Location: Ara-Kotinga, Brookby

When: Thursdays (Kererū) & Fridays (Pīkao)

Age Group: 4 - 13 years old

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Our Brookby site offers an immersive learning experience led by Alex and Deirdre. It is suited for children aged between 4-13 years old and is set against an amazing forest block located on a 72-hectare dairy farm in Brookby.

Brookby is our main site and while most of our time is spent exploring the forest, we will also explore the farm occasionally – for example, calving season is a very cool time for the tamariki as they get to engage with the calves thanks to 'Farmer Sam'.

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We also have access to a shed where we spend many hours making crafts and testing out our carpentry skills. 

A typical day on the farm sees us going for a walk through the ngāhere (forest) and exploring the wonderful environment, climbing trees and the big supplejack vines, whittling and carving sticks, cooking kai (food) on the campfire, creating shelters, building things in the shed, developing tree huts, foraging, and many more fun activities.

Our programme predominantly consists of child-led learning with planned activities that are based around the children’s interests.

 

Many children lack social skills and the ability to solve problems simply due to the lack of ‘play’. Research shows that unstructured play not only provides many learning opportunities, but also reduces anxiety and supports children with sensory needs.

Drop-off time: 8:45 am – 9:00 am
Pick-up time: 2:30 pm – 2:45 pm