Kaitiaki Kindergartens

❄️ Winter mornings at Kaitiaki Kindergartens look like this:

🧁 Something warm about to be baked.

🦕 Hands in playdough at the table.

📖 A pukapuka (book) shared.

🥕 The māra (garden) still tended, because even in the cold there is always something to notice or harvest.

Winter doesn't slow the learning at Kaitiaki Kindergartens. It just changes the rhythm of it.

If you've been thinking about kindy for your tamaiti, Term 3 begins 21 July and we have a few spaces available across our kindergartens. Come and see the Kaitiaki difference and what winter looks like at our kindergartens in person.

Click the link in the comments to book a visit.

At Kaitiaki Kindergartens, we nurture rich language experiences every day.

By normalising te reo Māori, and through talking, storytelling, singing, reading puka puka, and meaningful conversations, our tamariki make sense of their world while developing a strong sense of identity and belonging.

As our kaiako Louise Samuels Parakai Kindergarten beautifully shares:

"Language is the foundation of human connection. Shared language fosters trust, while learning other languages builds global citizenship and cultural understanding. Language carries traditions, histories, and values, passing them across generations."

Together, we celebrate language as a powerful taonga that connects us all.

It is Refugee Week. 💛

For some of the whānau who walk through our kindergarten gates, this country is new. The language is new. The routines are new. The weather is new.

What is not new is the love they have for their tamariki and the hopes they carry for them.

Our kaiako are practised at the slow welcome. The extra few minutes at drop off. A name learned the way it is meant to be said. Kai shared in both directions.

Kindergarten is one of the first places a new whānau in Aotearoa puts down a small root. We do not take that lightly.

If your whānau has felt welcomed here, will you share what helped most? 👇

We are one of ten.

Kaitiaki Kindergartens has been named in the Villars Institute Spotlight on Planetary Health Education, a global selection run in partnership with HundrED.

Ten innovations were chosen from more than 200 submissions across 39 countries.

The Spotlight focused on education that goes beyond awareness, approaches that give young people the mindset, skills and agency to care for the planet they will inherit.

At Kaitiaki, that work is led by the tamariki.

Using an Enviroschools Aotearoa NZ framework, our centres are grounded in a simple idea: children are kaitiaki. Their curiosity drives the inquiry, their voices shape the response, and their actions are visible in the awa, in the soil, and across the wider community.

In practice, this means monitoring local water quality, planting native vegetation, reducing waste and partnering with whānau, experts and community.

Tamariki explore real-world challenges through hands-on projects, becoming empowered agents of change whose impact ripples locally and beyond.

Congratulations to the other finalists: Compass Education, Link Education International, Institute for Humane Education, iLearnabout, BLES, Meraki, OpEPA - Organizacion para la Educacion y Proteccion Ambiental, Nutrikids Lab and Project Vaayu.

Read more about our innovation and the other inspiring finalists in the link in the comments.

Hōtoke kupu, six winter words in te reo Māori to use with your tamariki this season. ❄️

Using te reo Māori in everyday life is one of the gentlest, most powerful gifts we can offer our tamariki.

Even one new kupu, repeated at kai time or at the kindergarten gate, builds language nurture into the rhythm of the day.

Try one kupu a week. Which winter word has your tamaiti tried?

Tēnā koutou, tālofa lava, mālō e lelei, nǐ hǎo, namaste, kia ora and hello.

Walk into a Kaitiaki Kindergarten on any morning and you will hear a quiet symphony of languages at the gate.

Every language a tamaiti carries through our door is a taonga. It is the first scaffold for their thinking, identity, and sense of belonging. Our role is to hold it with care and respect.

What languages can you hear in your whānau or community? Share them with us below 👇

🌺 It is Vaiaso o le Gagana Sāmoa, Sāmoa Language Week this week.

🇼🇸 Sāmoan is the third most spoken language in Aotearoa. Try weaving a few Sāmoan 'upu (words) into your conversations this week.

⬇ If your aiga has Sāmoan words you use at home, we would love to see them in the comments.

🌿 Ka ako, ka tipu, ka puāwai ngātahi

We talk a lot about what tamariki learn at kindy. Our tamariki also teach our kaiako...

🐢 To slow down
🧪 That a tube can be 12 different things in one morning
🤝 That curiosity is contagious
❓ That the best questions don't have answers yet
🎨 That play is serious work

The best kaiako stay curious. Ngā mihi to the tamariki at our kindergartens who keep our kaiako learning every day. What do your tamariki teach you?

At Kaitiaki Kindergartens, we know that strong governance matters.

Recently, our Board came together for a Strategic Planning Day facilitated by LEAD Centre for Not for Profit Governance & Leadership, with the focus on the future of our organisation and the communities we serve. The day focused on identifying what matters most for tamariki, whānau, and kaimahi, refining strategic priorities, improving collaboration, and strengthening accountability measures.

Alongside this, our Board continues to grow its governance capability through professional learning with the Institute of Directors in New Zealand, ensuring we are not only responding to today’s challenges, but preparing thoughtfully for the future.

When governance is values-led, strategic, and courageous, it creates a ripple effect across an organisation. It strengthens decision-making, builds sustainability, and supports high-quality community-based early childhood education for generations to come.

We are proud to have a Board committed to leading with vision, integrity, and heart.

🌏 Te Whāriki is being recognised internationally as a world-leading early childhood curriculum, and our kaiako are being invited to share it beyond Aotearoa.

🇹🇭 Angela Fox and Pandy Hawke from our Support Office recently returned from a trip to Phetchaburi Rajabhat University Demonstration Kindergarten in Thailand, where the team has begun adopting Te Whāriki within their campus centre.

🤝 Following their visit to our kindergartens last year, the team in Phetchaburi was so impressed by what they saw that they invited Kaitiaki to support them in shaping and strengthening their own kindergarten. Their intention is to integrate a play-based approach and regulatory frameworks that align with international standards.

During the visit, Angela and Pandy met with the Governor of Phetchaburi and the University President, both of whom expressed strong support for Te Whāriki as a world-leading curriculum.

Reflecting on the trip, Angela and Pandy said:

"Our role was to help them understand not just what we do in Aotearoa, but why we do it. We talked through the importance of child-led, play-based learning, holistic development, responsive relationships, and the central place of culture in teaching and learning. Te Whāriki is not simply a programme to be implemented, but a way of thinking and being that grows over time."

Alongside the work, we experienced the warmth and hospitality of Thailand. We felt incredibly welcomed by the people we met, and it was a memorable and rewarding experience, both professionally and personally."