Preschool reopening adds up to success
‘‘A couple of them have been unwell, so they haven’t come to the centre.’’
Some excited Kiwi children returned to preschool this week after almost two months at home, but many are being kept away a while longer.
Attendance rates varied across the country, but on average 57 per cent of
under-5s were back at early childhood education (ECE) centres from Monday.
ECE providers were asked to send daily attendance figures to the Ministry of Education.
Of the centres that supplied data, Otago/Southland reported the highest attendance rates with 6008 children onsite, or 66 per cent of the total roll of survey participants.
Despite having 22,824 children onsite, Auckland had the lowest percentage of returnees – 51 per cent of the total roll of survey participants.
In Canterbury/Chatham Islands,
59 per cent of centres provided data and, of those, 8308 children were onsite, or 61 per cent.
In Christchurch, Springs Community Early Learning Centre manager Sue Hines said the Sockburn centre had about 70 per cent attendance at the start of the week, which rose to 80 per cent as the week progressed.
‘‘The children that aren’t back are all children that have underlying medical conditions.’’
Hines said those who were back had settled ‘‘really quickly’’.
‘‘They were quite happy to accept the adaptations to their routine, like having to come in and wash their hands on their arrival.’’
Radhika Chakrabarti, centre manager at Woolston’s Kimihia Early Learning Centre, which has a roll of about 50, said about 70 per cent of their students were back.
‘‘A couple of them have been unwell, so they haven’t come to the centre. That’s why they are not here, not because they are worried about being here.’’
Hayley Strachan, senior teacher and centre manager at Moa Kids in Redcliffs, said they are licensed for 50 students and have had almost full attendance this week.
‘‘I think parents feel that we had good practices in place, and we had effective communication throughout the whole time and everyone was willing to see how this week goes.’’
Dianna Jenkinson, director of FUNdamentals Preschool Marshland, said they have had about 70 per cent attendance all week, and the children were excited to be back.
‘‘We’ve got two preschools and across both of them we had a small percentage of parents who have chosen to keep their children at home at the moment.
‘‘It’s purely for their own reasons, whether they have got [people with pre-existing conditions] within their family that they want to keep isolated, or they don’t need to be back at work so they are keeping their children at home a week or two weeks extra.’’
Jacinta McInerney, team leader at Karanga Mai Early Learning Centre – a free ECE service in Kaiapoi – said about 85 per cent of children had returned.
‘‘A couple of children stayed away on the first day but the parents messaged to find out how it went and they returned the next day.
‘‘We have had to change the structure of our day but the children have been getting really involved in helping with all the extra cleaning, they are really on board with taking care, like we all are.’’