Newsletter
June and July
2015
Kia ora, Konnichiwa, Nihao, welcome.
We hope you are all keeping warm in this cooler weather. This time of the year is so exciting for the children,
who love to experience ice, frosts, and extreme weather conditions. Please remember to dress your child
appropriately for preschool.
Remember to ‘like’ us on Facebook so that you can view the photos, informative articles and any news
from Avonhead Montessori Preschool.
Welcome:
We have had some new children arriving, and some leaving to go to school over the past month. We
welcome the families of Yuto Yokoyama, Josephine Chien, Peter Li, Lewy Wang, Dylan Blackwell, and Titen
Mackenzie. We hope you are enjoying becoming part of our preschool community.
We sadly have to say farewell to children as they leave to go to school. Our recent graduates and
upcoming graduates for June and July are Devyn Olynsma, Ethan Chen, Marcus Fong, Edmond Chen,
Yuchen Wang, Naomi Wan, Ida Clausen, Ayod Perera. We wish you all the very best at school and hope
you all come back to visit us in the future.
Due to the number of children leaving to start school in Term 3, we have got a few available sessions for
those who would like to increase their hours. Please see the teaching team for a change of booking form.
Changes in Management:
You will be aware the centre owners of Avonhead Montessori; Ross and Sally, own four preschools around
Canterbury and they are always looking for new and exciting ways to improve learning outcomes for all
children within their centres. As a result of ensuring quality outcomes for children and staff we am pleased to
inform you that Danielle has begun a new role within their business of at Canterbury Early Learning Centres,
where she have moved into a curriculum advisory role and will be helping all of our four centres to develop
their curriculum processes. This has opened up the centre leader position at Avonhead Montessori, and we
are delighted to announce that Claire Marshall has accepted this role.
You will all know Claire through her head teacher role in the Pukeko Room, where we have been very
impressed with her skills and ability to lead her team and create a rich learning environment for all the
children. Claire will now be doing a dual role of continuing as head teacher of the Pukeko Room, as well as,
stepping in and filling my shoes as the centre leader. Danielle will continue to be involved in the
developments at Avonhead, however as more in an advisory role and supporting Claire and the Avonhead
team in curriculum development. This is an exciting time and we are sure these new developments will be a
success for all.
Teacher’s News:
We are very excited to announce that Sarah Hannington gave birth to her beautiful baby girl, Ava, earlier
this month. Mum and Ava are doing well now and enjoying getting to know each other. 
We are also very pleased to let you know that Rebbeca Ou, will be returning from maternity leave this
month. Rebecca will be working in both the Pukeko and Tui Rooms and is looking forward to seeing you all
again.
Staff Training:
We would like to congratulate Joella Cullen, who has just completed Book One of the Aperfield Montessori
Diploma. She will be continuing with her study for the rest of the year and hopes to finish the full diploma by
the end of next year.
Claire Marshall and Yvonne Hetherton are still currently completing the Ministry of Education course The
Incredible Years. The techniques that they are learning are proving very beneficial in our preschool. We
hope to share this information with you once they complete the course in August.
Parent’s Survey:
Thank you all very much for completing and returning the parent's survey earlier this year. There were some
wonderful comments and suggestions that we have read and will be using to develop our preschool. It is a
wonderful tool to be able to understand what you as parents, love in our centre, and how we can enhance
our teaching practice and environment.
Some ideas from your suggestions that we are currently developing are; birthday celebrations, dress ups,
parent and teacher interviews and parent’s information evening.
If you have any other comments please feel free to contact Claire at any time or send us an email with your
thoughts.
Parent’s Information Evening:
As a result from the parent’s survey suggestions, we have organised a parent’s information evening:
“Why we do what we do”
Date: 29th July
Time: 7.30pm
What: We will be sharing with you an insight into the learning and development that takes
place in Avonhead Montessori preschool through the Montessori philosophy. This will be a
highly useful night so that you can become aware of what your child is doing each day, and
how we can support each other to get the best for your child.
We look forward to seeing you all there.
