Childcare options in St Albans

Our building and outdoor areas were designed after a lengthy research process, our teaching philosophies incorporate aspects of Montessori and other teaching practices as well. Timber and other natural materials and furnishings have been used throughout the building.  

The combination of warm and earthy colours creates a cosy, home-like atmosphere, making the children in our centre feel secure and comfortable. Our home-like environment means that children do not eat, sleep, learn and play all in the same room: we have separate sleep rooms for all ages of children, a dining room, art annex and multi-purpose room for physical games, drama and dance. Under floor heating is installed throughout the building to ensure a comfortable, healthy temperature at all times.     

We provide three separate areas of teaching to meet the different learning and care needs of children at various stages of development. The teacher to child ratio is higher than required by the Ministry of Education, and our specialist teachers have strengths in infant child care and development, literacy and numeracy, music, art and physical development, among other curriculum areas.

Located in the heart of St Albans, Christchurch, Pascals St Albans is a warm and welcoming early learning centre offering first-class education and care for pre-schoolers.

A home away from home for children of busy families, we offer three separate classrooms to cater for each age and stage, plus a natural outdoor area that challenges and stimulates young children. Our experienced and passionate teachers build confidence, independence, and resilience, through an intentionally planned and prepared learning environment.

Get a head start with your little one’s learning journey.

Our philosophy

At Pascals St Albans we are guided by Te Whāriki  and the work of Urie Bronfenbrenner – because of this we provide a holistic approach to teaching and learning.

The key aspects of our approach are:

• Children are active in their learning socially and academically.
• Teamwork between children, parents and teachers is the key to meaningful learning experiences and positive development – it takes a village to raise a child.
• Teachers and Parents have strong relationships, and this supports child development in a positive way.
• An understanding that family, culture, and other external factors have an influence on child development, and this can change course at any time.

At Pascals St Albans we are a team whose values underpin the way in which we approach our work, we strive to be our best to create the best possible outcomes for children in our care.

AKO – We are reciprocal in the way we teach and learn.

NGAIOTANGA – We are professional and doing our best in every way.

KOTAHITANGA – We are working collaboratively and constructively as an effective and solution focused team 
RANGATIRATANGA – We communicate goals, and expectations to improve quality for children and build capacity in our teaching team. 
WHAKAPONO – We are open  and honest with stakeholders in our communication around perspectives, ideas, and concerns.

MANAAKITANGA – We help to support and encourage each other in a safe environment.

KAITIAKITANGA – We take a  collective responsibility for preserving the mana of our tamariki, and our environment.

Our Rooms

Pascals St Albans has three separate classrooms, enabling us to deliver safe, nurturing and age appropriate learning experiences for all our children.  Our outside environment is split into two areas. In these areas we offer resources and equipment to support continued learning and development.

Kea Room

The Kea Room is our nursery. This is a specialised infant and toddler care room, catering for children up two years of age. The Kea room is a relaxed space where the youngest children start their preschool journey. We accommodate infants (aged from 6 weeks) and toddlers (up to 2 years ) with a maximum of 10 children at any one time. Being a small nursery we naturally provide a primary care type environment, your child may have up to three teachers that they will eventually establish strong connected relationships with.

Tui Room

Our Tui Room is for our 1.5 to 2.5 year olds. In this room we also use the primary caregiving approach and we concentrate on teaching and putting respectful practice into place. This room provides children with more space to be active and to explore and discover in their unique toddler way.

Piwakawaka Room

Our Piwakawaka Room is for our 2.5 to 4 year olds. Here you have a specific teacher assigned to your child where they continue to develop independence, language and social skills.

Why choose us?

There are a host of reasons why families choose Pascals St Albans. Here are just a few of them:

• Healthy Heart silver award
• Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea freshly prepared by our onsite cook each day.
• Hey Dee Ho – Music class each week for all children at no extra cost
• Close community relationships including visits to the retirement village, surrounding schools and walks round the local area
• Opportunities for on-site extra-curricular experiences such as Playball, Pitter Patter dance and Yoga
• Sustainable practice of recycling, worm farming and composting
• Plentiful celebrations (birthdays, graduations, cultural festivals)
• Regular family events
• High percentage of Qualified teachers with sound pedagogical knowledge

Where Diversity Lives and Whanaungatanga Grows

We pride ourselves in being a creative and bubbly centre with four classrooms, supporting productive partnerships (ka hikitia), children's learning and development through every age and stage.  We value children’s play as part of the learning journey through adventure, fun and friendship. Our tamariki (children) develop the independence, confidence and skills to set them up for a lifelong love of learning. Each of our classrooms has been designed to cater to the specific learning and developmental needs of each age group, resulting in an environment where children thrive. We are committed to supporting and empowering each child as unique individuals, helping them become competent and confident learners.

