Heritage Month has kindergartens of old in Whanau Manaaki window

Children from Gonville Kindergarten look at the Whanau Manaaki Heritage Month window with teacher aide Angela Malili-Malo-Lauano (left) and head teacher Ngarita King. Photo / Paul Brooks

Whanau Manaaki Kindergartens have embraced Heritage Month with a window display of photographs showing the early days of Whanganui kindergartens.

The front window at their office at 185 Victoria Ave drew the attention of a number of Gonville Kindergarten children last week, as they arrived for some VIP treatment and a lunchtime spread with youth appeal.

"We thought we'd invite Gonville because it's 60 this year," says senior teacher Katie Fry.

Gonville Kindergarten's birthday was in June but coronavirus put paid to an appropriate celebration at the time.

Raewyn McKenna and Katie are the senior teachers at Whanau Manaaki Kindergarten Association, supporting all aspects of local kindergartens, like the curriculum and planning, learning and development and appraisals.

"We are also responsible for the play groups and there is a transport team now, as well, in the Castlecliff Gonville area. It's been running for about five or six years but we've just got a new van."

The transport team services three kindergartens in that area, transporting about 30 children a day to and from their kindergartens.

Gonville Kindergarten is one of many which have extended their hours and now operate during school holidays.

The children visiting Whanau Manaaki were accompanied by head teacher Ngarita King and teacher aide Angela Malili-Malo-Lauano. Angela is in her third year of training to become a qualified teacher.

Gonville Kindergarten's role is about 43 with seven teachers, a teacher aide and an administrator.

"We don't bring them uptown very often," says Ngarita. "We usually go to the museum or the library."

Kindergarten in New Zealand started in the late 1870s, but Whanganui's kindergarten movement began in 1948 with the formation of a committee in Durie Hill, where the first private kindergarten started in the St Barnabas Church hall.

The Whanganui Kindergarten Association grew to manage 11 kindergartens in the Whanganui area, plus three in the Central Plateau and one in Maxwell. Kindergartens have moved from their traditional short few hours and term-only offerings to longer sessions and full year opening for some communities.

In 2019 WKA joined with Whanau Manaaki Kindergartens, becoming part of this not-for-profit organisation that now includes 102 kindergartens, and is at the forefront of the new Kindergarten Aotearoa, a collective representing more than half of all New Zealand's kindergartens.