Noah's Ark 2.24

Noah' Ark was founded by Felicity Champkins, with no expertise at the time, except a love of children in Underberg in 1992.

Unique among Pre-Schools, Noah's Ark subscribes to a Credo which expresses its philosophy and approach to the foundation years of a child's development and to which the Principal and teachers subscribe. Our teachers are always fully up to date with the latest developments in the increasingly specialized field of ECD.

The time when children learned solely by rote or through the blackboard has given way to process of self-discovery, of learning by experimentation and activity engaging all senses to accommodate all the learning styles.
We believe our children have enormous potential, that they can absorb much more than we would ever expect and it is our duty as teachers to explore these boundaries and maximize their development domains. It is this belief that drives our teachers to facilitate the process of their developmental domains from the age of two-and-a-half years through the Grade R level.

We believe that our children must learn respect for on another and, situated as we are in spacious grounds with the beautiful backdrop of the Drakensberg, this respect must extend also to the natural environment in which we are privileged to live.

Noah's Ark is a well-resourced school, enjoying the close support of our Children's Chance For Life and Generation Joy associates in Seattle, Washington who visit us annually as well as parents, the community and local churches. We have strong fundraising drives to maintain our resources. We reach out to the disadvantaged in our community, having established Pre-Primary and Nursery School in Himeville Low Cost (Jabulani) and Goxhill, giving support to several creches and nursery schools in Underberg Low Cost Township.

ASIFUNDE SONKE TRAINING
Since May 2013 Noah's Ark opened its doors to a group of aspirant ECD teachers to a Level 4 ECD Course accredited to SETA and SEQA. The training takes place on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the new Asifunde ECD Teachers's Training center. Felicity Champkins is their trainer, where she "seeks to produce committed teachers, who know how children develop and how to enable this development to take place in a stimulating, safe, learning environment. They will study the different stages of development and how to create age appropriate activities for children. They will learn how to record their progress and stages of development. They will learn the value of planning and resourcing and how to implement a daily programme."