Press Release
Moves to formally enable nature-based early childhood education and care, and clear up uncertainty for parents and providers are welcomed by the Early Childhood Council.
“Early childhood nature programmes are operating right now in Auckland’s Long Bay Regional Park, Wenderholm Regional Park, Churchill Park and Cornwall Park, these are based on a European forest education model while incorporating the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, Te Whāriki.
“New Zealand’s ECE model is supposed to ensure parents can choose the type of ECE they prefer. Parents really value these nature programmes which have operated for many years. They immerse children in our unique natural environment. But parents need to remain confident that there are appropriate protections in place given the risks outside of traditional centres are inherently different.”
Actually delivering an enabled nature-based framework will mean certainty for providers and be a boost of confidence for parents. Currently, nature-based programmes are in operation and run using regulated-excursions out of licensed centres. It is an imperfect way to regulate the activity.
There was a problem this year when the Ministry of Education cancelled a licence because there was, an avoidable, period of time where children were spending all their time in nature and no time in the licensed centre for their hours of attendance. Compared to a centre, the open environments tend to lead to fewer accidents in general, but there are more significant risks to be managed.
“All centres in New Zealand must comply with health and safety rules, meet expectations of good management, and have effective supervision controls. In this case, ECC disagreed that it was in the best interests of children to cancel the licence. That would have meant the activity could have continued privately with none of the protections in place. The loss of ECE funding would have been significant, as it would have probably meant this type of small-group size, teacher-led ECE provision would have become financially unsustainable.”
“Government regulation is there to protect children and ensure early childhood education and care remains safe. We welcome Associate Minister Hon David Seymour's commitment to solving what was essentially another case of red tape stopping parents from having the service they wanted for their children, and we hope the work to enable nature-based early leaning continues under the next government.”
