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BestStart Welcome Bay is located on the main road in and out of Welcome Bay. We care for children from 3 months to 5 years old. We're open from 7.30am to 5.30pm right through the year and offer a range of part-time, full time and sessional childcare options to suit our families needs.
Learning through Heart and Soul
BestStart Welcome Bay is lucky to have a beautiful estuary on one side of our building. This is a source of learning and great adventure for our children. We regularly explore and investigate the estuary. We also enjoy looking through our discovery windows to see what is happening each day.
We love to connect with our community and have a regular monthly visit to a retirement home in the city. The children love reading stories, singing and doing art with the older generation. The ride there and back is a highlight too.
We have a team of passionate teachers with strengths and interests in cooking, art, reading and writing, physical activity and science to name a few. We love to share these with the children.
We have two age-based rooms that encourage independence, responsibility, respect and a natural curiosity.
Koru Room for children up to 2.5 years.This room is named after the symbol for new life, strength, growth and peace. All these traits are evident in every moment of our young children’s daily life. We follow home routines very closely and offer a respectful and kind environment to build relationships with children based on the foundations of tender care moments, free movement and self-guided learning. We let your child lead the way and respond to their cues. Every teacher in this room loves giving children the opportunity to discover the world around them through objects and items that have multiple purposes.
Pohutukawa room for children from the age of 2 through to school.The Pohutukawa tree is a symbol of strength, resilience and beauty. In this room we provide rich, open ended activities to challenge our children to investigate the world around them. We help grow strength and resilience in children and support them to see beauty in all aspects of life. Children are supported to Be School Ready through everyday activities and guidance through transitions. This sets children up with the foundations to become kind, caring, life long learners. We strive to embrace, celebrate, respect and support all cultural diversities within our community.
Our centre provides nutritious morning and afternoon teas as well as lunch every day and can cater to any dietary requirements. We'd love for you to come and visit us to see for yourself just how fantastic our centre is.
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.
