Amberley Preschool + Prep School

About

In 1992 thanks to the vision and persistence of a small group of Hurunui residents, Amberley Community Preschool (originally known as Hurunui Childcare Centre Inc) was built and opened. Many hours, skills and knowledge were contributed by a wide range of people in our community to complete this huge project. As the population of Amberley grew our second service ‘Amberley Community Prep School’ was established in 2014.

We are proud to be a Not-for-Profit, Incorporated Society where all funds are reinvested back into our services for our children. We are governed by a board of like-minded parents and community members who are elected annually.

The Preschool and Prep School are managed collectively and each service has a team of passionate teachers who work together to develop and deliver a rich curriculum for all children.

More about our Services

Our Philosophy

Whanau Tangata

Our community is more than just a location; it is kuru pounamu (a treasured gift). Community events, outings and 'giving back' are significant aspects of our daily programme where children are empowered to understand the wider context in which they live and grow.

Whanaungatanga

Whanaungatanga, the relationships we share with our children, whānau and the community are at the heart of our centre. Our low ratios enable warm, genuine and trusting relationships to develop among teachers, children and whānau; visitors are welcomed with open arms.

Manaakitanga

We embrace manaakitanga; the care and hospitality of those around us. Manaakitanga underpins our philosophy and sees that children are cared for with utmost respect. In turn, children learn to care for people, the community, the environment - the world.

Our Community

Our community is more than just a location, or a collection of individuals who happen to live or work in the same place. A ‘sense of community’ comes from the quality of the relationships and connections that bind people together, rather than just the fact that they see each other regularly. Creating this sense of community is an integral part of what we do.

Our involvement in the community each day could be as small as taking a walk to Allen at the fruit and veg shop, purchasing nails and wood from Arthur Burke or taking part in activities at our local schools.

We rely on our community to support many of our projects, so giving back is important. We do this in many ways each week such as baking for our elderly neighbours, raising money for local charities, picking up rubbish at our parks and donating gifts to families over Christmas.

We love celebrations! We celebrate all kinds of things among our Preschool and Prep School families such as birthdays, Matariki, Mother’s and Father’s Day, special cultural days, and wider community and national events such as the Rugby World Cup. We love sharing these events with our friends and family and there is always great kai on offer!

Our most recent community project has been 'Te Māra Manawa // The Heart garden', situated outside our Prep School at 44 Douglas Road. The garden was inspired by 'manaakitanga' - the care and hospitality of those around us; a fundamental aspect of philosophy and local curriculum.

We have had an incredible amount of community support, helping us to get our garden up and running even faster than we had anticipated. Firth Concrete donated our bricks, Ali from AST123 gave us a number of seedlings and fruit trees and Samsara Woodcraft donated our beautiful macrocarpa sign. The Menzshed Amberley hand crafted our beautiful produce stall. We also had plenty of support from our families who have donated seedings and watered the garden over the holidays.

Of course, there has been a huge amount of labour put in from our teachers and children. We transported the soil by barrow and spade into the gardens, sowed seeds, added our own worms from our worm farm, planted seedlings and of course, we water the garden most days.

Our children are kaitiaki - guardians of our environment. They are learning to grow plants from seeds, nurture seedlings, tend to the garden and collect produce. We are also passionate about teaching children to think of others and they are finding joy in gifting kai to our friends and whānau.

We encourage friends and whānau of our service to tend to our gardens with their children, enjoy the produce and pass on excess kai and goods to other families. This is the community we hope to encourage.

Te Ao Māori

Toku reo, toku ohooho, toku reo, toku mapihi, toku maurea.

My language is my awakening, my language is the window to my soul.

Our community service is a proud partner of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and we are committed to giving children the opportunity to discover the dual heritage of Aotearoa. We strive to empower Māori children and whānau to live and learn as Māori in our service and beyond!

"Since Hendrix has started at Amberley Prep School he continues to come home happy and full of new Te Reo words and songs, that he can't wait to share with us. He not only knows Te Reo words but also their meanings, when I say something in Te Reo he will explain to me exactly what the word means.

I recently took Hendrix to his local marae along with his cousins for a Tamariki Day. Even though he was shy, Hendrix was able to introduce himself in Te Reo and showed that he knew a lot of different words.

This is all thanks to the amazing team at Amberley Prep School for introducing him to Te Reo so a big thank you to you all!"

'Ehara taku toa i te toa taki tahi. Engari, he toa takitini'

My strength is not the strength of one. It is the strength of many'

Fundraising

We are a community organisation which means we rely on fundraising to purchase new furniture and resources and continually upgrade our environments. Our fundraising efforts also enable us to keep our fees low while providing quality care and education for our tamariki.

We like to keep our fundraisers new and exciting and we hope there is something of interest to all of our families. Past fundraisers have included selling 'home-made cheese rolls', zumba classes, quiz nights and most recently our inaugural 'Mid-Winter Rockin' Good Christmas Bash' - a night out for family and friends!