BestStart Kaikohe

At BestStart Kaikohe we provide a warm, welcoming, and nurturing environment for whanau and tamariki. We pride ourselves on providing quality education and care as well as experienced staff who will support your child at every stage of their learning and development.

Standing Up and Standing Out in Kaikohe

At BestStart Kaikohe we strive to lead the way in Early Childhood Learning.

We aim to foster a sense of Kotahitanga (unity, solidarity) with kaiako, whanau and tamariki. Our social interactions and experiences are the essence of what we do, providing tamariki with many opportunities to build and maintain positive friendships built on trust, respect and fun!

Our outdoor space is used to maximize our vision through providing our older tamariki with opportunities to develop their Rangatiratanga (leadership) skills, tuakana-teina relationships, as they help to guide and care for our younger learners.

We pride ourselves on our fun filled child-led, play-based approach to learning.  We provide a variety of resources and tools to support the varied interests of our learners, enabling them to direct their own learning. The use of ‘wait time’ is a key strategy used to give children time and space to practice and learn skills for themselves, encouraging them  to build competency to engage with the different experiences that arise in their lives.

Open-ended resources play an important role in helping us to provide opportunities for our tamariki to explore and form their own ideas and theories about the world around them.

We also have a dedicated Heuristic Playroom in our Centre, full of wonderful, fun, real world resources for our children to engage with and use in whatever ways they see fit.

We engage with our local community ,through walks to our local library, visiting local places of importance and historical significance, and school visits. These valuable excursions enable our tamariki to really feel part of their community and help to develop a sense of belonging and pride in where they come from.

We are working hard to support our tamariki to learn about the importance of sustainable living. We provide our learners with vegetable gardens for them to plant and harvest seasonal vegetables to be used in our lunches. We are a centre that has a healthy heart award and we are proud of our Tamariki’s understanding of healthy choices. We also have a worm farm and pig bucket for tamariki to place their food scraps into. The ‘tea’ from the worm farm is then used to water and feed our gardens.

Tamariki are also given opportunities to make beeswax food wraps for their lunchboxes when we have lunchbox day, to help cut down on single-use plastic wraps. As we continue to work on our sustainable practices, we are now looking to replace our single use paper towels with washable, reusable hand towels for tamariki.

We would love for you to be part of this journey with us, so contact us to discover what we can offer your child today!

Mai i te kopae ki te urupa, tatou ako tonu ai

From the cradle to the grave we are forever learning!

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.