Regional associations
the kindergarten community
Wellington / Wairarapa
Dannevirke
He Whānau Manaaki - Wellington (Mana, Paremata, Tawa, Horowhenua), Rimutaka (Upper Hutt, Carterton, Greytown, Masterton/Wairarapa)
He Whānau Manaaki o Tararua Free Kindergarten Association
Wellington Region Free Kindergarten Association
Early history snippets:
In Wellington the free kindergartens began as the personal educational and charitable endeavour of Mary Richmond (1853–1949). Richmond’s family was heavily involved in political, educational, and charitable works in New Zealand. After study at the Froebel Institute, London, she established a private school in Wellington that ran along kindergarten lines from 1898 until 1912. Richmond remained teaching at her school until 1910; throughout these years Richmond kept abreast of international kindergarten issues, travelling to the United States, Europe, and Britain where in 1907 she again visited the Froebel Institute. In 1905 Richmond embarked on the scheme to provide free kindergartens in the city. This became the Richmond Free Kindergarten Union changing its name in 1917 to the Wellington Free Kindergarten Association (WFKA).
Edited from: May, Helen (2013, 2nd ed.) Discovery of Early Childhood, NZCER Press, Wellington, pp. 183-184
See also:
- Bethell, Kerry (2008) ‘Not [just] for a name that we plead’: Fashioning the ideological origins of early kindergarten in Dunedin and Wellington, New Zealand, 1870-1913, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Victoria University of Wellington.
- Bethell, Kerry (2001) “The Will to Serve and the Wit to Know the Way’: The Work of Miss Mary Richmond in the Establishment of Kindergarten in Wellington, 1890 – 1913.” Early education, Winter, pp. 31-38.
- Bethell, Kerry (2006) ‘To bring into play: Miss Richmond’s utilization of kindred networks in the diffusion of kindergarten ideals into practice, History of Education, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 225-224.
The early archives of the WFKA are held in the Alexander Turnbull Library Wellington as part of the National Library of New Zealand. There are both the official records of the WFKA along with several personal collections and photographs from a range of sources. Some of these are digitised.
The Wellington Region Free Kindergarten Association was formed in 1984 following the amalgamation of the Wellington, Mana, Kapiti and Horowhenua Kindergarten Associations. Archives from individual kindergartens and previous associations are held offsite from the Porirua office of He Whānau Manaaki o Tararua Free Kindergarten Association.
Visit the Wellington Region Free Kindergarten Association website here.
He Whānau Manaaki o Tararua Free Kindergarten Association
In 2014 the Rimutaka and Wellington Region Free Kindergarten Associations come together today as one organisation called He Whānau Manaaki o Tararua Free Kindergarten Association. He Whānau Manaaki, meaning ‘a caring family’, encompasses 85 kindergartens in the Wellington region, from Seatoun north to Levin and Masterton. Over 5,600 children and families participate in kindergartens operated by the new association. Read the full media release here or here.
Visit the He Whānau Manaaki o Tararua Free Kindergarten Association website here.
