Mangere Bridge Plunket Playgroup has long been a place where local families connect with one another. Coordinator, Sarah Steiner, is now forging stronger links with local businesses and groups, including Kids Connection.
“We are a long-established Playgroup with good attendance and an active parent committee, but there is a much wider community that is not yet being reached.
“There is a clear need to strengthen relationships between ourselves and other local groups and businesses, and I have prioritised this in designing the curriculum for this year.
“Now, once a week, one of the teachers from the Kids Connection ECE comes for a Playgroup session, and each week they bring a different activity. It’s a win-win arrangement. Each teacher gets to come and see what non-profit ECE is about, participate in the community, and extend their skills by stepping outside of the classroom, while Playgroup parents and I benefit from the knowledge, expertise and passion for learning the teachers share with us.
“Making connections with our local community, and especially networking with ECE centres, supports our children to feel a sense of belonging within their wider environment.”
Kids Connection Manager, Trudy Schollum, explains, “Being in the field of education, teachers view themselves as learners alongside our tamariki. We seek out new information and experiences to inspire us in our profession and are naturally curious about how others in our field do things. When Sarah started work for Plunket facilitating the Playgroup in Mangere Bridge I spied an opportunity to not only lend a hand and give back to the community, but one to challenge our teachers, to give them experience in a different ECE setting and connect with the local community. The activities we plan and bring with us are something simple that hopefully give the parents and caregivers some ideas for activities at home and the opportunity for our kaiako to explain the pedagogy behind the activity and the experience and confidence to share the benefits of all early childhood settings and represent our centre and industry professionally.
“We have had 4 sessions to date and have had activities covering a range of curriculum areas: water play, upcycled bubble blowers and ice activities during ‘Beach Week’; Easter Playdough creations; fruit kebabs; and easy-to-make sensory play activities with slime and gloop. It’s hard to say which activities have been the most popular!
“It has turned out to be an even more exciting and mutually beneficial partnership than we first envisioned – and we have really only just begun!”