BestStart Heuheu Street Kindy

BestStart Heuheu Street Kindy has a fantastic learning environment our children just love. We are convienently located in the heart of Taupō between the Spoon & Paddle Café and Jetts Gym. We care for children from 2-5 years old and are open right through the year. The Education Review Office has rated us one of the top childcare centres in NZ - come and see what makes us great.

Growing People, Families and Communities

BestStart Heuheu Street Kindy has a warm, welcoming, and caring atmosphere where our children and families soon feel at home. Our bright, modern Kindy has wonderful indoor-outdoor flow, encouraging children to explore our special learning spaces.

We have an team of bubbly and experienced teachers who love working alongside children above all else.  We support our children to develop the skills needed to build lifelong relationships with others and gain the confidence to overcome challenges and achieve their goals.

Our team, for families - We get to know each child and family individually. This allows us to discover their interests and each families aspirations and then create an Individual Development Plan. This makes sure that each child is growing and developing to the best of their ability whilst maintaining home family values.

Our wonderful portfolios capture each child’s journey through Kindy and are a treasure for families to keep. We capture each child’s growth and progression through personalised stories and images. Individual goals are updated regularly. We also use the online platform Storypark, which allows you to access their learning anytime, and is perfect to share with friends and family members who are near or far.

Community is important to us - Our town has so much pride in what we have to offer, and at Kindy, we ‘Love Taupō’ too. We have a great array of community experiences that we love to involve our children in.

Being close to town, we can walk to many places. We take groups of children to visit our closest rest home and bring smiles to the faces of our cherished elderly.

We take children shopping for Kindy resources to teach them essential skills when out and about. We have taken the whole centre on a walk to the movies to see a movie about superheroes!

We get regular visits from Cath at Bike Taupō, which has seen many of our children grow into excellent confident bike riders and lose their training wheels before starting school.

We also take part in the Tūwharetoa Festival each year, where we take all the children on a bus, and practice each day leading up to having our moment on stage!

Preparation for school - As part of our Be School Ready initiative we support and foster literacy and numeracy development. We are lucky enough to be a stone’s throw away from Taupō Primary, where we regularly take our 4 year olds for school visits. We also have great relationships with the other schools in the area who allow us to visit them also. Each child has a special graduation day where they receive their own Be School Ready bag and certificate, certifying they are ready to start school.

Healthy, happy hearts - We are proud to be healthy heart winners! We provide nutritious morning and afternoon teas. Often our children are in the kitchen, or at our kai tables helping with baking or preparing delicious food to eat. We encourage versatile lunchboxes at lunch time and support families in getting the good stuff into their child.

Our commitment to you - In our centre, your child will get the care, encouragement and attention needed to prepare them for a happy, well-balanced and positive future.

Please visit our vibrant centre any time, come and meet the team and see for yourself what we can do for your family, or give us a call now to find out more about enrolling your child at BestStart Heuheu Street Kindy. We look forward to getting to know you, your child and your whānau.

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.