Term one evaluation linked to TSAP

Throughout term one there have been many changes and clarifications with Alyssa as our new head
teacher at Island Bay Kindergarten. A lot of these changes have revolved around Te Whare Tapa Whā,
specifically working around how we support Taha tinana – physical health.

Some of these changes have helped the team work consistently to support children’s health and
adhere to ministry regulations. This has been a great help for me to see clearly what expectations are
and what we need to be doing to best support tamariki and whānau that support their physical
being.

I have seen professional growth in myself as I better prioritise the care routines that ākonga require.
While we were working on focusing on younger children in our last SIE Alyssa came in with great
knowledge of routines and care that best suit ākonga and she has helped the team grow in this area
and aided us to develop our SIE focus which is now wrapped up into the TSAP.

Having these changes implemented are supporting us to work more effectively to support children’s
health and well-being. Sometimes in the past we may have been more focused on provokations and
extending children’s learning. Having this new focus has helped us to work more toward the care and
well-being of our tamariki.

Many of these changes have been great and beneficial to tamariki and whānau, they meet regulation
requirements - such as the clarification surrounding children who are on the toilet list being checked
every two hours. There are some aspects of how we implement these changes that need to be
reviewed in my eyes.

While I appreciate there cannot always be flexibility, for example in regulation based changes. For all
kaiako feel listened to and supported in their pracice we need to have a degree of flexibility and
appreciation of each others differing views and beliefs ‘demonstrates an open mind to explore
diering views and reflect on own beliefs and values’ Tatatiako, p4.

We touched briefly on ‘pink’ and ‘red rules’ with Kath Cooper in a team building exercise recently,
the need for teaching teams to have adaptability and autonomy to cater to ākonga in different ways
that suit their needs is a must and goes side by side in my philosophy. I however don’t see this
happening at our Kindergarten now with our robust new systems and rules, kaiako are often worried
they will be told off for not following or enforcing a lot of pink rules, sometimes against the consent
of the child which I am struggling with.

For the benefit of all Kaiako, ākonga and whānau manaakitanga and harmony amongst the team is so
very crucial, everyone needs to feel valued and happy here with the priority being the needs and
requirements of our children. Our personal teaching philosophies are also very important

Throughout my time working at whānau manaaki I have learnt about how ākonga have multiple ways
of being and we need to adapt our practice to cater for multiple ways of doing. throughout many
workshops