[Visiting teacher, Veronica, speaking to camera]

Veronica Kidd: Jan and I work very closely together, you know, we trained together 20 odd years ago and we’re very closely aligned in our philosophy, and so there are leaders, growing leaders, growing leaders.

[Visiting teachers talking in a backyard with a home-based kaiako]

Veronica Kidd: And that’s a really strong model in home-based. We’ve got our visiting teachers who are growing leaders within our educators and then our educators are working with our children to grow leaders as well.

[Visiting teacher, Veronica, speaking to camera]

Veronica Kidd: Our role in hapori is to be those role models. So we’re there as the teachers, the trained teachers working with the children and modelling how you can extend a child’s conversation without putting your own viewpoint on it.

[Two children playing with spades in a sandpit  under a tree, with kaiako chatting to each other as they interact with the children]

Jan Fensom: And so when he’s doing his counting is he counting objects?

Kate Fisher: Yeah when I made some sandcastles before, he was able to count them all up.

Jan Fensom: Oh that’s great, well done, because one of those really important skills for him to learn is actually to, while he’s counting, have an understanding that the numbers are corresponding to an object. So, rather than just saying it, that there’s an understanding that it actually means something. And naturally, as he’s playing, is how he’s going to learn that. So that’s great.

[A child is covering their feed with sand using the spade]

Jan Fensom: Buried your toes, where have they gone?

[Visiting teacher, Veronica, speaking to camera]

Veronica Kidd: We can have these discussions with the educators recorded and we encourage them to reflect and think about what’s been happening with them and the children.

[Tamariki with a kaiako playing at an outdoor table, a child brings some daisies from the grass]

Veronica Kidd: So if they’ve had something awesome happen, an experience that’s happened for a child or a group of children, then thinking about what went well, thinking about what they could have improved on or why it didn’t go well and all of that sort of thing.

[A child shows a bug on their hand to the kaiako, with another child on their knee, and the visiting teacher]

Veronica Kidd: We believe children learn through inquiry and through play. We want our children to have that sense of wonder and to capture that wonder. I think what we really want our educators to do and what we really want our educators to be is intentional in their teaching.

[Visiting teacher, Veronica, speaking to camera]

Veronica Kidd: And so when we’re looking at meaningful and purposeful experiences, meaningful is that it’s child-led.

Our children are leaders in their learning journey, we want them to be fully engaged in what’s happening for them and so we want our educators to understand what that is.

[Visiting teacher in the sandpit with a child, while kaiako is also watching another child play with a swing]

Jan Fensom: He has that sort of mind though, he likes to know how things work.

Kate Fisher: He does.

[Child twisting up a swing and then lets it go to watch it spin]

Jan Fensom: He likes to explore things to be able to work it out. Which is a really good avenue to follow for his learning to, to actually give him those opportunities.

[Kaiako and visiting teachers sitting in the sandpit and watching the child play with the swing]

Veronica Kidd: That would be ideal because just watching him then, with that going round and round and turning things around to ask him what he thinks is happening. And then recording, getting his voice down, yeah.

Jan Fensom: Yeah, writing it down or just recording it.

[Child twisting up a swing and then lets it go to watch it spin]

Jan Fensom: Really nice to record that over time too, to see what he says now, and then in a few months time what his hypothesis might be later on.

[Kaiako and visiting teachers sitting in the sandpit with children playing]

Kate Fisher: Possibly different.

Jan Fensom: Yeah, as his learning develops there.

[Visiting teacher, Veronica, speaking to camera]

Veronica Kidd: Each child has their own learning journey and we use learning stories to record that journey.

We’ve just moved to an online programme and so that we can see when an educator puts up a learning story and we can have an online discussion. Some of them we can pull it out for them and then talk about it and so it’s there and then they can revisit it and we can just see a real change in their understanding is developing really quickly through this as well.

So we can keep our eye on every child basically and know, and we can also give them feedback and say, actually I’ve just noticed that such and such, this has come out of that story, could you focus on this for the next wee while. And it’s about educators being aware of the needs of that child. Looking at their strengths, but also what needs strengthening.

We can really look at questioning them, and challenging them, and provoking them, and extending them in their thinking and their understanding.

We can upload readings about best practice that’s relevant to what’s happening for a child or children in their care. I’ve seen so much growth in the educators just in that short space of time. I think once we really get to grips with it, and I mean we’re still learning how to use it, none of us are real techno people, we’re a little bit technophobic, but they love it and they just find it so simple and so easy. So I think for us it’s made a massive difference.