Auckland diocese Catholic Education Services and Te Kupenga Catholic Theological College are offering, for the first time, a course aimed at the professional and spiritual development of early childhood educators.
A group of 19 early childhood teachers have enrolled in Te Kupenga’s “New Zealand Christian Ministry in Religious Education” course, and were to begin their studies in the second semester. Their first paper is “Spirituality for Teachers RE 502”.
Auckland diocese Catholic Education Services (CES) review and development advisor Christine Smith said CES manager Philip Mahoney was instrumental in negotiating with Te Kupenga to get this to happen.
“Our schools (primary and secondary) are constantly studying in this manner. They especially use the holiday breaks to do block courses,” she said.
Auckland Catholic Pre-school Trust multi-site centre manager Suhad Lirato and another ECE teacher approached Catholic Education Services in Auckland, asking for tertiary studies that are more in line with their teaching experiences.
“We need to have more courses so we can grow as teachers and leaders in the Catholic education,” she said.
Before this, Mrs Lirato said she took the course that was for primary school teachers. However, she said that course was not applicable to them, because they are teaching children aged 0-5, not primary school pupils.
She said they have one-year-old children in their care doing the sign of the cross before they can speak properly.
“It’s amazing when you see these children telling their parents to pray before eating,” she said. “They are learning here and taking their learning home.”
The Auckland Catholic Pre-school Trust is a not-for-profit group of Catholic Early Childhood Education schools. Their pre-schools are Mar Addai Pre-school in Papatoetoe, St Peter Chanel Pre-School in Clover Park, Manukau, and St John the Evangelist Pre-school in Otara.
“People are happy to send their children to a Catholic pre-school centre which is exactly like a Catholic school. Our aim for the future is to be a feeding centre to the Catholic schools,” Mrs Lirato said.
Mrs Smith said Te Kupenga
lecturers Margaret Fitzpatrick, Brendan Bergin and Lyn Smith will be delivering the papers from St John the Evangelist School in Otara on Saturdays so that teachers can attend.
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