Waterloo Playcentre

Playcentre was instrumental in introducing the concept of education through play and through child-initiated activities to the early childhood setting in New Zealand. This philosophy has since been adopted throughout all New Zealand through the curriculum for early childhood education, Te Whāriki. The organisation believes that parents are the first and best educators of their children and children learn best when they initiate their learning through play (child-initiated play). Within the centres children and adults learn alongside each other, in agreement with the socio-cultural model of learning which posits that a child learns best when surrounded by trusted members of his or her community. Each Playcentre is a cooperative. Parents decide how their centre will run and are responsible for the education of their children. Parents also make decisions giving direction to how their association (regional body) and the NZPF (national body) will run