Childcare options in Prebbleton

Welcome to Hatch Early Learning Centre.  Children are at the heart of everything that we do.

Hatch Early Learning Centre has been created with the passion to provide an exceptional early learning experience for children.

We have a vision to nurture, grow and inspire young minds. Our approach is driven by integrity, with a clear focus of being local and community based. 

Our aim is to provide a home-like, welcoming environment. One where families feel comfortable and part of a community. Bespoke in design, the surroundings have been created to evoke exploration and investigation, supporting children’s endeavours to discover the world.

Our holistic approach will encourage children to actively learn through play in an environment where they feel safe and have a sense of belonging, allowing them to be active contributors and have their voices heard and respected. We will strive to make a lasting impact on our tamariki/children by creating an exciting place to grow and learn, supporting each child in reaching their full potential.

Equally, our dedicated team will be just as important to us. Our team will work together, caring for the wellbeing of children’s bodies and minds and striving to ensure tamariki have optimum care, learning opportunities and experiences.

Hatch Early Learning Centre has been purposefully built to support our teaching methodology.

Hatch is contemporary, functional and comfortable and encourages activity, individuality and growth through experience. The Centre is a safe space that incorporates natural, sustainable elements in its design.

Our outdoor area encourages exploration and discovery in a challenging while safe environment, incorporating our values of learn, care and respect our earth’s resources.

Our Centre has been designed to include separate rooms for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers, however their will be opportunities provided for interaction between age groups.

We established Prebbleton Childcare in the year 2000 with the dream of creating a beautiful space for the youngest members of our community to be nurtured, cared for and educated. In the early days Prebbleton was a humble farming community on the outskirts of Christchurch. Over the years we have grown with our community opening our Nursery in 2005 and our Kindergarten in 2010.     

We believe it is important for children to feel secure and valued when in our care. It is our ongoing vision to create 'The Next Best Place to Home'... home representing a place of sanctuary and comfort , a place where we can be with our family, relax, laugh, be heard and be accepted. This notion of home underpins the service we offer our families.     

We feel it is important for children to engage with and explore a natural environment and to have fun while doing so. With this in mind we offer large, well considered play spaces, plenty of natural resources, large trees (attracting bird life) and an earthy colour palette throughout (to reflect our rural roots). We have organic gardens, chickens that lay eggs, rabbits, guinea pigs and budgies. Our pets are apart of our centre family.    

 We understand it is essential to have teachers who are warm, caring and demonstrate a passionate commitment to teaching children to be 'lifelong learners' all while fostering strong relationships with children and families. We have carefully selected our teaching team because they are able to demonstrate these qualities that are so important to our service.  

With this in mind we hope you feel like you have come home when you walk through our door! We warmly welcome you and your family to our service...

As well as servicing the beautiful community of Prebbleton, Prebbleton Nursery is only a 5 minute drive from Hornby, Halswell, Lincoln & Templeton, making it a fantastic option for families in our surrounding communities.   

Prebbleton Nursery is one of a kind ?because we are a purpose built centre designed only for children under 3 years of age. We are licensed for 35 children and are divided into 2 core areas; the under two's space and the two year old's space.  

We are one of the few centres in New Zealand that offers a 1:3 ratio in our under two area (the government ratio is 1:5 for this age group). Low ratios directly correlate with babies & toddlers receiving the absolute highest quality of care and education.    

Prebbleton Nursery draws its philosophy from Reggio, Pikler, RIE and Playcentre early childhood development philosophies. We've identified what we believe to be the most optimal strands of these philosophies and we apply them to our everyday teaching and Nursery environment.   

Our incredible teaching team sets us apart from many centres. Over half the Nursery teaching team have been with Prebbleton Childcare for over a decade. Our teachers applied teaching practice is of the highest quality and their interactions with children are exceptional. You only need to spend a few minutes in the Nursery to see the delightfully warm and playful, reciprocal and respectful relationships between teacher and the children.