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Welcome from our Coopers Beach Centre Manager
Shirley Hart
Kia ora, my name is Shirley. I’m married and have four children, along with seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Over 20 years ago, we made the move from Auckland to the beautiful Far North, which we now proudly call home. I’ve worked in early childhood education for well over two decades, including time in Playcentre, early childhood centres, and kindergartens. This has truly been my chosen vocation.
"I believe that every child is unique and grows at their own pace, in their own time."
Children thrive in environments that offer opportunities to play, experiment, explore, challenge, and question. I am passionate about creating these spaces where children are guided by teachers who respect, respond to, and scaffold their strengths and interests. This helps lay the foundation for knowledge, confidence, and a love of lifelong learning.
Throughout the years, I’ve had the privilege of building strong, trusting, and respectful relationships with many families. Working alongside their tamariki and watching them grow into the incredible people they are today continues to be one of the greatest joys of my work.
We aim to work alongside our early learning centre tamariki and whānau using the surrounding environment as the third teacher. We value open communication and teamwork to foster whakawhanaungatanga, mana whānau - belonging, whakamana - empowerment and kotahitanga - holistic development at Busy Bees Coopers Beach.
Our environment is made up of 2 separate areas within our early learning centre; Te Ruma Pipi [The Pipi Room] 0-2 years, a small shell settling into its new environment and beginning to learn and grow. When it comes time for our Pipi tamariki to flourish and grow into a bigger ‘shell’ they will then become a Paua and join Te Ruma Paua [The Paua Room] 2-5 years.
Our outdoor areas are ruma, are tailored to each age and stage of learning and development, they offer a range of equipment and resources which promote active exploration, thinking and reasoning along with turn-taking, experimentation, challenges and fun as they learn what their bodies are capable of. Our indoor environment offers areas to enjoy music and movement, paint like van Gogh, create, imagine & discover with collage & loose parts, construct towers, bake with friends, role play in the family corner, do a puzzle or read a book in our quiet nook. A place for fun, laughter, questions, curiosity, imagination, challenge, involvement, companionship, and love.
Our centre 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.
We are extremely proud to hold the Whānau Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award from the Healthy Heart Foundation for the amazing things we do to promote healthy food and physical activity. We are helping our tamariki to have healthy habits and healthy hearts for life.
We are a lunchbox centre and this brings with it so much learning opportunity as it promotes independence as well as encourages self-help skills in preparation for school. We encourage families to make healthy food choices and ensure their child’s pouaka kai (lunch box) meets centre guidelines as well as Ministry of Health criteria for Early Learning Services.
We are committed to follow the aspirations of the New Zealand National ECE Curiculum, Te Whāriki. Te Whāriki envisages kaiako in early learning settings working in partnership with parents, whānau and community to realise this vision. The expectation is that, in their early years, children will experience a curriculum that empowers them as lifelong learners.
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.
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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