We are building the foundation for our Deaf and hard of hearing tamariki and their whānau in the Early Years Whānau Centre.

Early Years Whānau Centre (EYWC) has been a fun-filled year with family and child learning focusing on rich language experiences through individual and group play-based learning experiences. Tamariki and their families are at the heart of our programme, focusing on fostering partnerships between whānau, staff and key professionals. In July, we changed our licensing with the Ministry of Education to better reflect the Playgroup nature of our sessions and the relationship between parents, whānau and staff.

Transitions to school, fond farewells and best wishes have included Nico Agnew, Ethan Dapamede and Bridie Williams. Helen King moved into her Advisor of Deaf Children position at the Ministry of Education and passed the baton onto Tina Harrison as Early Years Programmes Lead.

Sessions always comprise opportunities for child-led play experiences, signed music, and storytimes focusing on Theory of Mind concepts with thinking and feeling language. Lots of repetitive language enriched our Playgroup sessions and allowed our tamariki to show us their learning of new language and ideas.

We welcomed back the 3-day Preschool Residential Courses and have enjoyed whānau visiting from the regions to join us in the Early Years Whānau Centre with time to experience audiology appointments, visual communication and Deaf Culture, early literacy and speech and language sessions. Always a busy but fulfilling time!