Childcare options in Mangere Bridge

Li’l Champs Mangere Bridge is a beautiful and spacious purpose built centre.

We cater for children aged 3 months to 6 years in specially designed spaces made for your child to learn and explore in a calm, responsive and relaxed environment.

Our team have extensive experience in working with children, many are locals themselves which means that they have a great knowledge of our community and the values of our diverse cultures.

Our curriculum framework is based on our national curriculum Te Whāriki (2017); and is inspired by other philosophies including Reggio Emelia.

The child is always at the heart of everything we do and we value our strong relationships with parents and whānau to ensure the best possible learning outcomes for our children.

All meals are provided onsite, prepared fresh daily by our centre cook. Our 4 weekly rotating menu is tailored to meet the needs of our diverse community and we can tailor this to meet each families individual needs.

Feel free to pop in, have a look around, ask some questions, and see if we are the right centre for you!

Our curriculum is based on the Te whariki where all children have a sense of belonging and grow as lifelong learners. Through our aroha ways of teaching and creative spaces and meaningful caring teaching and learning , we aim to nurture and grow children’s educational interest, wellbeing and build upon their innate competence, curiosity and imagination, enabling them to contribute to their own learning through many languages of expression and communication.

Our teachers carefully listen, observe, and document the children’s work, develop their thinking and learning. The teachers also reflect on their own teaching and learning, and work with team, family and children, share learning ideas and learning from each other Ako- practices.

We aspire to develop each tamariki the confidence ownership and belief that they are unique awesome and can do anything!

Passionate and engaging team of teachers and diverse and inspiring learning experiences ensure that our learners are challenged and have

the opportunity to discover their unique creative dispositions skills and interests.

Kia ora and welcome to Mangere Bridge Kindergarten

Mangere Bridge Kindergarten has a very strong community focus with relationships built over time with the two local schools, the local Regional farm park, local Library and community groups.  Children are able to attend ‘Kindergarten at the Farm’ each Monday where they learn and explore in the many different natural environments on Ambury Regional Farm Park.

The teaching team have an ongoing interest in research and have published the book “Crossing the border”, a chapter in “Teachers voyaging in Pluri-lingual seas” which is available from NZCER Press, and several articles about transition to school.

In 2015 we won the Prime Minister’s Takatū prize for Education Excellence for our work on transition to school.

We are now a Silver Enviroschool Kindergarten with a strong focus on sustainability and outdoor activities.

The permanent teaching team are all fully qualified, registered teachers with two holding post-graduate qualifications. The teachers are dedicated to, and passionate about early childhood education.

Our learning philosophy

For the past 110 years, the Auckland Kindergarten Association has been igniting young minds by encouraging them to explore their imaginations through play. For many of us, kindergarten was where we began our life of learning; it was where we started learning skills like sharing, tolerance, patience, respect and self-confidence.

We view children as capable, competent, life-long learners, and our philosophy encourages children to make their own learning choices, problem-solve and observe and explore at their own pace…with support from teachers, parents, wider whānau and their peers. We value the importance of child-initiated, play-based experiences. Our kindergarten teachers nurture your children’s interests and natural curiosity by working alongside them, expanding language and introducing mathematical and science concepts, as well as literacy, digital technology and sustainable practices.

Our centres have gardens and natural outdoor spaces where children can create, explore, be imaginative and expressive. There’s plenty of room to safely run about, being imaginative and physically active. In fact, the natural world is essential to free-range play. AKA encourages each kindergarten community to explore and enrich their diversity and uniqueness. Some have regular excursions into the local community; some are Enviroschool kindergartens that live and breathe sustainable practices; while others engage in long-term research on child interest-based programmes of learning.

As an organisation, we formally acknowledge the dual heritage of Aotearoa / New Zealand, and work to uphold the spirit and intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in each kindergarten. We are accessible, secular and welcoming to the wide diversity of tamariki and whānau who attend our centres, and value ongoing partnerships between teaching teams and leadership staff with families and whānau. We value ongoing learning for teachers, parents and whānau, and the sharing of knowledge, skills and attributes is fundamental to achieving the best learning outcomes for children. Teachers and staff can access collegial professional time to ensure that quality practice is enhanced so current theories of learning and development within New Zealand’s world-class Te Whāriki early childhood curriculum are shared and understood.

Children learn

Children in our kindergartens have the opportunity to:

• Feel confident, develop responsibility and a sense of independence
• Play meaningfully alongside other children and adults
• Develop effective communication skills
• Persevere, problem-solve and take risks
• Explore limits, boundaries, routines and conflict resolution strategies
• Practice fine motor skills such as threading, writing, cutting and grasping
• Develop gross motor play such as physical games like climbing, throwing, kicking, balancing and lifting
• Develop creative expressions through painting, music, collage, movement, dance, finger-painting, drawing, cutting, pasting and story sharing
• Develop early numeracy, literacy and science skills
• Learn techniques through trial and error
• Explore the world through experimenting, questioning and curiosity
• Develop confidence and celebrate both attempts and successes
• Develop a passion for learning and a love of life
• Have fun!

Older children will be supported in their transition to school to make this process as simple and seamless as possible. Book a visit here on Kindello today, we’d love to meet you.

White Heron @ the Bridge is located on the corner of Domain and Coronation Rds within the Mangere Bridge Primary School grounds. 

Staff speak a variety of community languages to make sure that all children in the local community are supported with a focus on making sure children have a smooth transition into primary school.

We are all about offering quality childcare at an affordable price so that EVERY CHILD has an equal opportunity to 'get off to a flying start' with White Heron Learning Centres. We have 4 centres in South Auckland so choose the one that suits you.

We employ qualified and experienced local bilingual staff to ensure families and children are supported and offer a range of attendance choices to suit all families.