Daffodil Day To Raise Kindergarten Funds

Press, Volume C, Issue 29622, 19 September 1961, Page 2

Daffodil Day To Raise Kindergarten Funds

Although the Government paid kindergarten teachers’ salaries and granted subsidies on the initial cost of kindergarten buildings, the Christchurch Free Kindergarten Association required £2BOO annually to continue its work and that amount had to come from voluntary support, the association’s president (Mrs A. F. Johnson) said recently. “This is a far cry from the £126 raised at our first public appeal in 1911,” she added. z

This money is used for training at the Christchurch Kindergarten Teachers’ Training College and for the general administration of the association, which is the largest in New Zealand. In addition, it costs about £3OO a year a kindergarten to maintain and equip the 36 kindergartens in the Christchurch administration, two of which are on the West Coast. One of these at Greymouth, opened yesterday with two trained teachers from Christchurch. During the year six new kindergartens have been opened by the Christchurch association. Each of them caters for 80 children each week, with morning and afternoon classes of 40 each. Mrs Johnson said the background experiences which children gained at kindergarten gave them an understanding of the world in which they lived. The kindergarten helped adjust small children to living and associating happily with others, and gave them emotional stability. On Friday, the association will hold its annual daffodil

day and street appeal. This year the association is celebrating its jubilee, and hopes that the public will give generously on daffodil day in recognition of 50 years’ service to the community. N.Z. System

Visiting specialists and educationists had described the New Zealand kindergarten system as “educationally as ideal as possible,” Mrs Johnson said. The association trains kindergarten teachers who take a two-year diploma course. Fiftyetwo teachers are at present training in Christchurch. The Christchurch association can trace 380 teachers who have graduated from the Christchurch college and it is hoped many will attend a reunion at the end of September. As part of the jubilee celebrations, each kindergarten has entertained former committee members at functions during the year. In October, there will be a reception at the Winter Garden for delegates to the New Zealand Kindergarten Union conference. Daffodils to be sold on Fri-

day will be supplied by parents, who will also supply cakes for stalls in Cathedral square and in the suburbs. In a city shop, there will be a sale of clothing made by parents. A special daffodil day cake will be on display in the window of a city store. This features the old woman who lived in a shoe and is made entirely in green with tiny figures of children in icing. One is a little boy reading a book, with the page print shown clearly. The cake will be raffled for funds.