About Us
Quality Montessori childcare and education at Athenree, Waihi Beach. Close to Katikati and Waihi, and only 40 minutes from Tauranga, Athenree Montessori offers a top- quality learning environment with all qualified teachers hand-picked for their warmth and love of learning.
Athenree Montessori will create a purposeful learning environment, alongside qualified professional teachers, where the interests of the child can be followed and extended upon; This creates independent thinkers who are eager to explore and experiment, learning about ecology, conducting our lives responsibly and sustainably, mindful of our impact on other natural things.
Through the Montessori philosophy children will be taught about generosity of spirit, 'good people create good people'. As children learn to be a community, they are learning about respect for each other and the environment.
Sustainability
Athenree Montessori is committed to creating and sustaining an environment and practices that are ecologically responsible, encouraging respect for Papatuanuku through understanding and knowledge. We recognise the importance of caring for the environment. If children are immersed and involved from a very young age, they will develop a respectful disposition towards the world, helping to make it a better place to live.
What this looks like in practice:
The children are involved as much as possible in the centre’s procedures and practices of caring for the environment. The children are real leaders when it comes to recycling and making sure that the right things end up in the right place. This includes leftover food being fed to our worm farms, with any food the worms ‘don’t like’ going into the compost bin. We are preparing for the colder months by up-cycling our paper towels and paper waste into fire bricks. The children scrape their plates and cups in a bucket before loading the dishwasher. This uses much less water than using the tap to rinse. We have reusable face cloths which are lovely and soft for face washing. We are supportive of parents who wish to use cloth nappies. Our sustainable practices and policies are ever-growing and constantly evolving. We are always keen to have parent and whanau input.
We even have our very own chickens who love laying beautiful eggs for us to collect and use in baking.