Here at BestStart Cranford Street, we are truly passionate about our outdoor environment which consists of an open shared space for the over 2 year olds. Nursery children can see our over 2's through a fence and are often approached to greet the Nursery tamariki. This allows for amazing tuakana teina relationships as well as nurturing the sibling relationships we have in the centre. Our high quality indoor and outdoor learning spaces are designed to engage and inspire our children as they grow and develop.

We are proud of the open communication and strong relationships we have built with our tamariki and their whanau. We believe children learn through interactions with whanau, teachers and peers (tuakana-teina) and the wider world. We nurture these relationships and provide meaningful learning opportunities that build on their natural curiosity.

Your child's learning journey and milestones are captured and shared through Storypark, our safe online communication system. This is a great way to keep up to date with what your child is doing while at the centre. You can log in to see what's been happening in their day, check out photos of them and comment on their activities, as well as send teachers direct messages if there's something you'd like them to know about your child.

BestStart Cranford Street values, and teaches children:

• Respect - for themselves, diverse cultures, the environment and the people around them
• Empathy and compassion - understanding and being considerate of other children and people's needs
• Independence - being able to do things for themselves in their learning and their routines

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.

Our centre vision is to let kids be kids and to empower children to make decisions that affect their own learning, and this drives everything that we do here.

Where Kids Can Be Kids

What makes us different?

We strive to support all our children to take managed risks within our environment. We understand the difference between risks and hazards and believe that supporting children through risk taking experiences helps challenge their thinking and empower them to become stronger, confident individuals later in life.

Throughout the centre our children are involved in all aspects of the centre day, from driving our child let curriculum based around their interests to supporting cooking or baking morning or afternoon kai, or cutting up vegetables for lunches.

As an added extra we have an onsite cook who prepares all our meals under a full vegetarian menu. Our cook works alongside our families with any special requirements to ensure that your child comes home well fed after a day at Preschool.

Nursery

Our small, intimate Nursery is licensed for 16 children and offers large spaces for children to grow and develop within the environment.

To support transitioning from home to centre, we offer free settling visits for all new children. We believe that this helps them and you to get to know and become familiar with the teachers, other children, and the space before officially starting. During this time, teachers work with our families to get to know the child's routine at home.

Preschool

The Preschool room is licensed for 34 children and within our Preschool we work to support our children's independence. Our large, natural backyard is home to our centre vegetable garden where we teach children about growing, harvesting, and cooking our own vegetables. Our challenging equipment allow children to develop upper body strength, and our sandpit and separate mud pit allow our children to get messy and just be kids.

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.

Welcome To Abberley Park 

A warm and inviting centre for your child Learning Curves Montessori 

Abberley Park is a beautifully converted Villa , located at 60 Ranfurly Street, Christchurch. Abberley Park has been in operation since 1988 and joined the Learning Curves group in 1999. The centre has 2 rooms, the Koru for our 2 year olds and Fern Room for children 3-6.  

The large indoor environment is warm, homely and spacious with two large classrooms. The equipment is child sized with activities displayed neatly on shelves that are easily accessible to children. Children have freedom of choice from the well displayed and equipped classrooms. The walls are vibrant with children’s learning displays and programme planning, ensuring children and families have a sense of belonging and have an understanding of what is happening at the preschool. Our daily programme is focused on fun, positive interactions , learning experiences and communication with children as individuals and as groups.  

Outdoor - The play area is very large with gardens, a sandpit, climbing equipment and play house. The homely design encourages and promotes interactions for groups of children as well as quiet spaces for individuals.  

As well as offering fundamental Montessori activities our programme encompasses music and movement, water and sand play, art and craft, story time and rhymes, puzzles and blocks. Outdoor environments promote risk taking, gross motor development, turn taking, social interactions and skills, group games, caring for the environment with gardening, creativity in construction and basic fun.

We are a new purpose-built preschool in St Albans, Christchurch. We provide authentic Montessori education with Christian values catering for 2-6 year old children.  

Special features:  

• Well-resourced authentic Montessori equipment 
• Newly renovated centre incorporating natural light and wooden linings 
• Calm, nurturing environment with a lovely garden outdoor setting 
• Child sized and age appropriate equipment 
• Close to library and parks for centre excursions 
• Child sized atrium 
• Incorporating Catholic faith and traditions 
• Passionate, experienced and qualified teachers 
• Building community and sharing our values

Why Small World?

We are a team that has:  

EXPERIENCE  PASSION   TIME....

