Childcare options in Alexandra

BestStart Alexandra, an education and childcare centre in Alexandra, provides a programme and environment where children grow and learn in an unhurried, respectful way. Teachers provide encouragement, warmth and acceptance of each child’s special skills, talents and interests.

He taonga te mokopuna, kia whangaia, kia tipu, kia rea

A child is a treasure, to be nurtured, to grow, to flourish

BestStart Alexandra is the first centre in the Central Otago region to receive a 4 year ERO return. ERO has rated us in the top 7% of New Zealand childcare centres providing positive learning outcomes for children.

Relationships are at the very heart of our centre. Every child and family is welcomed, respected and valued. This creates a connection and sense of empowerment that means families, children and teachers all work together for the very best outcome for each individual child.

We offer education and care for children aged 3 months to 5 years old. At BestStart Alexandra we have three groups of children; Koru (under 2's), Matau (2-3 year olds) and Pikorua (3-5 year olds).

The Koru group have their own separate indoor and outdoor space. The Koru teachers follow the Rie/Pikler inspired approach of respect, trust and allowing children to develop at their own pace.

The Matau and Pikorua groups share the indoor and outdoor environment but come together in their smaller groups for kai and hui times. Having smaller groups within the large group with key teachers, helps transitions between spaces and fosters a sense of belonging.

We support and trust in children to lead their own learning. Children share their interests and teachers extend and expand on these. This ensures that our children's learning is meaningful for them and helps keep them engage and curious, leading to a love of learning.

Our also have a beautiful outdoor environment with well established trees to nurture any outdoor enthusiast. Indoors, we have fantastic new resources to engage and inspire our children every day.

We provide delicious and nutritious meals prepared fresh onsite every day by our centre cook. This includes morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea as well as snacks. We also cater to any dietary requirements and preferences.

We are the only centre in Alexandra who do not close for 2-3 weeks over Christmas so are very convenient for families who need to work over this period.

Who is BestStart?

BestStart is for families who want more from early-childhood education. Safe, nurturing and educationally focused, we’re committed to growing caring people with curious minds.

Together we teach, learn and nurture.

Our vision is to work in partnership with families, whanau and communities to enable children to achieve their learning potential.

Ko tō mātou tirohanga hei mahi ngātahi i te taha o ngā whānau me ngā hāpori, kia āwhinatia ngā tamariki, kia tū pito mata ai rāatou, hei rangatira mō āpōpō.

We are committed to being a progressive and responsive leader in early-childhood education. We do this by enhancing our services, investing in our people, developing our support structure and continuously improving the educational outcomes and experiences of our children, families and the communities we serve.

Some facts:

• We’re licensed to educate and care for 15,000 full-time children daily.
• 18,000 families use BestStart services annually.
• We have over 270 centres nationwide located from Whangarei to Invercargill.
• Each centre is managed by a Centre Manager who is supported by a local Area Manager. This gives our centre teams ongoing quality training and support.
• Te Whāriki, the world-wide acclaimed national early childhood education curriculum, is used in all centres.
• We have over 4500 permanent teachers nationally. Over 90% of our permanent teaching staff are either fully qualified with a diploma or bachelor of teaching (ECE) or higher, or are in training. These figures are very high by national standards within the ECE sector.
• We provide a two-year Advice and Guidance Programme for all recently certified teachers, providing further mentoring and training. This gives strong support for teachers from provisional registration to full teacher registration with the NZ Teachers Council.
• We regularly spend around $4 million on teacher training per annum.

We’re for children

At our heart is our commitment and passion for children. Central to this belief is our focus on the holistic development of children. We support children to explore the world around them, learning through relationships, creating a love of learning in an ever-changing world. Exploration, friendship and fun are part of the journey.

We’re for good

BestStart is a registered charity owned by the Wright Family Foundation. We support initiatives and programmes within BestStart and the wider early-childhood education sector (ECE) that support good outcomes for all children. We do this because we want to make a positive difference to the lives of all children.

Innovation leads us

At BestStart, innovation guides our thinking. We advocate positive change for learners through our research and practice. We’re proud to be thought leaders within ECE, openly challenging ourselves to think differently to provide the best for our children, families and staff.

We’re responsive

Our centres reflect their children, staff and communities. We celebrate individuality, uniqueness and diversity, encouraging a spirit of empathy, understanding and collaboration. Through our responsive relationships and our curriculum, we support learners to choose their own path.

Our people matter

At BestStart people come first. When we grow and develop our people, everyone benefits. We strive for whakamana/empowerment, nurturing a culture of excellence with engaged, talented professionals. Their commitment, skill and passion light our way.

A learning programme that fosters self-directed play and the teachers provide a selection of learning experiences based on observations of children's current interests. Our peaceful approach to teaching and learning is one of utmost respect for the child. 

We are committed to connecting children with nature and reducing our impact on the world. Each child has a pair of key teachers who tend to their intimate care needs, providing them with the comfort of knowing a familiar adult is close by and fully present, sensitively observing their cues and gestures. Our programme celebrates individual children¿s interests and strengths in their journey of learning and development.  

Our pre-school centre located at 25 Ngapara Street offers both part and full time spaces for 35 children from ages 3-5 years. In our large, spacious playground children can enjoy a range of sports and games, and include specialised programmes that develop children's balance and coordination. Our transition to school programme, called the Pukeko group, encourages children to further develop independence, literacy and numeracy skills.  

Dunstan Educare offers an innovative programming system which celebrates individual children's interests and strengths in their journey of learning and development. Each child has a profile book which teachers add to with stories about their interests and development.

We are very proud of our wonderful early learning centre facility. Our modern childcare centre has large indoor spaces to cater for all of our children and different age groups. We have a wide range of toys, books and education material for all of our children to enjoy.  

Our childcare centre has a very family orientated structure where we encourage parent participation and input into your child’s learning development.  

The centre's door is always open for whanau (family) to join our day and we encourage participation in our programme. We value the different knowledge and cultures that our whanau bring to our programme, and endeavour to support our community of learners to share this. As our childcare centre is a not-for-profit organisation we operate on a very tight budget, so the Centre relies on fundraising income for new resources, developments and upgrades etc.   

To continue to provide an innovative and modern learning environment for our children we do rely on Centre families to help assist (where possible) in our fundraising efforts, every cent raised is gratefully appreciated and put back into our Centre.