain a very friendly family focused environment, parents and family are always made to feel very welcome from the moment they step inside our door. Our centre stands apart with our huge outdoor garden and play area providing the Children plenty of opportunity to have fun exploring the natural environment, kick a ball, climb a tree or ride a bike just like Kiwi Kids use to do. We continually invest in our creative indoor and outdoor environments, which provide and reflect an understanding of young children’s different energy levels and range of interests. Our centre is resourced with
an extensive range of learning equipment and resources that are stimulating, challenging and aimed to meet the different development needs of each age group of children.
Rooms
Caterpillar room:
At Secret Garden ELC, our baby’s room caters for infants up to two years old. We are licensed for only 10 babies, enabling us to provide very special and intimate care for your precious Baby.
Our teachers provide a safe and loving environment where infants can grow and develop early independence. Our Babies room is an environment which allows children to discover as much as possible on their own, with the comfort of knowing that their teacher is close by.
Our Babies room operates at a slower and relaxed pace, to care for your infant in a calm manner. Our babies need our full attention, and our teachers work together with our babies on activities which include plenty of talking about what we’re doing and giving them the time to respond and looking out for their cues.
We allow our babies uninterrupted time for play, to give them time to experience independence and we see the beginnings of self-esteem and confidence as a result.
We understand that leaving your baby in someone else’s care is very daunting for a mother, so we provide you with great support you throughout this process, so you can feel comfortable that your baby is safe.
We have some mothers coming back every 2 hours to breast feed, others popping in at lunch time for a cuddle. We encourage this, and offer you a tea or coffee.
Bumble Bee Room:
Our preschool room provides a child-centred developmental programme for all our children. We base our programme around our observations of our children, following their interests and discoveries. Our programme follows Te Whariki, the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum written by the Ministry of Education. We incorporate the guiding principles of Te Whariki into all our teaching, which supports independence, group and individual learning experiences. We provide a range of indoor and outdoor activities each day. We use a collaborative approach, encouraging teachers, children, and families/whanau to share knowledge and discovery, where children are encouraged to discover who they are, so they can express their own opinions and nurture their own ideas.
The 4 year olds enjoy belonging to the lady Bug club, an extension program providing extra curriculum activities designed to further extend their education and knowledge, so they are ready for school.
We believe in the importance of working co-operatively with families, inviting them to be involved in the learning process. Becoming involved in our routines, our programme, and our social events is a great way to support your child’s learning, and helps to reinforce their understanding of their place within our childcare whanau
Research shows that children who have been in high quality programs before they started school, stayed longer in school and achieved more.
Meals:
Gold Healthy Heart Award – Issued by NZ Heart Foundation.
Our centre cook provides morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea every day. These take the form of healthy, delicious home-cooked meals, which follow the Heart Foundation guidelines.
The menu is available in the entryway so that you know what your child has eaten each day.
All meals are attractively presented, and are laid out on platters for children to serve themselves. This is very empowering for children, as they are able to determine how much of what goes onto their plates. Teachers supervise all meal-times, teaching good manners, and encouraging children to use this time to engage in friendly social interactions with their friends.
We endeavour to make parents lives as stress free as possible and welcome parents to contact staff, or drop in to talk to staff about any concerns or worries they may have about their Child.