• Our small group size and exceptional teacher child ratios ensures your child will get the time and understanding they need to feel comfortable away from home
• We have time to follow your child's passions and interests. 
• We have time every day to listen to you and your child
• We have time to  share enjoyable conversation  with children when they sit and have kai with a friend. 
• We have time to offer music,circle times and story  throughout the day. They are so much fun we don't have to make them compulsory. Children choose to participate or ask for music and story. 
• We have time to keep care giving routines such as nappy changing calm and relaxed
• We have time to learn about your culture and the aspirations you have for your child
• We have time to have  fun while we play and learn alongside you and your child  and offer the best of care. 

Nau mai, haere mai and welcome to St Albans Playcentre

Playcentre is unlike any other early childhood education organisation. At Playcentre, both children and their parents / caregivers attend.

At Playcentre children get the opportunity to learn and explore in a fun and safe environment.

The curiosity and creativity of our tamariki is nurtured in a way that allows them to learn about themselves and their world.

Your child will be given a chance to explore, create, climb, read, sing, experiment, play music, wear costumes, have their face painted (or do it themselves!), garden, do carpentry with real tools, bake and cook, build sandcastles, swing, slide, dance, spend time in nature and get messy.

The activities change every day. Playcentre parents all bring different skills, interests, and cultural backgrounds to add to the rich learning environment.

We welcome families with children aged 0 – 6 years. Mixed age play allows your children to engage with others older and younger than themselves. Pre-schoolers learn how to communicate, share and negotiate with empathy for their younger peers.

At Playcentre, families come together and lifelong friendships are formed.

We welcome you to visit any time during the year. You are entitled to three free visits so come and check out what we do – we would love to meet you and your family!

Learning Curves Montessori motto of “freedom to achieve” denotes the positive environments we provide with each and every child having freedom to achieve their full potential. In our Montessori environment the child’s freedom, dignity and independence are of paramount importance. We believe in providing an environment where children feel safe and valued within our positive, fun filled, exciting learning environment which provides endless opportunities for children aged 0 – 6 years, the formative years in every child’s education.

Welcome To Nursery

A warm and inviting centre for your child

Opened in 2009, we are Christchurch’s first exclusive Nursery, catering for children from 0 – 2 years. We are licensed for 16 children from 0 – 2 years and have 5 full time qualified teachers each day to provide support. We converted a beautiful villa in St Albans with the focus on providing space and fun within a warm home away from home. Our environment enables your child to discover and learn. The teaching team provides a caring, loving environment where cuddles, kind words and fun coupled with a warm and inviting spacious layout, offers your child the next best thing to home.

Our indoor environment is warm, spacious and friendly; we do not have high chairs but have low stools and tables enabling children to move freely and independently within the environment. Our Nursery has a separate sleep room to provide an area of rest for infants and toddlers. Children have individual free standing cots or stretchers so that the home environment is replicated as much as possible in our Nursery. Our equipment is imported from Italy and is made from beautiful timber of solid construction. We have specifically designed gym equipment for infants and toddlers promoting the development of essential motor skills that enhances movement, language and sensorial discovery. Our programme is based on fun, positive interactions and communication with young children as individuals and in small groups. As well as offering fundamental Montessori activities our programme encompasses music and movement, water and sand play, art and craft, story time and rhymes, puzzles and blocks.

Our outdoor environment is large and has a very homely feel with a large natural grass area, sandpit, climbing equipment including a slide, well developed trees and garden and has a large shade umbrella to provide protection from the sun.

Our focus is on the whole child. The choices of activities are carefully selected to provide interest, variety and the necessary learning experiences. Our programme fosters language, communication, coordination and fun, increasing the child’s social skills and awareness.

Forfar Nursery & Preschool is a not for profit community preschool.  We have been operating in the St Albans community since 1987, with a strong reputation for providing the highest quality of care and learning for children aged 0 – 5 years. 

The centre is a large renovated, homely villa on expansive grounds that offer children a truly ‘backyard’ play experience – with mature trees and real grass! The centre also provides nutritious home-cooked meals.  Forfar has a separate nursery area for children aged 0 -2 years, and a preschool area for children aged 2 -5 years. Most children enrol in our nursery and continue through the preschool before heading off to school. Forfar will become you and your child’s home away from home, and being part of your extended family is something we really value.  

Highly qualified and experienced teachers are a centre’s greatest resource. We have a fantastic team of long serving teachers who are warm and loving, heaps of fun, a little bit crazy sometimes, and  are 100% dedicated to growing great kids.  

At Forfar we are well resourced with equipment and toys that encourage children to explore for themselves and learn how to make sense of their world. We believe resources should entice, engage and challenge children to instil a love of learning.  

We value independence and believe in teaching resilience in our children. We also offer a wide range of activities to encourage shared experiences, working cooperatively with their peers, while at the same time supporting individual learning styles.  

Warm and genuine relationships with family are the cornerstone of what we do at Forfar. We recognise you and your whanau as your child’s first teachers and believe we can work together with open communication to nurture your child in their first years.