This edition of the AKA’s annual Celebration Book provides an opportunity for us to look both backward and forward. Backward to our beginnings 108 years ago as a community minded and funded organisation, focused on providing a better start for the children of the most vulnerable families. Forward, as we celebrate the many and innovative ways that our services continue to embrace their place in the community and strengthen their role in supporting and engaging with children and their families.
Kindergartens, KiNZ centres and playgroups each provide a welcoming place for families and communities to come together, with the shared purpose of enhancing children’s learning. Research tells us that family and community support, and in particular parental engagement, is a key factor in children’s achievement.
For many families, this is their first entry point into the education system and what we do sets the tone for their ongoing engagement with their child’s learning. For refugee and new immigrant families, our services can be the pathway to becoming part of their new community.
Family and Community Engagement stands proudly as one of the four strategic pillars of our 2015-2025 Strategic Plan. The pages that follow showcase the innovative ways that we currently engage families and communities in children’s learning, and provide a blueprint for the ways we can continue to grow and strengthen this fundamental part of what we are and what we do.