Oakura

Welcome to Oakura Playcentre. We are situated in a small coastal village 10 minutes south of New Plymouth, adjacent to the local primary school on Donnelly Street. We offer quality Early Childhood Education for children from birth to school age three mornings a week. Our Playcentre offers a welcoming, safe and stimulating environment for children and their caregivers to enjoy play-based learning.

We are a parent led co-operative, meaning all sessions are planned for, run and evaluated by parents who are encouraged to attend free adult education to support their skills in this area. The ratio of children to adults is kept low (A maximum of 1:3). This ensures that we have a safe, engaging environment for group and individual learning.

Play is child led, we encourage children to decide what they would like to do, we watch and provide support as needed. Promoting feelings of success, self confidence, independence, self-direction, discovery, problem solving, decision-making, creativity, and opportunities to learn from mistakes are all part of our children’s development. We plan and cater for each child’s interests and own rate of development. Our evaluation processes encourage a continual reassessment of needs and how we can help meet these.

Each session is set up with 16 areas of play. Indoor activities include an extensive family role play area, puppets, blocks, books and music. We also have a dedicated baby area with a large mat, toys and couches for parents to feed their babies. The centre also has change tables, a high chair and a sleep room with cots meaning families with young babies are welcome and well catered for. A covered deck provides an all weather space for carpentry and messy activities such as painting, sensory play and clay. Our outdoor area includes a newly built covered sandpit, swings, obstacle course, slides, vegetable gardens and plenty of space to run around.

Families that join our Playcentre become part of a supportive community. Parents and caregivers are offered free training, invitations to workshops and social events that support our growth as a community and personal development. We are the first teachers our children experience. Parents enjoy the support and company of other parents and can take on roles that they have experience in or ones they are interested in that can both support development for the centre and can help when finding work.

Families can choose to attend our Playcentre between 1 to 3 times per week. Many of our children also attend pre-school, kindergarten or other child care facilities on alternate days. Our fees are low and there is a discount if you have multiple children attending. We have a strong connection with the SPACE programme that is held at our Playcentre and many ‘SPACE babies’ choose to continue with us once their initial programme is over. Please see https://www.space.org.nz for more information on this.

We welcome families from Oakura and from the surrounding areas, including New Plymouth. Please join us for your three free visits and see if Playcentre is the right fit for your whanau. We look forward to seeing you here soon.

Visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PlaycentreOakura/

THREE FREE VISITS

Your first three visits are free. Contact us with any questions or pop in to any of our sessions.

THANKS TO OUR SUPPORTERS

Big Jims Garden Centre – who have kindly donated some fruit trees, herbs and vegetable plants