Documents and photos
1965 WFKA training (pdf 641KB)
Abbreviated Pictorial History of Wellington Kindergartens 2014 (pdf 21.3MB)
An Early Wellington Kindergarten as described to Geraldine McDonald by Ted Scott (1975) NZCER (pdf 3.1MB)
Bellvue Kindergarten WFKA 100 years (pdf 751KB)
Berhampore Kindergarten Conservation Plan 2015 (pdf 3.2MB)
Berhampore Kindergarten - 100 year celebration photo 2017 (jpg 5.4MB)
Berhampore Kindergarten - 100 year celebration photo 2017 (jpg 5.4MB)
Berhampore Kindergarten - 100 year celebration photo 2017 (jpg 5.6MB)
Berhampore Kindergarten - 100 year celebration photo 2017(jpg 5.6MB)
Berhampore's moment in time June 2012, stuff.co.nz (pdf 93KB)
Berhampore Kindergarten letter from Buckingham Palace 1983 (jpg 1.7MB)
Berhampore Kindergarten Mother’s Club Life Member Mrs G Kuch (pdf 1.7MB)
Berhampore Kindergarten - Loma Jones (jpg 2.3MB)
Berhampore Kindergarten - Hyman family 1944-49 (pdf 10.2MB)
Berhampore Kindergarten - Jocelyn Beach (Kung) c 1943 (pdf 3.1MB)
Berhampore Kindergarten - 21st Jubilee photo , 1938 (pdf 853KB)
Berhampore Kindergarten - 21st Jubilee 29 March 1938, Evening Post (pdf 1.7MB)
Berhampore Kindergarten - V. Davison and J.L. Dighton documents 1934-38 (pdf 4.3MB)
Discovery Kindergarten WFKA 100 years (pdf 4.1MB)
Evening Post Collection 1956-59 (pdf 553KB)
Life members WFKA (pdf 457KB)
Lost history at Wadestown Kindergarten 26 January 2016, The Wellingtonian (pdf 777KB)
Male teachers 2003 WRFKA (pdf 1.3MB)
Mrs Rose, teacher at Northland Kindergarten Trick and Treat 1978 (jpg 49KB)
National Publicity Studio photos (pdf 2MB)
Newtown Kindergarten 1958 Evening Post (pdf 262KB)
Newtown Kindergarten Jubilee 1940-1994 (Part 1) (pdf 3.7MB)
Newtown Kindergarten Jubilee 1940-1994 (Part 2) (pdf 3.6MB)
Newtown Kindergarten Jubilee 1940-1994 (Part 3) (pdf 3.3MB)
Newtown Kindergarten 1968 (pdf 2.6MB)
Ngaio Kindergarten Jubilee 1949 (pdf 2.5MB)
Ngaio Kindergarten 1973 (pdf 3.2MB)
Onslow Kindergarten WFKA 100 years (pdf 4.1MB)
Owen Street Kindergarten 1936 (pdf 262KB)
Petone Kindergarten album 1949, WRFKA (pdf 3.1MB)
Petone Kindergarten opening 1928, WRFKA (jpg 135KB)
Petone Kindergarten 50th Jubilee 1977 (pdf 13MB)
Taranaki Street Kindergarten c 1917 (pdf 94KB)
Taranaki Street Kindergarten above shop c 1915 G. McDonald papers (pdf 2.1MB)
Tararanaki Street Kindergarten Sandpit c 1940s (pdf 457KB)
Timeline WRFKA 2012 (pdf 10.6MB)
Toru Fetu Kindergarten poster c 2010, WRFKA (pdf 2.1MB)
Unnamed Wellington Kindergarten c 1970s WRFKA (pdf 2MB)
Wellington Kindergarten Association 100 years (pdf 4.1MB)
Wellington South Kindergarten 60th Jubilee (pdf 3MB)
Wellington Teachers 1945-49, WRFKA (pdf 1.3MB)
WFKA and Fundraising 1931-45 Evening Post (pdf 2.1MB)
WFKA Beauty and the Beast 1954 (pdf 1.2MB)
WFKA 'Come let us live with our children' (pdf 13.8MB)
WFKA Graduates Association newsletter 1990, '100 years of kindergarten' (pdf 2.5MB)
WFKA Historic Books 2019 Helen May (doc 398KB)
WRFKA Miriam Baucke Collection c1940s (pdf 3MB)
WRFKA Picnic at the beach 1913 (pdf 1.4MB)
WFKA United Mothers' Club Silver Jubilee 1965 (pdf 1.7MB)
WFKA (very early) (pdf 1.6MB)
WKA 100 years (pdf 9.1MB)
Wellington Free Kindergarten - An Admirable Institution - photo 1918 (pdf 3.1MB)
He Whānau Manaaki o Tararua Free Kindergarten Association Archive History Project
Depositories of various archives and materials for the Wellington regional kindergartens
Whānau Manaaki o Tararua: Free Kindergarten Association
The Association holds off-site records mainly from the 1980s including older items gifted to the Association and records from kindergarten associations that have joined Whānau Manaaki. These records are the focus of an Archive Project underway in late 2019 to catalogue existing records and retrieve and catalogue many older records held by kindergartens. The project will consider the long term storage of these records, access and the possible location of some of these records into library/museum collections.
Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library, Wellington
The largest collection of records for the Wellington Free Kindergarten Association (WFKA) is held in the Alexander Turnbull Library collections. Itemised below are the main collections but there are other items. Enter ‘Wellington kindergarten’ in the ‘Tiaki’ search engine to access other records and photographs.
- Wellington Regional Free Kindergarten Association Records 1905-1980 MS-Group-0052, Catalogue 9094
48 volumes, 35 folders. The main part of the collection comprises minutes, financial records, scrapbooks, photographs and printed material of the Association. The remainder of the collection consists of various (and incomplete) minutes, admission registers and other records from the Taranaki Street Free Kindergarten, Newtown Free Kindergarten, Brooklyn Free Kindergarten and Wellington South Free Kindergarten.
Photographic Archive - Photograph albums and loose photographs 1919-1960
PAColl-0981
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.79632
Drawings & Prints Collection - Three brass plates were transferred to the Curios Collection (1987). They include the name-plate for the Wellington Free Kindergarten). - Wellington Free Graduates Association: Records 1950-1993
MS-Papers-4247
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.43540 3 folders
Photograph collection 1930-1989 PAColl-3311 - Joyce Barns: Papers relating to early childhood education in Wellington
MS-Group-1700
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.512212 5 folders, 2 volumes
Kindergarten teacher who became the Principal of the Wellington Kindergarten College. `My primary class book', containing examples of children's drawings and prose with photographs of class members, Taranaki Street 1921-1922; programmes of work and activities for her kindergarten classes, 1939, 1943-1945; papers relating to Wellington Free Kindergarten Association and their United Mothers' Club and notes on qualification and training required to become a kindergarten teacher.
One folder of photographs
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#search&unit-id=PA-Group-00386
[An oil painting of Joyce Barns is held by the Institute of Early Childhood Studes, Victoria University Wellington] - Audrey Urlich: Papers relating to kindergarten training 1953-1954
5 volumes
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.522275
Audrey Urlich trained as a kindergarten teacher in the early 1950s. Gwen Somerset was the kindergarten lecturer during this period and produced some of the lecture note guidelines in this collection. - Richmond Family papers. Mary Richmond 1857-1950
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.15726
In 1898 Mary Richmond opened a private school in Wellington that catered for children from kindergarten to preparatory level. She later established the Wellington Free Kindergarten Association, initially called the Richmond Free Kindergarten Union. Enter ‘Mary Elizabeth Richmond’ in ‘search’ to source a wide range of kindergarten material.
Richmond Free Kindergarten Union
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ethesaurus.94026 - Interview with Elspeth Munro in 1998
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.555521
Tape numbers OHC-018711 OHC-018713
Interview with Elspeth Munro (nee Fleming), born in Nelson in 1916. She talks about her family background and schooling. Discusses training as a kindergarten teacher and then teaching in Taranaki Street where she got to know local Chinese people.
- Interview with Valerie Newton-Howes (1917-2003) 1991
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.148522
Tape number: OHC-004280-004284
Recalls kindergartens and life as a kindergarten teacher in the 1930s in Auckland and Wellington. Talks about experiences and work as a VAD worker during World War II. Recalls return in 1945 to New Zealand, and return to Kindergarten teaching at various kindergartens in Wellington.
- Kindergarten Teachers Association (KTA) records 1953-1987
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.16999
MS-Group-0238
This is a national collection but includes material about Wellington activities.
