Nursery
0 - 2 years
At Learning Curves Montessori Nursery, we are inspired by the RIE and Montessori philosophies and principles and drawing from these provide a warm, respectful, nurturing and safe learning environment where infants and toddlers are supported and encouraged to learn at their own pace, to explore and to make connections with kaiako and other tamariki.
Our focus is on respectful practices that build trust and ensure time for quality care moments, uninterrupted play and freedom of movement. Through uninterrupted play, responsive caregiving and a prepared environment, tamariki develop confidence, a sense of belonging and independence in an environment that is warm and inviting for all
Primary Caregiving
Each infant, toddler and child will have a Primary Caregiver while attending Learning Curves. Having a strong, meaningful relationship with a primary caregiver provides continuity for children and parents while supporting your child to feel safe and secure in their new environment. This allows your child to develop the confidence to form relationships with children and other staff members, and freely explore the environment. Teachers work together as a team to provide for the whole group, maintaining a calm environment while being primarily responsible for meeting the needs of their key children.
“When you hold a child, hold them not just with your body, but with your mind and heart”
Magda Gerber
A Primary Caregiver will usually take responsibility for:
Creating and building strong, meaningful relationships and interactions with you and your child during visiting/settling sessions, creating a partnership with one another.
Introducing a secondary caregiver once your child is feeling safe, settled and secure in his/ her new environment.
Creating and providing a routine for your child which reflects and supports their routine in the home environment.
Care moments such as nappy changing, feeding and sleep times are treated as quality learning opportunities.
Providing a communication book for children up to the age of 1 which provides a daily record of care moments and routines such as sleeps, nappy changes and bottle times.
Communicating clearly to all staff members and passing on valuable information about your child.
Supporting and extending on children’s individual interests through planning, documentation and learning stories.
RIE (Resources for Infant Educarers)
RIE was founded by Magda Gerber, who is a huge advocate for respect and freedom of movement for infants and toddlers. Magda Gerber believes that educarers must have respect for infants and trust that they are natural inventors, explorers, and self-learners. She believes that we should speak to infants and toddlers in a way that opens them up to the world around them and supports them to become active participants in their own learning, development and lives. By allowing children to learn and explore independently, this creates extremely valuable opportunities for them. This philosophy and way of supporting children is widely encouraged throughout our relationships and provides unique opportunities through respectful and nurturing interactions.
“Parents and educarers must respect an infant’s ability to learn and develop naturally and give them ample opportunity to do so”
Magda Gerber
The basic principles for the RIE approach that we follow are:
1. Trust in the child to be an explore and self-learner - our educarers are able to sit back and
observe the children as they explore and learn in their own ways with the resources available to them.
2. Time for uninterrupted play - as educarers, we ensure that children are shown respect by not disturbing a child’s play and exploration, unless necessary.
3. Freedom to explore and interact with other infants and toddlers - supporting children’s
emotional and social competence as they learn to interact and form relationships with others.
4. Constant observations of the child in order to be able to understand their needs - Having key/primary caregivers for each child allows them to observe and get to know the child through a strong reciprocal relationship with allows educarers to understand and meet their needs and wants.
5. An environment that is physically safe, cognitively challenging and emotional nurturing through care moments that allows the child to be an active participant - our educarers create an exciting, aesthetically pleasing and challenging environment where our resources have purpose and are rotated to meet the children’s needs and emerging interests.
