Manchester Kindergarten Wins top Heart Foundation Award
November 2011

Manchester Kindergarten has won a gold Healthy Heart award from the Heart Foundation in recognition of the efforts made by the teaching team to actively promote healthy lifestyles for the children and their families.

This year, the teachers at Manchester Kindergarten have worked hard to encourage the community to think about healthy eating and physical activity. It started when teachers noticed the large amount of processed foods with high sugar and salt content in the children's lunchboxes. They felt that perhaps families required more information about healthy eating.

The first step was to make a collage of the empty packages from the children's lunch boxes acquired over a week. It was displayed close to the eating tables and created a lot of discussion among children and parents alike. The collage made everyone stop to think about the quantity of processed food available to children and opened engagement between the Kindergarten, whanau and children about the healthy choices available. Teachers have since noted a reduction in the amount of processed foods being included in lunch boxes.

The work around healthy eating has branched off into a kindergarten-wide passion for gardening and cooking with fresh produce harvested from the gardens. Children have enjoyed spinach in their noodles, broccoli in muffins, homemade yoghurt, hummus and muesli, cheese sauce with broccoli and cauliflower, vegetable soup and many different varieties of juice! This has provided awesome opportunities for children to think about where their food comes from, and experience how good fresh, healthy food can taste.

This healthy eating initiative was supported further in the community by the recent committee fundraiser ‘Backyard Bounty' which provided expert advice around sustainable living by eating home grown crops.

It's not just diet that Manchester Kindergarten has focused on. They have also enhanced children's physical activity by taking advantage of the Manawatu Sports Library to access new, interesting and challenging equipment on a regular basis.

All at Manchester Kindergarten are justifiably proud of their achievements. To celebrate, they invited Kat Cunrow from the Heart Foundation to present the award, before sharing a morning tea with healthy food provided by families.

Kat Cunrow form the Heart Foundation presents the award to Eden and Kellan

Jack Humphrey, of Halcombe, is five years old. Last Friday he said goodbye to Manchester Kindergarten, which he has attended for the last two years.

Like most parents of five-year-olds, Jack's parents, although excited for him, are also anxious about how Jack will cope with the transition to school life and his eventual settling into the new routine.

Jack has autism. "Until he was 17 months, Jack had gone through all of the normal progressions and reached all of the normal milestones," Jack's mum Anne Humphrey said.

Having already had one child, and a teacher by profession, Mrs Humphrey was alerted early on when things started to change. "He paid less and less attention to us, stopped talking and we just felt him slipping away from us," she said.

He was diagnosed with non-verbal autism when he was two.

"It turned our world upside down. It was as if we had lost our Jack, and we had to go through a kind of grieving process, and then get to know our new Jack."

Enrolling Jack, aged 3, at Manchester Kindergarten, initially in the afternoon sessions, was a big step. However, for the last two years, Mrs Humphrey said she has continued to be awed and overwhelmed by the support and commitment of the teaching staff and the steps they have taken to ensure Jack's preschool education is a success for him. 

Read more about Jack and his experiences at Manchester Kindergarten here. 

Community connections
June 2011

Manchester Kindergarten is strengthening links with the wider community through the development of a 'connections' wall display.

The display stemmed from teachers' strategic review and bi-cultural focus. Its development involved extensive consultation with the local community.

The teaching team engaged with families to enhance relationships and create iwi connections.

"All families have been keen to share their family connections and create a collective picture where we all feel a sense of belonging", head teacher Robyn said.

The teaching team now hopes to build upon this sharing, continue conversations and explore the stories, whakapapa and memories that connect the kindergarten community to special places identified in the display.

Whānau are thrilled to be able to contribute to the understandings of their children and the display received wonderful feedback from Ministry of Education representatives during a recent visit.

"We are looking forward to the future with positivity and a renewed energy to achieve even greater things", Robyn said.  

Above: Manchester Kindergarten teachers in front of the newly developed connections display. 

Manchester teachers disappointed by cut
February 2011

Vicki Hussey has a new teaching qualification, a new job with Manchester Kindergarten and great news. In May 2011, Vicki will graduate as a Massey Scholar.

Massey Scholarships are awarded to the top 5 percent of students in each of the University's five colleges. It's a prestigious award that comes with a $4,000 scholarship for postgraduate study.

Ruahine Kindergartens general manager, Louise Bartholomew, is delighted to welcome Vicki to the team.

"Vicki brings amazing knowledge and enthusiasm to the role and it's great to have such a capable new graduate aboard", she said.

As a new graduate, Vicki is provisionally registered, but she must undergo a two-year mentoring and induction programme to achieve full registration status. 

Currently Ruahine Kindergartens is eligible for a Ministry of Education grant to help support teachers like Vicki through this registration process, but come July 2011 the grant will no longer be available to centres employing over 80 percent qualified staff.

Ruahine Kindergartens describes the government's move to withdraw this grant as "another short-sighted cost cutting measure", saying centres with a higher percentage of qualified teachers are best placed to support new teachers.

Vicki agrees saying "withdrawing the grant undermines the value of a teaching qualification and penalises quality".

"I understand they want to attract qualified teachers to centres employing under 80 percent, but withdrawing the grant is the wrong way to go about it."

"Newly qualified teachers need quality support and mentoring from registered and experienced teachers. It takes time, and teachers at centres employing under 80 percent are already stretched", added Jules, one of Manchester Kindergarten's registered teachers.

Both Vicki and Jules are preparing submissions to the government outlining how the cut will affect registering teachers. Ruahine Kindergartens has already put forward a submission opposing the grant's withdrawal.

Teens work for tots
August 2010

Manchester Kindergarten has a brand new carpentry shed and new tools to extend children's learning thanks to a team of Feilding High School Students and the BCITO Build Ability Challenge.

To read the Feilding Herald article click here

Four big ticks from Heart Foundation
August 2010

Manchester Kindergarten was last week awarded their fourth Healthy Heart Award for Early Childhood Education, for promoting healthy eating and physical activity to under-fives and their families.

Click here to read the full Feilding Herald article

Manchester Kindergarten flies its banner
May 2010

What is at the bottom of your garden? Several Ruahine Kindergartens have been pondering this question lately as part of the Manawatu Garden Festival's Schools' Competition.

Answers ranged from fairies, creepy crawlies and butterflies to windmills, fruit trees and rainbows as children, parents and teachers worked to create colourful banners for display at the festival held at Manfeild Stadium, May 1^st and 2^nd.

The inspiration for Manchester's winning entry came from surveying the kindergarten section, looking at gardening magazines and discussing ideas.

A beautiful birch tree with a knot known to children as the "fairy door" led to the inclusion of fairies, believed to sneak out and explore the kindergarten playground at night. A rambling creeper, solitary silver beet plant, paving stones and the bugs and insects children have been studying also feature.

"Manchester Kindergarten is embedded in the Feilding community", said Head Teacher Robyn Vine Aide. "Once aspects of the kindergarten garden had been considered, children, parents and teachers looked to the horizon and thought about landmarks of the Feilding district", she said.

Cows, sheep, the Oroua River, trucks to transport animals, Kitchener Park, the ranges in the distance and windmills complete a vibrant, collaborative banner to be proud of.

Children worked together with peers, parents and teachers in the banner's creation. The competition offers a wonderful opportunity for children to learn about their region and develop a greater appreciation for the natural environment whilst experimenting with creativity and having fun.

Above: Manchester Kindergarten's winning banner