Typically responds within
A few hours
BestStart Herewini Street has an amazing natural outdoor environment. It's designed to encourage children to use their motor skills and give them opportunities to explore nature, grow flowers and vegetables, search for insects and bugs, and learn to care and respect animals.
The Heart of our Community
He Taonga to Mokopuna, Kia whangaia, kia Tipu, Kia re
A child is a treasure, to be nurtured, to grow, to flourish.
Nau Mai, Haere Mai, Welcome to BestStart Herewini.
There is nothing like feeling at home when entering a place of learning, to know that you belong. Our community feel this the moment they walk through our gate.
The smell of fresh, healthy, and nutritious meals fills our learning environment and sit side by side with our silver healthy heart award.
We welcome visitors at any time and encourage whanau to stay and immerse themselves in our community of learning. We empower our tamariki to explore their learning environment at their own pace, in their own time.
Kaiako create learning experiences that allow for all tamariki to showcase their own special skills and then grow them.
Our indoor-outdoor flow allows for many learning opportunities to happen with teachers guiding along the way. The natural environment is essential to our learning community creating pathways of learning that are authentic, simple but challenging.
Once a month we have a Librarian from Rotorua Library visit us to share stories, songs, dance and art, which our tamariki look forward to. Our kaiako enjoying getting out in the community with our tamariki, exploring and investigating the things that interest them. We enjoy getting together with our tamariki and their whanau with special evenings created just for them, where they can get to know other families and share a meal together.
We have strong connections with our wider community to support our whanau with diverse needs. We can help with referrals, Work and Income support paperwork, Early learning process paperwork and anything else you may need us to help with.
Our Kaiako can see and discover potential in all tamariki so attend professional development, and really listen to the needs of the whanau to help guide this.
We welcome you to come in, sit down for a while, let you and your child explore and meet our amazing team. Push the big red door open and come on in to your second home.
We have two learning spaces designed to meet the needs of our tamariki as they grow.
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.