Childcare options in Lower Hutt Central

Located next to Eastern Hutt School, with excellent links to the busy Lower Hutt community, Active Explorers Lower Hutt provides high quality care and education in a warm and friendly environment.

Passionate about meeting the childcare needs of busy families, we offer great facilities, a well considered curriculum, and a team of qualified and experienced teachers who love what they do. We’ll help your child tap into their unique potential and lay the foundations for a lifelong love of learning.

Give your little one the perfect start. Visit us today at Active Explorers Lower Hutt.

Our philosophy

We believe that secure relationships are the fundamental foundation to learning. We strengthen self-esteem through respectful interactions, appreciation of views, Te Whariki, the New Zealand Early Childhood Curriculum guides our teaching, while concepts of RIE and Reggio Emilia theories are reflected in practices, thinking and on-going professional learning.  Principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, te reo, tikanga and kaupapa Maori are woven into daily practices.  We acknowledge our multicultural community and value all cultures, religions and beliefs.

Rooms

Active Explorers Lower Hutt has two separate rooms, enabling us to deliver age appropriate experiences for children at each different age and stage.

Infants and Toddlers Room

This room caters for our youngest Active Explorers, up to the age of around 2.5 to 3 years. It is equipped with its own sleep area, a homely quiet area, a music area, a family corner, blocks, trainset, art area, and a large outside space with a covered sandpit.

Preschool Room

This well resourced space caters for our 2.5 to 5 year olds and has everything they need to build skills and develop a love of learning. There is a separate area for our 4 year olds to take part in our transition to school programme.

Why choose us?

There are a host of reasons why families choose Active Explorers Lower Hutt. Here are just a few of them:

• Multicultural, inclusive environment
• Safe and nurturing
• Purpose-built centre
• Healthy Heart meals provided
• Conveniently located next to a school and handy to everywhere
• Secure
• Weekly library visits for our 4 year olds
• Regular visits from community organisations (e.g. Police, ambulance, SPCA, local marae)
• Family orientated, parent involvement encouraged
• Playball available
• We celebrate a wide range of cultural days/weeks
• Lots of fun activities and events including dress up days and family evenings

BestStart Cornwall Street is a quality education and care centre for tamariki aged 3 months to 5 years, conveniently located in Central Lower Hutt.

Mā te whiritahi, ka whakatukukī ai ngā pūmanawa ā tangata

Together weaving the realisation of potential

When you visit BestStart Cornwall Street, you will see kaiako (teachers) and tamariki (children) engaged in learning moments that flow from natural interests and a desire to play.  Kaiako create a physical environment with small, cosy quiet spaces for working in small groups.

We follow a philosophy of both place and play-based education. We embrace the values and all that is embedded with Te Tiriti o Waitangi within our teaching and learning programme. We view learning and development from a holistic perspective, acknowledging tamariki cognitive, emotional, spiritual, physical, and cultural well-being, which is essential for a positive and constructive learning environment.

We place importance on, and highlight, the value play and place-based education serves to strengthen tamariki connections to others and to the region they live. Tamariki becoming sustainably aware, fostering dispositions toward learning such as resilience, persistence, and curiosity and fostering increasing connections and relationships with people, places, and things.

The community has a lot to offer that we value being a part of. “Whakapapa, Māori genealogy, links us with the whenua, our land, moana, our sea, and cultural concepts when working with family and whānau” (J Ritchie - ‎2010).

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.

BestStart Melling early learning centre is located within the exciting Lower Hutt business hub, providing many valuable learning opportunities - our neighbours are an extension of our centre! Our centre is perfect for busy, working families as we are open from 7.15am to 6pm and provide delicious, nutritious meals for our children. We care for children from 3 months up to 6 years old in three specially designed learning environments.

Our Community, Our Whānau

Working in partnership with kaiako, whānau, the community and tamariki to create a holistic learning environment, where everyone has their place.

Connections - We are proud of the rich diversity we have in our centre and the strong relationships we develop with families.  We celebrate our unique cultures and come together regularly with fun events. Being connected with the community is also very important for us.  We go on regular excursions to local businesses, the retirement home, pet shop, supermarket, café, medical centre and dentist to name a few! This provides our children with fun, real-life experiences that help them feel connected to the wider community.

Ready for School - Our preschool teaching team lead our Be School Ready initiative. They draw on their knowledge to plan and implement experiences that support children’s readiness for school. We have a generous outdoor play area which provides children space to actively explore and gain confidence in a safe and fun environment.

Healthy Eating - We have our own dedicated centre cook who prepares healthy and delicious morning and afternoon tea and a lunch each day for the children, in line with healthy heart menu recommendations.  Individual requirements are catered to.

We would love for you to come and visit us soon!!

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.