QUEENS DR, ST KILDA, MONTESSORI DUNEDIN
Learning Links – Queens Dr, St Kilda, Montessori Dunedin
About Us
Parent Testimonials
Learning Links Montessori is an Early Childhood setting on Queens Drive in St Kilda Dunedin. We follow the Montessori philosophy of child-directed learning with a big emphasis on the development of independence.
Our programme is designed to support the children’s growing curiosity and encourage them to explore and learn with the guidance of qualified Montessori teachers.
We provide a nurturing and well prepared environment where the children can develop independence and respect for both the natural world and each other. Our Montessori approach is strongly interwoven with the TeWhariki -the Zealand Early Childhood curriculum . Balanced with group activities, a beautiful outdoor learning environment and regular whanau events to promote a strong community feeling.
Our mixed age group settings foster a strong sense of community in which the children care and collaborate with each other.
We believe learning is an exciting process of discovery, leading to concentration, motivation, self-discipline, and a love of learning. By giving children easy access to well-organised equipment and resources as well as the freedom to choose activities they are interested in, they experience the excitement and fun of discovery at their own pace.
We are a passionate team of educators who strive to support the children on their individual leaning journey to become independent human beings.
The Montessori philosophy doesn’t just prepare the child for school, rather gives them tools to life creating a love of lifelong learning.
Feel free to arrange a visit to discuss the philosophy in more detail and to view our three Montessori environments-Nido, Rata and Kowhai.
Some of our latest adventures!
Forest Programme (At Learning Links Hector Drive)
Connecting children to nature is something we are passionate about at Learning Links Hector. An enriching programme like this certainly isn’t something that was decided one day and began the next – it has taken a lot of preparation, consideration and dedication.
Well today, our passion became a reality! The group headed off on their expedition within our local community. They began this weekly ritual with a forest karakia and a willingness to explore and test their limits in the dense bush. We are very proud that our tamariki showed such respect for the beautiful forest and its creatures and this will be something that they will remember for many years to come – a huge thank you to our Kaiako, Rebekah and Ana for bringing our programme to life today everyone should have a good sleep tonight!
Our tamariki are becoming increasingly confident and familiar with the forest. They have already gained a strong sense of direction and able to show their kaiako which way could lead us to the destination.
They were lucky to find and try some kawakawa, which we learnt that the leaves can be made into medication that helps our digestive system. We even brought some back to our centre for our friends to try as herbal tea.
No doubt, the muddy puddles was the favourite. It was such fun for each of us to get wet, get muddy and be engaged with nature! We are also amazed to see the growing resilience of our children when they slipped into mud, when they got dirty and when they were in dilemma. They were determined to take risks and challenge themselves, physically and emotionally!
It was equally impressive to notice how tamariki cared for each other and helped their peers out of a challenging situation, they were demonstrating their growing social competence and caring nature in their bush play! We highly recommend getting out into nature - the children will surprise you!
As we continue to connect locally, to our Rototuna area, we discovered Rototuna means "lake of eels". In Pre-European times, our area had a lake named Tunawhakapeke. The lake and surrounding swamps had an abundance of tuna resources. As a result of our new knowledge the tamariki are discovering where the tuna like to live now and what they like to eat! Trying to coax them out of their hiding places, the children have been patiently dangling some food for them and to hopefully catch a glimpse soon!
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Our team are INTENTIONAL TEACHERS, what this means is they are constantly thinking about what they are doing and how it will support or enable children’s development and learning. It requires an ...
Dec 17
Our team are INTENTIONAL TEACHERS, what this means is they are constantly thinking about what they are doing and how it will support or enable children’s development and learning. It requires an awareness of and being deliberate, thoughtful and purposeful in their decisions and actions.
Intentional Teachers invite children to share their interests and ideas, identify opportunities to help children to become involved in play, and build on interests and ideas that they observe that day.
Today, was no exception! One of our tamariki, Jackson, has recently been into Garden Place to see the ‘BIG Christmas tree’ after explaining how big this tree was, our intentional teacher used a range of interactional strategies and supported them to investigate and extend their thinking, challenge their ideas and expand their interest.
Jackson, got to re-create his 'out of centre' experience using our Loose Parts and engaged a large group of his peers – facilitating the whole thing! Got to love being an Educator when we see learning like this. 🤩🤩 #Childcare #Daycare #Kindergarten #Preschool #EarlyLearning #EarlyChildhood #EarlyEducation #ChildcareHamilton #LearningLinks #LearningLinksChildcare #LearningLinksHamilton #FamilyGoals #Babies #ToddlerLife #Toddler #KiwiMum #NZBaby #LoveLanguages #SustainableLiving #Whanua #Tamariki #HamiltonNZ #Waikato #Rototuna #TeTotaraPrimary #LoveTheTron #HectorDrive #LearningThroughPlay #LearningTogether
Our Kaiako are on the journey of becoming more culturally responsive. We are all at different stages and understandings; and through the use of the Hikairo Schema we are learning to rethink our ...
