Our Programme
Is Your Child Struggling in Traditional Schooling?
"An outdoor explorative focus backed with educational knowledge and expertise"
Quote from a parent
Maybe your child is not quite thriving in the classroom...
Our programme will have a positive impact on your child’s resilience,
confidence and well-being.
Resilience is the ability of an individual to adapt to change and stressful
situations successfully, in a healthy and constructive manner.
'One Day Each Week' Programme
Our 'one day each week' programme is for primary and intermediate aged children, aimed at maximising your child's social, emotional and developmental potential.
Your child will learn to manage risks, to have more independence in guiding their own learning, to be active, and to play and learn through direct experience within nature.
Playing in nature contributes to healthy children, mind and body...
Our aim is to address the many sensory issues we are seeing in primary and intermediate aged children.
Into Nature School's activities and tasks are designed to inspire children to explore, discover and play in new and creative ways.
They also have therapeutic benefits that can last a lifetime.
"My son has gained a sense of himself and a wairua aligned to nature".
Quote from a parent
Physical and Mental Health Benefits
Playing and learning outdoors (all day, in all types of weather) will impact positively on your child's confidence to take managed risks, giving them a heightened level of self belief, a positive attitude, and greater independence with increased initiative taking. Playing and learning in the outdoors will also positively impact on your child’s physical and mental health in addition to improving their social and cognitive competence.
Free Movement
Our Kahikatea forest provides your child with adequate space for moving around freely. Free movement in children is the most natural and crucial method used by children to learn. Free movement also contributes positively to the development of critical physical attributes such as stamina, agility, coordination and muscle strength. Free movement in children enables them to develop better control of their bodies, especially in relation to the development of more refined motor control. This skill is required to handle delicate movements such as manipulating a pencil while writing, staying calm and being attentive for longer periods.
Problem Solvers & Risk Takers
Through play and self directed learning in nature, your child will become more knowledgeable about the natural environment, learn team building skills, will co-operate with the other students, and they will also become more empowered to use their own initiative to solve individual challenges.
Authentic Learning Through Play
We focus on the key competencies from the New Zealand curriculum, with a little twist to make them meaningful to our unique environment. We strive to encompass all curriculum areas, as any given session, activity or experience will involve science, maths, physical education, oral language, reading, and art. All learning is deep and engaging, and most importantly meaningful - authentic.
Into Nature School Curriculum
Below are our principles and strands that guide and develop our students into life long learners - strong, capable, resilient, thoughtful and respectful individuals.
The New Zealand trees and their flowers/seeds represent the learning strands at Into Nature School.
The learning strands appear in reinforcement work that children add to their ongoing record of learning and also in their individual learning portfolios.
Tap on the images below to enlarge.
Important Infomation
'One Day a Week' Schooling - Principals, Schools and the Ministry of Education. We are not required to register through the Ministry of Education as we are not a traditional primary school. We are a small business offering an educational programme for children (there are similar programmes like ours operating in Auckland, New Zealand). The New Zealand Education Act section 25B Release from school states:' The principal of a State school may, if satisfied that a student will receive outside the school tuition acceptable to the principal, release the student from attendance at the school, for a period or periods agreed with a parent of that student, to receive the tuition.'We do not have anything for the school and parents to sign, as this is a negotiation solely between parents and the school. We do suggest you use a letter we have that will inform your principal of who we are, what we believe in and what the benefits are to your child learning at Into Nature School. Our goal is to work in partnership with your child's school, and for your child's school to see us as a complementary programme that benefits their students' progress and learning.
There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather...
There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. Into Nature School will operate in all weather. With the changing of the seasons it is important to adjust the type and quantity of your child's clothing. A child that is consistently warm and dry throughout the day will be much happier and more likely to fully enjoy the benefits of learning in the outdoors, than a child that consistently comes unprepared for the day’s weather and is often cold and wet. Each child will have their own individual level of tolerance for wet/dry and cold/warm conditions and depending on their interests, and they may naturally engage in activities that challenge the limits of their clothing constantly (eg love interacting with water or mud) requiring multiple changes a day and there will be others that prefer to engage in less clothing-challenged activities where their clothing keeps them comfortable and dry throughout the day with no changes.
