MangawhaiVillage Preschool

Gallery

The building, the garden, and what happens in between.

Nothing here was set up for a photographer. This is an ordinary week at the centre: outside for most of the day, in most weather, and most of them without shoes. Tap any photo to see it larger.

The covered art area with its doors folded open, paint bottles lined up on open shelves, a teacher and three children reaching up.
Paint within reach, and the doors open all day
A child in gumboots climbing through the black rope net strung under the timber fort.
Finding their own way up the net
A teacher sitting on the floor of the under twos room with two babies, wooden cars and a bead frame around them.
The under twos room, down at floor level where it matters
A child digging a hole in the sandpit with a yellow spade beside a tree and the timber fence.
Digging away, most of the morning
A child pouring water from a container into a metal bowl at the outdoor mud kitchen bench, sand and baking tins alongside.
The mud kitchen, where the best cooking happens
A wall of open shelving filled with wooden blocks, ramps and arches at child height, with a child crouched on the floor building beside it.
Blocks within reach, so they can find what they need
A raised timber fort with a thatched roof, a slide, climbing logs and a balance beam over bark chip and grass, with flax planting in the foreground.
The fort, where a good deal of the friendship-making happens
Five balance bikes parked in a row against the timber fence with a yellow and blue ball on the path.
The bikes, waiting for the morning
A teacher and two children at a table set with a teapot and cups, all waving at the camera.
Morning tea, with the good teapot
A child coming down the slide with both arms flung out, laughing.
The slide, over and over, all afternoon
Looking down from a pōhutukawa-covered headland over a long white surf beach and clear blue water on the Northland coast.
The coast, ten minutes up the road
The preschool seen from Molesworth Drive: a low dark timber building behind its sign showing the Mangawhai Village Preschool logo, with a nikau palm beside it.
Look for the sign and the nikau
Old pōhutukawa leaning out low over white sand at the top of a beach, with turquoise water beyond.
Pōhutukawa at the top of the beach

Walk-through

Two minutes inside the centre

Filmed on an ordinary week, not a set-up day.

Better in person, honestly.

Photographs can't do the noise, and the noise is the best part.

Book a tour Or read the blog