- Combined Early Childhood Union of Aotearoa (CECUA) records 1990-1994
https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.114389
This is a national collection but includes material from Wellington kindergarten activities.
Ref 96-169
Papers Past
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz
A search for ‘Wellington kindergarten’ in Paper’s Past will give many news items and reports items associated with WFKA and kindergartens in the Wellington region from the Evening Post and Dominion up until around 1950. This includes photographs in newspapers.
Archives New Zealand
- National Publicity Studios black and white prints
https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewEntity.do?code=6539
There is a selection of kindergarten photos from around Wellington in the 1960s. Some are digitized and the full collection can be viewed at the Wellington archives.
- Using ‘Wellington kindergarten’ in the ‘Archway’ search engine there are over 100 file records mainly from the Wellington Education Board and the Department of Education (deposited by the Ministry of Education) prior to 1989. Using ‘Wellington Free Kindergarten Association’ there are 14 file records.
https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/BriefDescItemSearch.do
Kindergarten Heritage Collection of New Zealand.
NZ Kindergarten Inc History website
Digital collection of material from the Wellington - Wairarapa region, including some from individual kindergartens.
http://kindergartenhistory.org.nz/new-zealand/regional-associations/wellington-wairarapa/
Wellington City Archives
3 Digital records
96 records mainly concerning property and consents
Upper Hutt Library
There are 468 digital items in the Heritage collections for the Upper Hutt Kindergartens
https://uhcl.recollect.co.nz/nodes/index
Enid Wilson papers 1945-1969
https://uhcl.recollect.co.nz/nodes/index/q:BJQWB/faceadd:4e5449443a3a3135
Museum of NZ - Te Papa Tongarewa
Eight sets of Froebel Blocks originally from WFKA. GH0040 [84, 85 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91]
https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/object/68157
NZEI Te RIU Roa
A digital collection of campaigns that included the Kindergarten Teachers Association (KTA) and the Combined Early Childhood Union of Aotearoa (CECUA). Quite a lot of the images are Wellington based although not necessarily association with only Wellington kindergarten teachers.
http://heritage.nzei.org.nz
Publications with significant cointent on the history of wellington free kindergarten association
Bethell, Kerry (2001) ‘The Will to Serve and the Wit to Know the Way’: The work of Miss Mary Richmond in the establishment of kindergarten in Wellington, 1890 - 1913, Early Education, Winter, pp. 31-38.
Bethell, Kerry (2006) To bring into play: Miss Richmond’s utilization of kindred networks in the diffusion of kindergarten ideals into practice, History of Education, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 225-224
Bethell, Kerry (2008) ‘Not [just] for a name that we plead’: Fashioning the ideological origins of early kindergarten in Dunedin and Wellington, New Zealand, 1870 - 1913, unpublished Ph.d thesis, Victoria University of Wellington
Sewell, A., & K Bethell, (2009) ‘Building interests: A 1940s story of curriculum innovation and contemporary connections’. New Zealand Journal of Teachers’ Work , vol.6, no. 2 pp. 93-110.
