Media Release
22 November, 2010
South Taranaki Free Kindergarten Association 60th
60 guests including past and present staff, voluntary committee and Board members plus MP Chester Borrows and his wife Ella (who is also a past president of STFKA) attended a birthday celebration function for the STFKA held at Tairoa Lodge, Hawera on Friday 12 November.
The STFKA has provided high quality affordable early childhood education to families in Stratford, Eltham, Hawera, Patea and surrounding districts for 60 years this year.
The first kindergartens in Stratford and Hawera were established in the 1950s, and 36 years later the newest kindergarten (Koru) opened in April this year, taking the Association up to 8 kindergartens and over 50 staff.
Significantly, the newest kindergarten is open 7 hours per day, caters for very young babies and toddlers as well as 3 and 4 year olds, operates with a staff of 12 and is attached to a Teen Parent Unit at the High School. Only a few years ago, that wouldn’t have sounded much a like a kindergarten to a lot of people!
Research into the brain development of young children and how teaching and learning can impact on children in the early years means we have a greater understanding now of the importance of providing high quality early childhood education for all children; and the vital role that qualified early childhood teachers have to play in that.
In her speech on behalf of the Board, Manager Karen Nicholas said “While acknowledging there are challenges ahead for kindergarten, we’d like to focus on the positives tonight, to celebrate 60 successful years of early childhood education in kindergartens across South Taranaki – put another way, we’re celebrating the fact that around 30,000 children over the past 60 years have made a great start to their education in a South Taranaki Free Kindergarten.
What we see in our organization today – the commitment to quality education, the beautiful kindergarten environments lovingly cared for by families and committees, the good will and strong relationships between teaching teams and their communities, the ability to survive changes and challenges, the professional approach to teaching and learning, and above all the rich variety of day to day “wow” factor learning experiences happening for young children – all of these are the sum total of the effort and commitment of a great many people over a very long time. This is an organisation which continues to be, first and foremost , about people working together for the benefit of the most important people in our community: our children.”
Local MP Chester Borrows and Koru Kindergarten Head Teacher Seraya Hughes at the 60th Anniversary celebration.