Claire Warden was invited to travel to The North Island of New Zealand to speak at a Childspace conference entitled 'Enthusiasm for Education'. The Keynote was entitled 'Finding your Motivational Button' and was met with great applause by the 300 people attending. By popular request Claire has been asked to return to New Zealand for the next big Childspace conference in 2008! The education system in New Zealand is well regarded and their document 'Te Whakiri' has been very influential in the creation of the Scottish Curriculum documents. Mindstretchers is truly working on a world level, and Claire is an envoy for good practice wherever she goes.

Delegates were invited to visit examples of good practice through site visits and both Claire and Niki Buchan from Mindstretchers found this a most rewarding experience. The Childspace centres are owned by Toni and Robin Christie and an outstanding feature of all their centres are the very sensorial range of both indoor and outdoor structures designed and built by Robin. Children in these centres are able to spend a large part of the day outdoors; even sleeping outside under cover! Babies and toddlers do not use baby-walkers, swings or high chairs but are mainly floor based until they are able to crawl or climb onto structures themselves. Children are exposed to a wide assortment of natural, open ended, sensorial and heuristic resources.

One of the photographs shows Claire in her element alongside a huge pile of driftwood found on a New Zealand beach, her only regret being that she could not load it all into her suitcase to bring back to Scotland. Other images were taken on the site visits and show an indoor rabbit hutch, an outdoor painting area for toddlers, a home corner with metal sink, one of the indoor exploration platforms and one of the large outdoor sand-play areas found in all their centres.