Bethell, Kerry (2010) ‘To venture with purpose: A colonial and transnational story of Miss Mary Richmond’s 1907 travels abroad, (eds.) K. Neumann, U. Sauerbrey, & M. Winkler, Frobelpadagogik im Kontext der Moderne. Bildung Erziehung und soziales Handeln, (pp. 113-127), IKS Garamond, Edition Paideia, Jena
Bethell, K. & Sewell, A. (2010) Researching an everyday teacher in 1940s New Zealand: New Liaisons – New Stories, International Research Journal in Early Childhood Education, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 10-28
Bethell, Kerry (2014) Five and six year olds at kindergarten: Miss Morris’ experimental primary class, Wellington Free Kindergarten Association 1921-1927, NZ Journal of Teachers Work, vol. 11, no.1, pp. 30-48
Bethell, Kerry (2016) Froebelian Teachers Abroad: Implementing a modern infant education system in colonial Wellington, New Zealand, 1906 - 1925, (Eds.) H. May, K. Nawrotzki and L. Prochner, (pp. 51-66) Kindergarten narratives on Froebelian education: Transnational investigations, Bloomsbury, London
Bethell, Kerry, (2018) ‘[T]hen along comes Mr Carnegie’: Carnegie travel fellowships and the professional development of kindergarteners in 1930s New Zealand, Early Years: An International Research Journal, pp. vol.38, no.2, pp. 171-184
Bethell, Kerry (2018) Miss Nettie Birkenhead Riley ‘one who understood’ [Written for the Lower Hutt Kindergarten Association of the of their 90th birthday celebrations] Lower Hutt Kindergarten Association
Bethell, Kerry (2019) ‘Reminiscences of kindergarten teaching’ (Eds.) S. Middleton & H. May, (pp. 56-68) For women and Children: A Tribute to Geraldine McDonald, NZCER Press, Wellington
Bly, Gillian (1968) E tipu e rea o nga ra otou ao (field trip report of Wellington Kindergarten Teachers College to study preschool education in Maori communities on the east coast, Wellington Kindergarten College.
Hughes, Beryl (1991) Mary Richmond, (eds.) C. Macdonald, M. Penfold, & B. Williams, The book of New Zealand women—Ko kui ma te kaupapa (pp. 565-567) Bridget Williams Books, Wellington https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3r19/richmond-mary-elizabeth
Hughes, Beryl ‘England, Maud Russell 1863 - 1956' https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4e11/england-maud-russell
McDonald, Geraldine (1975) An early Wellington kindergarten, as described by Ted Scott, NZCER, Wellington
May, Helen (2013 2nd ed.) The Discovery of Early Childhood, NZCER Press, Wellington
May, H. & Bethell, K (2017) Growing a kindergarten movement: its peoples, purposes and politics, NZCER Press, Wellington
Wellington Free Kindergarten Association (ed.) (1939) Let us live with our children, Wellington
Rimutaka Kindergarten Association
Story of an amalgamation Upper Hutt and Wairarapa 2005 (pdf 600KB)
Masterton Kindergarten Association
Masterton history (pdf 912KB)
Upper Hutt Kindergarten Association
Amalgamation proposal (pdf 58KB)
Doris Nicholson Kindergarten 1974 (pdf 2.6MB)
Heretaunga Kindergarten 1975 (pdf 6.2MB)
Irmgard Ritche Kindergarten Upper Hutt 1968 - photos (pdf 3MB)
Silverstream Kindergarten - photos 1965 (pdf 680KB)
Upper Hutt Amalgamation proposal (pdf 977KB)
Upper Hutt Archives (pdf 600KB)
Upper Hutt Constitution (pdf 301KB)
Upper Hutt constitution and by laws (pdf 1.6MB)
Upper Hutt Library kindergarten collection 1940s-60's (pdf 425KB)
Upper Hutt Library - Upper Hutt Kindergarten Association Exhibition April 2016 (pdf 2.6MB)
Upper Hutt Library - Upper Hutt Kindergarten Association Exhibition April 2016 - detailed 1(pdf 2.6MB)
Upper Hutt Library - Upper Hutt Kindergarten Association Exhibition April 2016 - detailed 2 (pdf 2.6MB)
Upper Hutt Library - Upper Hutt Kindergarten Association Exhibition April 2016 - detailed 3 (pdf 2.1 MB)
Upper Hutt memories of history (pdf 343KB)
Hutt City Kindergarten Association
Miss N B Riley - founder of Hutt City Kindergarten Association
Vibrant Hutt Editorial - Pioneering Moera Kindergarten turns 90 this year May 2018 (pdf 968KB)
HCK vintage fair poster 3 November 2018 (jpg 553KB)
