Playcentre

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Playcentre is a New Zealand early childhood education centre run by the parents of attending children. It caters for children aged from birth to 6 years. Playcentres are grouped into regional Associations of at least 5 centres. The 33 associations make up the New Zealand Playcentre Federation.

The Playcentre movement started during the Second World War as a means of sharing childcare among mothers to enable them to go into the workforce to help with the war effort. The first such Playcentre was established in 1942 in the Wellington suburb of Karori. There are currently some 511 centres around New Zealand.

Playcentres run play sessions of about 2.5 hours. A Playcentre may run up to 10 such sessions per week, and any child can attend up to 5 sessions per week. The teachers at the play sessions are the parents themselves, operating on a roster of teams for the different days, or with a common supervisor. Playcentre is based on the belief that children learn best when working alongside their parents. The whole family can learn and grow together.

The parents also manage the centre as a co-operative, maintain the building and equipment, fundraise and manage government funding and plan the educational programme.

Playcentres are licensed and chartered early childhood education providers with the NZ Ministry of Education.