Wilton Playcentre: A journey of discovery: The beginning

The New Zealand Council for Educational Research is acting as Research Associate for Wilton Playcentre, a designated early childhood Centre of Innovation.

Wilton Playcentre is a parent co-operative, where parents / whānau are trained to be educators of their children and take responsibility for the management and running of the playcentre. The playcentre model itself is treated as the "innovation".

This is the first research report for Wilton Playcentre, which is carrying out action research over a 3-year period to investigate the following areas:

• parent engagement and processes for sustaining a community of learners

• the role of documentation in maintaining continuity and quality across playcentre sessions and between playcentre and home

• pedagogical approaches (including schemas and learning stories) and children’s journey in the playcentre journey through the course of the Centre of Innovation project.