Childcare options in Forrest Hill

With great excitement we opened our new Forrest Hill Peekaboo centre in January 2021.

We carefully designed the centre to be a beautiful environment for your child, with green spaces, sustainable materials, rain water harvesting & solar power. We back onto a large reserve which is a lovely vista and play ground for us to enjoy.

Proudly owned and operated by local couple, Michelle & Adrian, we are committed to the childcare sector and providing excellent levels of education and care. Michelle is a board member of the Early Childhood Council.

Our initial staff will come from our existing centres as they know our philosophy and can embed this within our new centre. Our new staff will be carefully handpicked to uphold our values and high standards of quality we aim to provide.

Our centres are warm & inviting with many of our staff having long term tenure as they enjoy our approach to employment and families.

We would love to show you around our new centre as we know you will be impressed by it & the great team we have to look after your precious children.

What sets us apart...

• Brand new & fully resourced centre
• Highly experienced staff
• High teacher to child ratio
• Experienced hands on owner operator
• High quality education and care programme

Our philosophy

Peekaboo provides families in our diverse local community with a safe, stimulating, fun learning environment; where our children are loved, respected, valued and nurtured in our enriching surroundings that encourage them to realize their unique potential and to respect and embrace the differences in others. Providing good nutrition to our children is an important building block for children’s future health.

We aim for families and educators to work hand in hand to provide a healthy community within our Centre. We provide an environment that promotes physical activity and nutrition to support our children’s well being. We are committed to a genuine partnership with families/whānau and welcome the active contribution and collaboration of parents and families to their child's growth and development.

Peekaboo provides the children with various settings in which to explore, interact and gain knowledge. These areas range from our Natural garden through to teacher directed activities and learning. Our professional teaching team encourage a passion for learning and thus they establish a foundation and desire for life-long learning within the child.

At Peekaboo we embrace multiculturalism while acknowledging the unique place of Maori as tangata whenua. We provide our children with opportunities to develop knowledge and an understanding of the cultural heritages of all the children in the Peekaboo Community and both parties to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

We are proud of our reputation as an approachable, friendly, dedicated, quality, home-away-from-home environment for our children and families.

At Smoochie McGill Early Learning we believe in providing a caring, creative environment, which encourages relationships between teachers, children, parents and whānau. This is key to providing quality education and care.

Our Vision

All children, teachers and whānau thrive in our engaging learning setting.  Children see themselves as successful learners, full of potential.

Our Children

We believe that children are full of potential, competence, and are capable of directing their own learning. They have the capacity for representing ideas in a wide variety of symbolic and realistic approaches. We encourage children to investigate, make sense of objects and ideas about which they are curious, and to become promoters of culture, values and rights. 

Our Teachers

We provide an atmosphere of harmony as we believe it is essential in facilitating positive, supportive relationships. Reciprocal communication between the children, parents and teachers is paramount to offer a foundation where we can work together to create the spirit of cooperation, collaboration, and co-construction of knowledge. The role of our teachers is to be a co-learner alongside the children. Through working together, we work towards a common purpose – the building of a culture which respects childhood as a time to explore, investigate, create, and be happy.

Our Environment

We trust that every child should be encouraged to grow and learn in a natural environment that facilitates a positive contribution to society. We aim to provide an environment that encourages collaboration, communication and exploration. Our spaces are filled with natural light, order and beauty. Each space has an identity and a purpose and are cared for and respected by the children and the adults. It is significant for our spaces to be alive, flexible and open to change to support our children in exploring deeper into their interests and investigations.

Our Parents

We strive to offer a home away from home, where there is mutual respect and trust. We value parent participation and see their involvement as a necessary voice in their child’s learning. We respect the partnership that we have with our parents and wish to continue to build on it through working together cooperatively and transparently. 

“The environment should act as an aquarium which reflects the ideas, ethics, attitudes and culture of the people who live in it.  This is what we are working towards” Loris Malaguzzi (creator of the Reggio Emilia approach in early learning)