Our Teachers
Teachers as Co-Learners
Our teachers bring together a rich diversity of academic training and lived experience. Their backgrounds span Early Childhood Care and Education, Montessori education, Anthropology, History, Theology, Language, and the Arts, complemented by practical expertise and personal passions in farming, gardening, pottery, crafts, visual arts, music, and indigenous knowledge traditions. This breadth of knowledge enables children to encounter learning through many different ways of knowing, making, observing, and expressing.
United by a shared commitment to alternative education, our teachers are proficient in both English and vernacular languages, embracing a translanguaging approach that allows children to think, communicate, and learn across languages with confidence and ease.
Teaching at Badze Leshüki is a continual process of mutual learning. Inspired by Paulo Freire's understanding that teachers and learners educate one another through dialogue, our classrooms become spaces where knowledge flows between children, educators, families, elders, and the wider community. Every interaction is an opportunity to learn, question, create, and grow together.
This culture of learning extends to our educators themselves. Throughout the year, teachers participate in sustained professional development, collaborative reflection, and mentoring to deepen their practice and remain responsive to new insights in early childhood education. Grounded in our philosophy, they are committed to nurturing each child's individuality while cultivating curiosity, community, compassion, confidence, critical thinking, and care.
Documentation & Assessment
We document children’s conversations, theories, creations, questions, and processes through photographs, observations, portfolios, reflections, and documentation panels.
Each child creates and decorates their own ‘Box of Pride’ into which they place works they are proud of and see fit for appraisal. By giving them a say in their assessment, we foster a sense of ownership and accountability in their work, allowing them to focus on process and not product as the defining feature of performance.
Learn Within a Living Pedagogy
We offer internships, immersions, workshops, and observational learning opportunities for educators, researchers, artists, students, and alternative education practitioners. Areas of engagement include indigenous pedagogy, emergent curriculum, ecological literacy, documentation practices, risky play, place-based learning, and early childhood care and education.
Internship & Immersion Programmes
Community & Intergenerational Learning
Education as Collective Work
We believe in the strength of community and intergenerational learning. Parents, grandparents, and local elders, so also, artists, farmers, storytellers, and local knowledge keepers are invited to share their stories, skills, and traditions. Together, we create a symbiotic network that celebrates diversity and cultural richness to ensure the continued development and vibrance of our indigenous traditions.
Programmes & Timings
Daily Rhythm
The daily rhythm of the school balances movement, exploration, reflection, nourishment, creativity, rest, and collaborative work.
Summer Hours
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Winter Hours
9:00 AM – 3:30 PM
Extended Programmes
After-school and weekend programmes provide additional opportunities for ecological learning, creative exploration, enrichment, and community engagement.
Admissions
We welcome families who resonate with our philosophy of education, where indigenous knowledge, Christian ecology, and child-centred learning come together to nurture children who are rooted, compassionate, and competent to face and respond to future global needs and challenges.
We are currently open to accepting children ages 2–7 into Playgroup, Nursery, LKG, UKG, Class 1, and Class 2 programmes.
Admissions involve campus visits and conversations with families to ensure alignment in philosophy, expectations, and community values.