BestStart Girven Road

BestStart Girven Road is a quality childcare centre close to the Bayfair shopping complex and Mt Maunganui Beach. We're open from 7.30am to 5.30pm right throughout the year and offer both morning and afternoon sessions, as well as all-day care for children aged 0 to 6 years old.

Be Your Own Hero

BestStart Girven Rd has been rated one of the top childcare centres in New Zealand by the Education Review Office. We provide exceptional care and education in a beautiful learning environment with a skilled teaching team passionate about supporting each child to build confidence, curiosity and kindness - to be true heroes. 

Taking the lead - Our exciting programme is based around the children’s emerging and current interests. We stimulate our children's curiosity by providing enriching experiences through a range of fun and challenging activities, outings and experiences that ultimately develop their self confidence and belief in themselves. We're growing our own heroes.

Specialised learning - We have two learning spaces designed for the changing needs of children as the grow and develop.

Pukeko’s Nest - The Pukeko’s Nest is our room for babies and toddlers aged under 2 years. Our precious babies are cared for by our professional and dedicated team in a calm, safe, nurturing and stimulating environment. We have great relationships with our families and care for our babies how you would at home. We follow home routines and work closely with families to develop trust and openness, so together we support each children to thrive. 

Our youngest tamariki are free to explore their environment at their own pace. We introduce them to new and exciting experiences, offering aroha, laughter and fun so everyone gets to be their own hero. We support our older babies to become independent by encouraging their self-help skills such as dressing themselves, having their bags accessible, cleaning their face after food and cleaning up together. 

We demonstrate, role model and support children to become respectful learners. We provide time, space and plenty of opportunities for children to explore the environment and practice their skills in their own time. This supports them to develop confidence in their abilities and to test their skills - to be their own hero! 

Akiaki Room - Our Akiaki Room is for our children aged over 2 years. Children build relationships, explore their interests and learn to Be School Ready in a fun, positive, supportive and challenging environment. Children are supported to develop confidence, friendships and a strong sense of belonging. They grow to have a love of learning and are confident and capable learners, guided by manaakitnga (care and respect) and whanautanga (aroha and relationships) principles. 

Children love our big playground which has plenty of space for them to challenge themselves and have fun. Through meaningful interactions and learning opportunities tamariki gain confidence to be their own hero, acknowledging their strengths and how they can use them to make positive contributions to our whanau. 

Tamariki are encouraged to be Kaitiaki (guardians) of our room, our environment and each other. We love to empower our children to believe in themselves, to know that they can achieve anything!  We support them in whatever they choose to do and gain so much pleasure when we see them overcome challenges. We always celebrate our succesess and build up our little heroes belief in themselves.

Extra curricular activities - We offer a range of exciting extra curriculum activities including swimming lessons to Baywave once a week, visits to Bernadette House, family events and excursions.

We'd love for you to come and meet us and see our high quality, interactive environment in action. Feel free to visit us anytime within our opening hours or contact us to book a tour.

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.