About Us

Illustration of three yellow sunflowers with green leaves on a light background.
Three illustrated sunflowers on a light background.

Meet Our Team

  • Maree & Symon Claridge Co-Founders of Little Sunflowers

    Maree & Symon Claridge

    Co-Founders

  • Jemma Burn Manager

    Jemma Burn

    Manager

  • Kate Elliot-Tani Curriculum Leader

    Kate Elliot-Tani

    Curriculum Leader

  • Laura Williamson Teacher

    Laura Williamson

    Teacher

  • Cheryl Gunn Teacher

    Cheryl Gunn

    Teacher

  • Kaye Eden

    Kaye Eden

    Teacher

  • Holly Carnegie

    Holly Carnegie

    Teacher

  • Natalya Scott

    Natalya Scott

    Teacher

  • Teresa Turner

    Teresa Turner

    Teacher

Illustration of three yellow sunflowers with green leaves on a light background.
Illustration of three sunflowers with yellow petals and green leaves on cream background.

Our Vision and Mission Statement

Illustrations depicting respect, relationships, learning, exploration, belonging, and diversity with diverse characters and symbols like hearts and stars.

We strive to be a nurturing and inclusive community where every child feels a sense of belonging, learns through play, and flourishes to their full potential in an environment that values relationships, cultural diversity, and the uniqueness of each individual. 

Illustration of three yellow sunflowers with green leaves.

Our Philosophy

At Little Sunflowers our primary objective is to provide high quality care and education for our children.

We believe that each child is unique and must be treated with love and respect in order to develop and shine to their full potential.

We put a high value on trusting, responsive, reciprocal relationships with tamariki, whānau and kaiako. The development and nurturing of trusting relationships is at the heart of our philosophy. We want everyone at Little Sunflowers to have a strong sense of belonging/ turangawaewae.

Our home away from home environment is mixed age, which provides amazing tuakana teina opportunities. We have a play based curriculum which respects the importance of learning through play and reflects Te Whāriki, our guiding document. We believe in providing a natural and stimulating environment which offers children space and time to explore their interests in their own way and at their own pace.

We are a multi-cultural centre and we value all families as individuals. We respect their cultural beliefs, values and aspirations within our centre and embed all of New Zealand’s national languages.

Illustration of three yellow sunflowers with green stems and leaves on a beige background.