PLAY CENTRE AT WHAKATUTU

Te Ao Hou, June 1964, Page 40

PLAY CENTRE AT WHAKATUTU by W. Haymes Whatatutu is about 10 miles inland from Gisborne. Mr Haymes, who sent in this account of the establishment of a play centre there, is head teacher at the Whatatutu School. It all began over 18 months ago now, when one afternoon after school the Infant Mistress, Miss Ngaire Pewhairangi, and I got together to see if something could be done to assist these bright-eyed Maori youngsters, youngsters who when they entered school lacked some of the experiences that many other five-year-olds had. We had heard how successful play centres had been in other communities, and we felt that this kind of pre-school education would be valuable for our children also. We had heard, too, how the play centre movement provides ways of increasing the contact and communication between parents and their children, how it allows the Mums and Dads to learn from the children at the same time that the children learn with Mum and Dad.