BestStart Napier Central

BestStart Napier Central is conveniently located next to Marewa Shopping Centre, close to the CBD. We're open from 7.45am to 5.30pm right through the year, making us a perfect centre for families working in Napier or Hastings.

Leading with the Heart

Our children at BestStart Napier Central feel loved, respected and supported to be all they can be. Together with parents and whanau we lay the foundation for our children to grow into kind, considerate, respectful and generally amazing people that the world needs!

“Poipoia te kākano kia puawai”

Nurture the seed and it will blossom

Infant and Toddler Centre - 0 to 2 year olds

Our lovely baby environment is calm, respectful and unhurried. Designed by our highly experienced and nurturing teachers, our learning spaces have been lovingly created to meet all the development needs of our youngest children - emotional, social, physical and cognitive you can trust that we have it covered. 

We lead from the heart and our specialised learning and development programme is based on a key teacher approach. This approach means that our teachers are highly responsive and sensitively attuned to the wellbeing of each child. This supports our babies to thrive because they feel safe and supported to explore the world opening up around them.

Parents and whanau are an important part of centre life. As each child’s strongest advocate and first teacher we work alongside our families to ensure there is consistency of care between home and centre. This helps to create a strong sense of identity and belonging in our precious babies. We welcome families to come and visit us, spend some time observing and participating in our beautiful rituals and natural environment.  

Preschool Centre - 2 to 5 year olds

Our small, preschool really feels like home, it’s something you can see as soon as you step in. We’ve created a rich learning environment where our children are empowered to lead their own play, following their interests, stimulating their curiosity and enthusiasm to discover more. Our team take the children’s lead and build on their interests to extend their understanding and make connections. 

We work with our whānau to create an individual learning plan for each child to support the depth and progression of their learning journey.  We value our centre community and encourage children to make meaningful connections with people, places and things.  This helps them to develop an understanding of the wider world and an appreciation of the different things everyone has to offer and of how unique we all are.

We have a Healthy Heart Award which promotes healthy lifestyles and choices in our children.  This care extends into the sustainable practices we weave into our daily programme through initiatives such as litterless lunchboxes, recycling, caring for our wormery and growing our own fruit and vegetables.

We welcome you and your child to visit our centre. See for yourself the meaningful learning experiences that happen everyday.

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.