BestStart Wigram

BestStart Wigram is a specially designed childcare complex with two centres located near Hornby in the Wigram Skies subdivision. We provide quality early childhood education and child care. Our complex gives families options for their child's education where they can choose between our small, intimate, homelike building or our spacious building with a large outdoor environment.

Our centre provides children with the opportunity to follow their own interests, be creative and to have fun. We appreciate the diversity that each child brings into our centre and ensure our programme supports the cultural beliefs of all our families.

Our learning rooms - We have 7 classrooms across our two buildings allowing us to provide age-specific challenges and cater for more individualised learning and care programmes as children grow and develop.

Infants and toddlers are supported by a nurturing teachers who knows each child and their routine well. These teachers work in partnership with parents to ensure their individual routines and requirements are supported in a familiar and caring approach, giving the child the security of a familiar face everyday.

Our programme for our older recognises the importance of fostering children’s natural ability to be inquisitive. Teachers fully support children to actively explore and learn, preparing them for their journey to primary school. We have a reciprocal relationship with Wigram School where we go on regular excursions to familiarise our older children with the environment and have the new entrant teachers visit them here in our centre.

Our teaching team - We have a team of experienced and qualified teachers who are skilled at working alongside your child to support and enhance their learning. Our teaching team is consistent and the staff turnover is low which means the children experience stability and the same familiar faces everyday. We also have Chinese teachers who support our children and families that use English as a second language.

Session options - We have a range of sessions available that provide families with varying options to work around individual commitments and lifestyles.

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.