Gratitude, Reconnection, and Resilience

Proud Award Winner – Kidsfirst Sumner

There are so many things to be proud of across the Kidsfirst network every day, but some events are so symbolic, they make everybody’s heart swell.

After the long 2020 lockdown ended, the Kidsfirst Sumner team were looking for a positive way to reconnect with tamariki, whānau, and the wider community, and recognise the resilience that had emerged over those past few difficult weeks.

They came up with the idea of hosting a Teddy Bears’ Picnic, recognising the role that soft toys played in providing stability and support for tamariki over lockdown.

Sumner teacher, Nicola Gardiner, says the inspiration for the picnic originated from seeing how much tamariki loved the nationwide teddy bear hunt which kept young New Zealanders occupied during a challenging, and sometimes scary time.

“The teddies developed positive connections with those in their local community and helped to brighten people's spirits.”

“During this time, we weren’t at kindergarten, but as a teaching team we stayed in touch with our whānau regularly, and many families shared images of the teddy bears in their windows at home. Tamariki got a lot of joy, reassurance, and positivity from walking around and seeing all the teddy bears in the windows.”

“They were a large part of children’s lives, and helped keep everyone motivated and supported during the lockdown.”

Kaiako thought the picnic would be the perfect opportunity to celebrate everyone being back together again, and getting back into the kindergarten routine.

“We expected that the picnic would be positive, and would help to resettle tamariki after being away from kindergarten for so long – we didn’t expect it to evolve to the scale it did, but everyone in the community found it so meaningful and it grew.”

“The celebration brought us all together, and there was a great sense of kotahitanga (unity of purpose), with extended whānau and the wider community, too. It was a relief to be able physically be there together after such a long time communicating over distance. We got great feedback that whānau felt welcomed, reassured and experienced support for their wellbeing upon their return to kindy.”

Nicola says there was also a large focus on appreciation – not only for the bears – but for one another, too.

“Everyone brought their special toy to kindy and celebrated being back together. We got to express our manaakitanga to the soft toys and it was great to be back together dancing, looking at the stars and embracing Matariki alongside our bears. Tamariki wore their PJs, brought their special soft toy or teddy, a torch, and a picnic tea, along with their whānau.”

Nicola says there were so many things that made the day special.

“We are so proud - our tamariki showed joy and resilience as they settled so easily back into their kindergarten and exceeded our expectations. Our whānau stayed passionate, enthusiastic and supportive of the Kidsfirst community in learning both at home, and kindergarten. The community showed resilience in their effort to stay connected, and so did the teaching team, through their incredibly hard mahi and all the time that went into building and maintaining relationships, regardless of uncertainty.”

The idea was such a hit, and June 25th was declared Teddy Bears’ Picnic Day across the whole Kidsfirst network.

Our thanks to BDO for their generous support of this year’s Proud award.

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