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Welcome from our Centre Manager
Cerie Jordaan
My name is Cerie. I am a passionate and experienced early childhood educator with over 25 years in the sector, dedicated to creating nurturing and supportive environment where both children and kaiako can thrive.
I grew up in Kroonstad, South Africa, and completed my studies in Potchefstroom. In 2008, my husband and I immigrated to New Zealand, where I have continued my journey in early childhood education. I am also a proud mum to my teenage daughter. I am deeply committed to building strong, trusting relationships with children, whānau and kaiako, as I believe these connections are the foundation for meaningful learning and development. I strive to ensure that the utmost care needs are met for both children and kaiako.
What brings me to work each day is the opportunity to make a difference in children’s lives, especially those who may be struggling or need extra support. I am passionate about advocating for every child and ensuring they feel seen, valued and supported. I also really enjoy mentoring students and fellow kaiako, supporting others to grow in confidence and capability within their roles.
A Safe Space to Belong, Explore, and Grow
We strive to create an environment where children experience a strong sense of belonging and feel safe, secure, and valued. We embrace freedom of movement, allowing children to explore and develop at their own pace.
Our environment fosters meaningful relationships with people, places, and taonga while supporting each child's well-being, learning, and development.
Outdoor areas are tailored to each age and stage, offering a range of equipment and resources that help children learn through active exploration, thinking, and reasoning. It's also a space for taking turns, experimenting, facing challenges, and having fun as they learn what their bodies are capable of.
Classrooms at Our Whangarei Childcare Centre
Our early childhood centre in Whangarei offers two age-tailored spaces to support children at their individual learning stage.
Kowhai (up to 2 years)
Our infant and toddler environment is based on building loving and trusting relationships between infants and kaiako/teachers, who structure the day according to individual needs. Kaiako work closely with whānau to understand infant cues and develop a routine that supports the natural rhythm of tamariki. Play is open-ended and full of fun as we embrace how tamariki explore, wonder, and experiment with their ideas and theories of how the world around them works.
Kauri (2-6 years)
Our preschool room offers opportunities throughout the day for tamariki to contribute to the curriculum by helping make decisions about what provocations to explore and sharing their ideas. Kaiako work alongside the tamariki to set up a challenging environment, fostering curiosity and active exploration. Tamariki's self-help skills are very important at this stage, and they are supported to go to the toilet on their own, wash hands, dress themselves, as well as serve up their own morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea.
The preschool tamariki have regular mat times throughout the day where they learn songs and stories and are encouraged to share and communicate with the other children as part of their social development. Some of our group learning times arise from the participation of tamariki in the programme, their areas of interest and emerging group interests. Busy Bees Whau Valley values that each tamaiti learns at their own pace and when they are ready, and that play underpins learning for our tamariki.
Food & Nutrition
We believe that through nourishing food, children are fuelled to thrive physically and mentally, whilst enjoying the benefits of coming together and connecting as a group at mealtimes. At Busy Bees Whau Valley, you can feel confident that your child is well-fed and ready to learn.
New Zealand Heart Foundation Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award
Our in-house cook provides freshly made meals for children each day using our Nourish menus and recipes, based on the New Zealand Heart Foundation Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award for Early Learning Centres.
Baking Programme
Teachers do regular baking with the children, which provides opportunities for them to engage and learn a range of food preparation skills and processes. They also learn fine motor movements such as pouring, sifting, and spooning. It is a great hands-on sensory experience that helps children develop independence through self-help skills and practise simple maths as they measure and count quantities.
Fruit Trees and Vegetable Gardens
Our centre for childcare in Whangarei has vegetable gardens and fruit trees. These gardens help tamariki learn through hands-on activities, encourage them to work together to plant and harvest, and teach them where food comes from. They also help children develop a love for nature and care for the environment.
Centre Transport
We also proudly operate our own Busy Bees centre van, allowing us to help support our centre whānau who require assistance with transport to and from the centre. We also utilise this awesome resource for excursions out and about in our local community, which are always fantastic learning opportunities!
Our Curriculum
We are committed to the vision set out in Te Whāriki, the New Zealand National ECE Curriculum. This means helping children grow into competent, confident learners and communicators who are healthy in mind, body and spirit, secure in their sense of belonging, and aware of the valued contribution they make to society.
Te Whāriki calls for kaiako in early learning settings to work in partnership with parents, whānau and community to bring this vision to life. The expectation is that, in their early years, children will experience a curriculum that empowers them as lifelong learners.
Kura Visits
Supporting tamariki through their transition to school is an important part of our curriculum at our early childhood centre in Whangarei. We maintain strong relationships with our local kura/primary school, utilising our close proximity and reciprocal relationship with the school to maintain weekly school visits for our tamariki who are nearing primary school.
This relationship provides a valuable opportunity for our tamariki to experience the school environment alongside their kaiako and ehoa/friends as they learn the skills necessary to thrive.
Our Programmes
Bee Curious, our Busy Bees Curriculum Framework, has been created to guide and inspire kaiako in supporting tamariki through rich, interconnected learning experiences. Built on the strong foundation of Te Whāriki, it reflects the principles of Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum and the aspirations we hold for our children as they grow.
Nutritious food is the foundation for healthy growth and development in our children. Our Nourish menus fuel our children and support full, healthy tummies enabling clear minds to focus on the learning and set children up to thrive at our centre.
Our MOVE programme deliberately sets out physical activities that give children the opportunity to learn, practice and master physical skills whilst developing their resilience, perseverance, patience, co-ordination, gross-motor skills, teamwork and much more, all while having loads of fun!
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