BestStart Lambie Drive

BestStart Lambie Drive is centrally located in the heart of Manukau, within close proximity to Westfield Manukau, the train station and on the main bus route. We offer quality education and childcare for children aged from 3 months until they are ready to go to school.

Come to BestStart Lambie where Creativity leads our Learning. We dance and we prance, we sing and we fling. Our artists get messy creating masterpieces. Waiata (songs) and music fill our space and our hearts.

Located in the heart of Manukau close to public transport, our team nurture and develop our talented learners. Strong connections are made with each child to create belonging and develop their confidence to explore their world. In Tahi centre our youngest learners have their care routines established and supported so they are ready to take their next steps. Each day there are new activities for our explorers, discoverers, creators and connectors.

The preschoolers in Rua centre are likely to be building and sailing their waka, photographing in the shark photo booth, designing complex cities and rehearsing their next performance. Using NZ’s curriculum Te whāariki is used to guide the children’s learning and develop independence and readiness for school. Our large indoor space is a perfect blank canvas for our evolving creative adventures.

Our learning spaces

Tahi Building – 3 months to 3.5  years

Pukeko room – The babies experience a warm, nurturing and caring environment which is full of age appropriate resources enhancing safety of this young age. The teachers are building one on one relationships with babies looking after their specific and unique needs.

Tui room – This is the toddlers room catering to children from age of 2 years to 3.5 years. The teachers are active participants in children’s exploration and offer toddlers with learning experiences to enhance their wonder, amazement, curiosity and communication. We encourage self-help skills such as toilet training, eating food by themselves and express needs to teachers

Rua Building – 3.5 to 6 years

Kiwi – The kiwi room is a busy room catering to children from 3.5 to 4.5 year of age. The teachers support children by setting up the resources as per their interests, curiosities, dispositions and inner quest for knowledge. The kiwi room children are encouraged to develop skills at their own rate and understand their own abilities through unhurried learning spaces. There are lot of opportunities for children to use communication skills and advance them to express their learning needs.

Ruru – The ruru room is for children from 4.5 to 5 years of age. The teachers are encouraging children in high end learning opportunities to provoke their capabilities exploring the resources and make them ready for school. The independent children of this room drive the curriculum through long term projects, curious conversations, informed decisions, sense of wonder, responsibility, and preparedness to step into new world after the centre life. 

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.