Dec 16
Our Kaiako are on the journey of becoming more culturally responsive. We are all at different stages and understandings; and through the use of the Hikairo Schema we are learning to rethink our teaching approaches, reconfiguring our learning environment and develop new and innovative ways of facilitating culturally sensitive and inclusive learning settings.
We know that by incorporating te reo Māori and NZ sign language into our preschool experience will have such a positive impact – not only on our tamariki brain development, but on New Zealand culture as a whole.
Starting off small is the key and being committed! 🤩 SNEAK PEAK.... Here are a group of our tamariki beginning to learn to introduce themselves in te reo Māori and NZ sign language. 😍
We see all our tamarki as being capable and confident and we look forward to seeing their progress.. watch this space! 👀
#Childcare #Daycare #Kindergarten #Preschool #EarlyLearning #EarlyChildhood #EarlyEducation #ChildcareHamilton #LearningLinks #LearningLinksChildcare #LearningLinksHamilton #FamilyGoals #Babies #ToddlerLife #Toddler #KiwiMum #NZBaby #LoveLanguages #SustainableLiving #Whanua #Tamariki #HamiltonNZ #Waikato #Rototuna #TeTotaraPrimary #LoveTheTron #HectorDrive #LearningThroughPlay #LearningTogether
👶 💦 Splishing and a Splashing 💦 👶🏼
Many of our experiences are new for our tamariki and filled with amazing opportunities to learn about how things work, cause and effect, ...
Dec 13
👶 💦 Splishing and a Splashing 💦 👶🏼
Many of our experiences are new for our tamariki and filled with amazing opportunities to learn about how things work, cause and effect, relationships between people and objects and what things can do.
This is why babies investigate their whole new world using their senses as their main tool for discovery, as just about everything needs to be touched and tasted to be truly understood!
Thanks, Caroline for bringing in your water mat - the babies LOVED it.
#Childcare #Daycare #Kindergarten #Preschool #EarlyLearning #EarlyChildhood #EarlyEducation #ChildcareHamilton #LearningLinks #LearningLinksChildcare #LearningLinksHamilton #FamilyGoals #Babies #ToddlerLife #Toddler #KiwiMum #NZBaby #LoveLanguages #SustainableLiving #Whanua #Tamariki #HamiltonNZ #Waikato #Rototuna #TeTotaraPrimary #LoveTheTron #HectorDrive #LearningThroughPlay #LearningTogether
S.T.E.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math)
Welcome to the future of programming in the early years!
Blue-Bots are an innovative Bluetooth robot designed for young ...
Dec 11
S.T.E.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math)
Welcome to the future of programming in the early years!
Blue-Bots are an innovative Bluetooth robot designed for young children and can be controlled using a tablet or PC/Mac whereby you create your program on the screen, send it remotely and see Blue-Bot perform your program right before your very eyes! 🤖👀 Our tamariki are experimenting with what components perform which duties and have been creating their own maps for the robots to follow! 🌏
With many more challenges to overcome our tamariki are developing innovative ideas and computational thinking… look out future here we come!
#Childcare #Daycare #Kindergarten #Preschool #EarlyLearning #EarlyChildhood #EarlyEducation #ChildcareHamilton #LearningLinks #LearningLinksChildcare #LearningLinksHamilton #FamilyGoals #Babies #ToddlerLife #Toddler #KiwiMum #NZBaby #LoveLanguages #SustainableLiving #Whanua #Tamariki #HamiltonNZ #Waikato #Rototuna #TeTotaraPrimary #LoveTheTron #HectorDrive #LearningThroughPlay #LearningTogether
Centre Details
Ratios: Infants 1:4, Toddlers 1:6, Preschool 1:8
Opening Times: Monday to Friday 8am to 5:30pm
Address: 39 Queens Dr, St Kilda, Montessori Dunedin
Phone Number: 03 455 5066
ERO Report: View Report
Ministry of Education Funding: View Information
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Thinking About Enrolling?
The best way to find out if we’re the right centre for your family is by seeing it for yourself! Please come in for a visit.
If you want to read more about Learning Links, please download our Parent General Information Book.
2019 Enrollment Fees
Under 3 and non ECE hours 6+ Hour Session:
1 to 4 days fee is $49 per day and for 5 days fee is $167.
3 Years and older who have attested for 20 hours ECE 6+ hour session
1 to 4 days fee is $39 per day and for 5 days fee is $129.
30 hour session for all age groups:
(5 days) either 8am to 2pm or 9am to 3pm
Weekly Fee: Under 2 years $99, 2 years olds $69, 3-4 year olds $39
Extra hours: Maximum number of hours booked is 5 hours ($7 for overs and $12 for unders) and this must be a permanent booking
*** If more than 5 hours extra a week is needed then the charges will convert to weekly changes as above
No casual bookings
Enrolment Conditions
Our fees include high quality teacher ratios above Ministry of Education standards. Minimum enrolment is two days a week. A deposit equal to one week of your booked hours will be due upon enrolment to confirm your place. Two weeks notice is required when terminating enrolment. Nappies are provided. Food and formula is not provided. To be read in conjunction with the Fee Policy.