SCHOOL OF THE WEEK: Playing, learning comes naturally

STEP inside Rose Ring Kindergarten and don't expect to see plastic toys, paints, a library, dress-up clothes, or teddy bears.
This is a kindergarten quite unlike most.
Children learn through playing, and they are the ones leading the learning.
Rose Ring Kindergarten is adjacent to Tauranga Rudolph Steiner School and once a private kindergarten, is now state-integrated, meaning it's partially government-funded.
Tucked away in the outskirts of Welcome Bay, Rose Ring is a boutique kindergarten with certain characteristics of yesteryear.
Step inside and the smell of natural oils waft around you.
That's because all the children's' play objects are made from wood, which are oiled to keep them in optimum condition.
Tiny wooden tables and chairs are fit for Goldilocks.
Food is prepared onsite daily, and in the winter months, warm fireplaces make the rooms homely.
Slipper-wearing children are without lego, puzzles or dolls with painted faces. Instead they use natural materials, which allow them to transform objects.
An example is coloured muslin cloth, which can be used as clothing for dress-ups, sling beds for "babies", and put on the floor to make rivers and lakes.
Rose Ring Kindergarten operates under the philosophy of Waldorf/Steiner and children remain at kindergarten until their seventh year, when their academic studies begin.
The educators' approach is entrenched in the arts, and there are three Rose Ring kindergartens (set in three connecting rooms) which each operate with one teacher and an assistant.
Manager of Rose Ring Kindergarten, Margaret McCarthy, says many of the things done in mainstream kindergarten are done at Rose Ring, but just with a slightly different take.
They don't have "mat time", they have "morning circle", which may include games, song, or play.
They also tell stories but usually it's a tale told from memory, not from books.
"We take great care to tell our stories and incorporate puppets," Mrs McCarthy says.
 Waldorf/Steiner Kindergartens work from the developmental principle that the young child learns in two ways: the first is imitation, the second is activity.
Mrs McCarthy says their programme is designed to provide children with opportunities to actively imitate and practise quality interactions and work through the medium of play.
"Through play, the children develop cognitive and problem- solving skills, creativity, imagination, self-expression, concentration, investigation, language, numeracy and social skills."
Mrs McCarthy says with teachers having the role of facilitators, children are able to gradually build a sense of themselves as competent learners.
Principal of the neighbouring primary school Mary Mary Tait-Jamieson, says the Waldorf/Steiner approach "protects childhood". "We allow children to discover the world for themselves ... the teacher just provides the environment," she explains.
And there is no television, video or computer technology, or guests who come to talk about fire or road safety.
 Instead the children make the most of the 6.5ha outdoors and are able to observe cows being milked, and pigs and chickens being fed.
In the past few years the school roll has doubled and the kindergarten roll trebled.
 "Children here will know you don't get milk from the dairy, you get it from a cow. They know how things are grown," Mrs Tait-Jamieson says.
She stops in mid-conversation and peers out her office window.
Two kindergarten children have taken refuge inside a tepee, while a child runs round its perimeter.
"Little kids like that," she observes with a smile. "They will just play, and play, and play."
She points to a mound of dirt near the children and recalls an image that demonstrates her statement further.
"Some of the children made that into a virtual BMX track but there were no BMXs. You could just hear them running around going 'Mrrraaa, mrrraaa, mrrraaaa,"' she says.
"Whatever kids experience in life they start to play it."
Mrs Tait-Jamieson recalls how some of the children in the kindergarten had been jumping off the couch and "swimming" in lanes on the floor. Their bellies flat on the carpet and their arms swinging.
"I'll never forget a parent saying to me her son had jumped in a friend's pool and she'd thought, 'Oh my God, he's going to drown'. But he swam. He'd learnt it at school. He had all the confidence from watching his friends do it."
She said playing allowed children to develop skills, and she always snuck a smile when watching them play 'house.'
"You'll hear them say ... 'Can I come in? 'Yes, only if you take your shoes off.' It's gorgeous. The kindergarten always tells us the best stories."
And what they learn at kindergarten, carries Steiner kids well through to primary and beyond.
"Our kids are really sought-after in the local secondary schools," Mrs Tait-Jamieson says.
"These kids have been taught so many skills they will never get bored."
ROSE RING
Where: Welcome Bay Road.
Staff: seven.
Children: 70.
Kindergarten manager: Margaret McCarthy.
Mission Statement: Receive the children with reverence, educate them with love, let them go forth in freedom. To be worthy of imitation.