All NKA kindergartens are FEES FREE and are all running 48 weeks of the year.

All kindergartens run 6 hour sessions and these vary slightly from kindergarten to kindergarten and a list of these can be found on the web site in the Northland Kindergarten tab. All kindergartens have a license to operate and their license stipulates their start and finish times.

All teachers are happy to assist with toilet training, if needed.

Children can be enrolled from birth and start at the kindergarten from 2 years of age.

Children often need support from their parents/whanau when starting kindergarten but once they are settled parents are free to leave them by themselves if they wish. Some parents choose to stay at kindergarten and spend time interacting with their children and their children’s friends. Parents are welcome at any time to stay.

Kai programmes very between kindergartens. All kindergartens have morning tea and lunch time. Some kindergartens provide all meals (in partnership with KidsCan) where other kindergartens, children bring their own lunch boxes.

Kindergartens will have a lost property box in which collected items are usually put at the end of the session or day. Please ask a teacher if you need help to find any lost belongings. If possible please name clothes, shoes and other personal items that your child brings to kindergarten, this will increase the chance of the items returning to the right children.

One of the important things that children learn at kindergarten is to socialise with other children. Through a kindergarten experience they learn about relationships, they experience opportunities to share with others, negotiate their way through differences, to be away from parents/whanau, and they learn how to relate to other adults. Whilst at kindergarten children also have the opportunity to discover and learn about numbers, words, writing, colours, painting and so on. Children are not taught to read and write formally, however they gain pre-literacy understanding and knowledge through the opportunities of using paints, pens, crayons, books, etc. in all areas of their play. In fact, children have the opportunity to make many discoveries for themselves with support from trained teachers.