The Auckland Preschool and Christchurch Early Intervention Centre welcome new staff to the sandpit and strengthen our relationships.

July 20th, 2020 was the start of a new group of us working and collaborating together. While the Christchurch EIC team stayed stable and continued to offer their fabulous program for families enrolled with them, they have been busy offering comprehensive residential courses for families outside of the Christchurch region to come and learn more about their deaf child.

The Auckland Preschool has had a large change in staff. Kirsta Clifford joined as the Preschool Lead and has brought with her a sense of urgency around bilingual and bicultural awareness and practices in the preschool. Susan Swolfs has been appointed as a permanent ECE teacher and will hopefully undertake her Teacher of the Deaf study next year. Alalate Murare and Donna Walker both join as Teacher Aides and bring with them energy and the skills to form deep learning connections with the children.

I feel very fortunate to have such a capable team working in the Early Years part of our school and am enjoying seeing places where the two teams are working collaboratively and sharing their knowledge and skills with each other. We are all playing very nicely together in the sandpit! I am also enjoying developing relationships with parents, whanau, Advisors of Deaf Children, First Signs and the Cochlear Implant Programmes who all work together to support our youngest learners.