Parent/ Teacher Interviews:
We will be hosting parent teacher interviews in August. In the next few weeks you will be receiving a midyear aspiration form to fill out. Once you return these, we will arrange to book a suitable time with a teacher
for 15 minute interview to discuss your child’s current learning, development and goals.
Please keep an eye on the noticeboard for more information.
Classroom Room News:
School Readiness News:
The School Readiness group has been growing every single week! Our language, mathematics, science, art
and French classes are all going so well. The children are loving being challenged and extended. We have
seen a huge improvement in the behaviour and participation of all the children over the past few months
and we can definitely see that the children are getting prepared well for school.
We had a visit from a Merrin Primary School new entrance teacher who was very impressed with the work
and activities that the Pukeko Room does to help prepare children for school. She stated that she could
definitely notice the difference of the children who attended Montessori preschool to those who did not, as
the Montessori children are very motivated and independent learners. So we were very pleased to hear
that!
We are currently making the timetable for next term’s lessons and this will be available on the school
readiness noticeboard (which is outside the bathroom door) for you to view.
Pukeko Room News:
We have been engaging in some amazing learning in the Pukeko Room over the past two months. We
have been noticing that a number of children have had some common interests, which we have been
extending and planning for. Dinosaurs are one common interest at the moment, and Debbie has worked
hard to make a ‘discovery’ area on the deck for the children to explore.
There has also been an increase interest in Matariki, the Māori New Year, which we have been busy
exploring lots of new activities for; soup making, bird feeders, star decorating, weaving, and Māori myths
and legends.
We will be continuing to follow the children’s interests over the common months. If you are interested in
reading any of the group planning or stories that we have done, please feel free to find the Pukeko Room
Current Interests folder that is alongside your children’s profile books.
The Pukeko Room Team 
Tui Room:
Ww have had a very busy couple of months in the Tui Room with the children enjoying baking, painting,
legends and learning about our weather. The Tui Room children have been working very hard at
consolidating their work cycle; choosing an activity, completing it, and putting it back afterwards. This is
very useful for their preparation for the Pukeko Room.
We have noticed an increase from many children with their verbal communication skills. We have been
supporting this by encouraging them to articulate their needs and wants in a positive way.
The Tui Room Team 
Messages from the Administration Team:
Signing In and Out:
Please make sure you sign in and out when you arrive and leave the Preschool. We need to have a record
of this for the Auditors. Also please ensure that when you sign in and out on our signing sheet that you write
clearly, this helps to avoid errors with the times that are loaded into our computer system and onto your
invoice.
Invoice Errors:
Please notify us as soon as possible if there is an error with your invoice. This helps us to rectify the problem
quickly. We do our best to ensure that the invoice is correct, unfortunately we do make mistakes from time
to time.
Changes of Bookings:
Change of Booking forms must be completed for every change you make to your children’s booked days
or hours – please see the head teachers for help filling these forms out as they can be a bit confusing. This
will ensure the forms are filled out correctly and so the changed days/hours can be confirmed.
Three Week Absence Rule:
We would like to clarify our policy on children who are absent for longer than 3 weeks consecutively. This
rule is a directive from the Ministry of Education.
If your child is absent for longer than 3 weeks consecutively for any reason, all funding received will
be automatically stopped in the 4th week. This applies to any Free ECE hours your child receives and also
applies to WINZ subsidies received. We are obliged to notify WINZ of any child who receives a subsidy that
has been absent for longer than 3 weeks. Please be aware that you will be invoiced for full fees for your
child’s booking for any days absent over the 3 week period. Once attendance restarts all funding will be
reinstated automatically.
If your child is going to be absent for longer than 3 weeks for any reason please ensure you discuss this with
Claire or Lyn, your Centre Administrator.
Lyn, our administrator is in the Avonhead office – Tuesday’s & Thursday’s 9.00am to 12.00pm. Please feel
free to contact her by email or phone.
Hei konā rā from Claire, Cindy, Debbie, Emma, Joella, Laura, Megan, Rebecca, Samantha, and Yvonne.