Kindergarten Week starts on Monday

Press, 11 June 1977, Page 4

Kindergarten Week starts on Monday

Free Kindergarten Week, which is held every' two years to publicise the work of kindergartens, will begin throughout New Zealand on; Monday. Although no special activities have been planned in Christchurch, the public are; welcome, as they are at anytime. to visit kindergartens by arrangement with staff. The emphasis of the week this year is to encourage parents to enrol children for kindergarten at the age of; i wo. Although under De-j partment of Education regu-l lations a child cannot be ad-, mitted before the age of. three. earlier enrolment! allows kindergarten associa-; tions to plan building pro-; grammes more accurately. A further aid to planning is regular surveys carried'

out by associations of the number of very young children in an area. The Christchurch Free’ Kindergarten Association, maintains 46 kindergartens; in Christchurch, Kaiapoi,! Rangiora, Greymouth, and; Hokitika. Two new kinder-; gartens are being built in the Rowley Avenue and Wainoni areas, and Department of; Education approval has re-.I cently been given to call; tenders for the new Queens-’ park Kindergarten. In addition, committees are working towards the establishment of six further! ■ kindergartens. ! An estimated 50 per cent’, [of all children in New Zea-1 [land now receive some form’; [of pre-school education—from kindergartens, play-/ [centres, or in a variety of day-!' care centres. Throughout Newl.

iZealand there are 430 kindergartens providing places! for about 34.400 children between the ages of three and ■ five. This is about one-third I of those receiving pre-school ’education. The main aim of kinder■gartens is to provide an environment where a child can develop socially, physically, ■ and emotionally. ' The day is split into morning and afternoon sessions.’ Younger children — usually [aged three or four — attend .three afternoon sessions a 'week, while four-year-olds at-! ’ tend five morning sessions. New Zealand’s first kindergarten was established in Dunedin in June, 1889.! mainly through the efforts of the Rev. Dr Rutherford Wardell. the minister of St’ [Andrew’s Church. i