Category: Storypark

News and product updates from us here Storypark

Working in a community context

Amy Hutson, Supervisor, Salvation Army Early Childhood Education Centre shares her thoughts on the impact of Storypark. Our centre is a community based childcare centre with 28 children attending daily but a license for 50 children because of our parenting programme. We operate for the Salvation Army and so are a Christian centre with a purpose to provide high quality education to anyone...

/ April 7, 2015

Supporting young parents with Storypark

This blog post is written by Kelly Ann, Senior teacher at Te Whare Whai Hua in Gisborne, New Zealand. Our early learning centre is located on a local high school premises, and we were established alongside a Teen Parent Unit to care for their young pepi (babies) as they continue their educational journey at a secondary level. As time progressed...

/ February 12, 2015

Storypark in practice at an International Baccalaureate School

 An interview with Robert Hutton, Junior School Assistant Principal, Kristin School, Auckland, New Zealand.  Before Storypark, what were your previous methods of keeping parents up-to-date with their children’s daily activities and progress?  We used written portfolios, (brief) end-of-day conversations with parents, showing parents work samples, newsletters and parent-teacher interviews. What were the challenges and barriers you faced using these methods? If we’re able...

/ January 30, 2015

A many-hat-wearing Grandmother’s perspective on Storypark

This blog post focuses on Kath Cooper’s experience of Storypark as a Nani and is the second part of her two part series. Check out last week’s post to hear more about her perspectives as a Lecturer and Educator. Hi, I’m Kath Cooper. I wear a lot of hats –  I’m an educator, I am a lecturer at Early Childhood NZ...

/ January 25, 2015

The financial and practical impacts of Storypark

Hi I’m Natasha and I own and manage Small Poppies. We are an early learning service based in Ruakaka in Northland, New Zealand, with 6 teachers and 50 children. We adopted Storypark in January 2014 and the results have been significant for our business both in terms of impact and for our bottom line. Using the centre’s existing technology and purchasing a few additional...

/ December 11, 2014

NZ government recommendations support the use of Storypark

Wellington Kindergarten teacher Sonya McIntyre and Peter Dixon (Storypark’s CEO) made a submission as part of a NZ Parliamentary Inquiry into engaging parents in the education of their children. This blog post is an extract from the recently released report following the conclusion of the Inquiry. We were very pleased that our submission was recognised and supported within the Inquiry. A crucial part of parental...

/ December 8, 2014

Introducing Learning Trends!

Educators are phenomenal people. They’re scientists, musicians, paramedics, counsellors, negotiators, leaders and strategists, all at any one given moment. Based on your guidance and the guidance of our partners and expert advisors, Storypark is excited to release our latest development, Learning Trends. Having this information at your fingertips will empower you to provide even greater support for children’s learning within your...

/ November 23, 2014

Supporting families in Melbourne

This story has been written by Michelle Pagel, an educator at Vista Way Kindergarten in Melbourne, Australia. It offers a practitioners perspective of the impact Storypark has had for families in a low socio-economic area. Our kindergarten educates and cares for a diverse range of children and families. Our community is quite complex, with many kinds of diversity and disadvantage....

/ November 10, 2014

Criteria, standards, planning and technology

Courtney Caligiore is a senior teacher who is part of a large early learning centre in Melbourne. In this blog post she describes their centre’s journey in delivering quality education and documenting their work within Australia’s National Quality Framework. I am the educational leader in a large LDC centre in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. We support highly professional families, situated...

/ October 13, 2014

Open-door learning in Japan

Writing from Japan, Storypark’s partners talk about local education and how the innovative practices of Tokyo Community School are supporting their educators and children. The Tokyo Community School is an internationally-minded Elementary School with a “doors-wide-open” policy that encourages people to visit and observe the school freely, and for students to get outdoors to experience learning first-hand. Students explore the...

/ October 6, 2014