Private Kindy or public Kindy

Not sure, was wondering that myself as I was out at a lunch yesterday and someone mentioned something about a private kindy. This woman said something about a public kindy not being allowed to purposely teach the alphabet, that is was more about playtime. Whereas a private kindy could each the alphabet. Not quite sure about that

Will be interested to see what others say

Still got to pay for a public kindy :)

i guess it would cost more,
most kindys do have the 20hrs free ece and i think its around $2 per hour after that.

all kindys private or public teach the alphabet
BUT . . . .
all kindys have their own pholosophy (excuse my horrid spelling) i do know of 1 whos is "student lead teaching" which the teachers wont teach the kids the alphabet or much else, games etc unless it is first innitiated by the child which personally i think is rediculas. and my mum whos been a kindy teacher for 35yrs says is lazy teaching!

Public kindys are run by an orgainsation that looks after all the kindy's in the area such as the Auckland Kindergarten association or southland e.t.c

Public kindys ratio is 1:15 so a kindy with 45 children will have three teachers. Some public kindys do have more support with an extra float teacher or a teacher support plus parent helpers.

The philosphy for public kindys is free play, child led discovery and learning. The teachers focus on emergent ideas that come from the children and this becomes the theme or focus. With projects being common.Therefore using play as a basis for teaching. Yes numbers, colours, shapes e.t.c are incorporated into play and mat times but do check each individual kindy's some do this better than others!.


Private kindy's often have better child: adult ratios and some are more directly focused on the teaching of numbers, letters e.t.c

both have advantages and disadvantages
private costs a lot more per session.

If you want to know about individual kindys go to www.ero.govt.nz

this is the education review offices website all kindy's are reviewed every 3 years.

I know a little bit as i am a kindy teacher and have worked in both private and public


Best advice i can give is go to both spend time in each kindy sit down and observe how the teachers interact with the children.
Does it have a good feeling?
Are Children happy, do they play together and are the teachers insteresed in them?
Is there a routine, mat times?
Try to talk to parents in the car park about how what they like/ dislike.

Go with your gut feeling

Does anyone know where I can get a list of the private/community kindys? I have found the AKL Kindy Assoc website which lists our public kindys but I want to know the local private ones as well.

Thanks but we just moved to Swanson. Have managed to find the only kindy (private) that we have out here, there are a few others close by but they do day care primarily with some kindy sessions.

Yeah I am going to check out the one on O'Neills Rd on Wednesday and it is private. Farm Friends is still running but seems to be primarily a day care