Cuddles Early Learning Centre
Scope
Cuddles Early Learning aspires to maintain environments that help children to grow to their full potential. The Play’n’Learn design team was engaged to develop environments and furniture centred around Cuddles’ unique philosophy:
Philosophy
‘He Māpuna te Tamaiti’ – promoting emotional competence; promoting social competence; promoting a supportive environment; and supporting learning and engagement.
Design
In response to Cuddles’ He Māpuna te Tamaiti philosophy, we elected to focus the environment in to support holistic development. Rather than laying out the space to maximise learning opportunities and interactions, we incorporated more open spaces for large group play, as well as numerous ‘hideaway’ retreat furniture and areas. While these learning environments have less traditional ‘teaching space’ (such as small tables and chairs for individual activities), deliberate focus has been given to allowing enough variety within areas, to nurture and support all tamariki no matter their learning style and way of processing emotion.
