About HIPPY
Some of the storybooks used during the HIPPY programme
HIPPY is a two-year home-based parenting and early childhood enrichment programme that builds the confidence and skills of parents to create a positive learning environment through which to prepare their four and five year old child for school.
HIPPY understands the critical role parents play in their children’s education. The programme builds on the bond between parents and children while supporting parents as they provide their children with the necessary skills and confidence to begin school with a positive attitude toward learning.
HIPPY is specifically designed for parents who may not feel comfortable in their abilities to teach their children. Parents and children work together for fifteen minutes a day with storybooks, puzzles and learning games that help children to become successful learners.
Participation in the programme also offers some parents a supported pathway to further study, employment and local community leadership.
Currently there are 32 programme operating in low-income communities around the country, this includes six new sites that have opened their doors in 2012. The New Zealand Government has committed to the expansion of the HIPPY programme over the next four years, which will see the opening of a further 13 sites by 2015, to bring the total number of HIPPY programmes to 45 across New Zealand.
Please click on the links below for more information about HIPPY in New Zealand.
HIPPY LOCATIONS...
WHERE CAN YOU FIND US?
HIPPY RESULTS...
SEE HOW IT MEASURES UP
GETTING STARTED
ESTABLISHING A HIPPY PROGRAMME
HIPPY ADMINISTRATORS
DOCUMENTS AND TEMPLATES
HIPPY Newsletter
The latest HIPPY NZ newsletter is now available. Please click here to view it online.
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HIPPY Children
"There's just something about HIPPY children. They've got the foundations for learning. They've got a lot of skills. Sometime it is not always obvious or measurable but it shows in how they approach things.
And the programme follows what we do at school; they can do things like sequencing. It gives them a really good start. They know how to handle books, how to talk about books, how to talk about the characters in the story and they know how to predict. Their oral language may be the biggest area of development compared with non-HIPPY children. They have good observation skills; seeing likenesses and differences. They retain the skills they learn in HIPPY. They understand about 'number'.
What HIPPY does for the parents is awesome. They gain confidence and learn skills. Parenting skills are learnt as a consequence of the programme. They become aware of how kids learn and how to support them.
HIPPY children tend to be, long-term, more realistic about life. They have those thinking processes in place and appear more likely to resist peer pressure. They learn life skills. They might be shy but still 'know' They tend to be more cooperative. HIPPY helps children be realistic; to know how to think; to know how to solve problems; to be independent thinkers."
ROBYN BURGESS
TEACHER, FINLAYSON PARK SCHOOL, MANUREWA