Coveted award for Kerikeri

A Far North kindergarten teacher is one of just five educators around the country to receive a coveted 2012 National Excellence in Teaching Award.

Cheryl Kingi, head teacher at Kerikeri Kindergarten, was taken by surprise when the NEiTA Foundation award, including a $2500 study grant, was presented on Thursday, a large number of friends, family members, fellow teachers, children and parents adding to that surprise.

Also there were Ms Kingi's 84-year-old mother Noelene Kingi, who travelled from Wellington, and Rodney, a near-lifesize fibreglass calf that normally resides on her deck.

Only five NEiTA excellence in teaching awards are made each year, with five more awarded for leadership. The winners, who can be teachers at early childhood centres, primary, intermediate or secondary schools, receive a "crystal apple" trophy and a $2500 professional development grant.

The grant has no strings attached, Ms Kingi saying she would use it to travel to Melbourne to observe and learn from a teacher she admired and who also used the Reggio Emilia method practised at Kerikeri Kindergarten.

She rarely had an opportunity to watch other teachers in action, she added.

The award citation stated that Ms Kingi ran a child-centred programme that consistently challenged and excited the children into making their own discoveries.

She invited local specialists, including a potter, kaumatua, recyclers, artists and musicians, to share their skills with the children, who recycled newspaper into briquettes and made their own instruments from recycled materials for an end-of-year concert.

Ms Kingi received a NEiTA regional award in May this year, which put her in the running for the national award. Rodney was a gift for her 60th birthday last year.