Why Us
We can tell you that we have longer operating hours than many centres, that we provide all meals and snacks, that all children have individual learning portfolios that capture their learning journey and that we have an amazing team of teachers.
Whilst this is true, what makes us different from many centres is our belief in our purpose and the genuine commitments we make to our tamariki and their whanau.
We have a wonderful team who are passionate about what they do and about creating truly meaningful relationships with our tamariki. We understand the importance of what we do in supporting our children during this critical time in their early development. Our focus is on creating a nurturing environment that provides confidence, inspiring creativity and building strong, respectful and healthy social skills.
Community & Support
At Little Sparks we take a holistic view and believe in the importance of engaging with the wider community,
as well as whanau, to create valuable connections and encourage a sense of belonging.
Through these connections we are proud to promote and access programs for our tamariki, whanau and staff, such as:
Educating children what to do in an emergency and knowing how to call 111
Developing an awareness and intervention programme to help educate our youngest on fire danger and fire safety
Remind Children of the right action to take during an earthquake, Drop, Cover and Hold fondly known as “Turtle Drop”
creating an environment of healthy eating and physical activities that promote positive health and wellbeing for our tamariki
supporting an organisation focusing on the mental health and wellbeing of our adolescence of New Zealand, adopting approaches to support our youngest children
is a waste minimisation and tree planting programme for NZ schools and preschools. We recycle paper and cardboard in our specially supplied recycling bin.
Cultural celebrations
supporting members of our local community and students from secondary schools with cultural events and celebrations such as Diwali, Samoan Language, Maori Language Week, Matariki.
As an incentive to divert as much paper and cardboard from landfill as possible, we are rewarded with one native tree/plant for every two cubic metres of paper and cardboard recycled.
Meals and Menus
We provide four nutritious meals daily to help fuel our busy and energetic children. Thought, care and preparation go into ensuring we are providing the best possible nutritional meals with consideration to the Healthy Heart Programme. Tamariki are encouraged to participate in cooking activities which helps them to understand where food comes from and to develop healthy eating habits.
All meals are prepared on site including a cooked lunch most days, as well as morning and afternoon tea, and a late snack. Breakfast is also available for those early starters who need it. Our menus are developed in four-week cycles and change to suit the seasons.
We are respectful of cultural dietary requirements, and will also work with families to ensure that any intolerances or allergies your child may have are catered for.
Caring for our Environment
Our sustainability journey is one which we are taking together, with staff and tamariki collectively increasing awareness and identifying opportunities for improvement.
We are instilling the value of sustainability into our tamariki and work hard to encourage forward thinkers.With their help and leadership we have created a very successful produce garden. This is a strong focus within our centre and our children are very proud to be able to share any over supply with whanau.Our children are invited to help prepare meals and snacks from the produce that they have grown, taking great pride in it.
As part of our sustainability programme food scraps are either composted on site or collected by a local farmer as food for their pigs.
In the last year we have added a worm farm which continues to be of great interest to our tamariki and a fantastic teaching and learning resource.
We recycle as much waste as possible from the centre, and use pre-loved materials donated by centre families in art and craft projects.
Little Sparks are also part of a great initiative called ‘paper for trees’, where the more recycling we do the more trees we receive in return. To date we have been able to plant our perimeter with trees and vines as part of this program.
We encourage the use of reusable bags and support our families who choose to use reusable nappies for their children.