Our transition to school programme is the envy of other schools and teachers – we are situated on the Waitaki Valley School grounds which is an ideal environment to offer a smooth journey into the Primary years.

We run a dedicated programme, our Ako Kura Club daily for our children aged between 4.5 to 5 years old. Our large centre boasts a room we dedicate to our Ako Kura Club and welcome families to come in and see what they have been working on most recently (pictured left). We work with our three local schools to give all our children a targeted programme linking the Early Childhood Curriculum with the Primary Curriculum to support the smoothest transition to primary school as possible.

Once a week our oldest children visit Waitaki Valley School to spend time in the New Entrant Class. Being on the grounds of Waitaki Valley School, all our children gain regular exposure to a primary school environment. At times the school join us at preschool offering a variety of casual ways to build resiliency in all our children regardless of what primary school they may be going to attend. 

Parents are offered the chance to meet with a teacher to discuss exactly what their child needs to prepare for school. We have worked with our local schools and latest theory documents to plan and feed-back to both families and the school childrenare planning to move too. Our aim is to ensure children have everything they need physically, mentally and emotionally, to be school ready by the time they head off! 

Local Schools

There are three primary schools that our children generally feed into, located in Kurow, Duntroon and Omarama. Links to the school websites are below for you to find out more. If you are unsure what might suit your child, be sure to make a time to visit the school.