We, in BestStart Birkdale Centre have taken an initiative to support the transition of tamariki and their families and whanau to their respective Primary Schools, and we, in order to do this, have come up with a collaboration with our local primary schools.
Every year, since 2024, we organise a half yearly Transition to School Hui, including our 4 to 5 years old tamariki, their parents and whanau and the school representatives from all the local primary schools.
On Thursday 6th November, 2025 we witnessed such an evening of great collaboration between the local primary schools and our whanau from the Toki (4 to 5 years old) room. Chelsea Primary, Birkdale North and Verrans Primary were the schools to name a few, who participated in the hui alongside our Centre Manager, Toki Kaiako and the families and whanau.
The discussions were wholesome, the families got a real opportunity to meet the Principals, Vice Principals or the New Entrant Teachers of the respective primary schools that they are looking forward to send their tamaiti. It was also a good opportunity for the school representatives to showcase their core team, communicate with the local community and get in touch with an eminent institution of BestStart.
There was an introduction session led by the school representatives, where they introduced themselves, their team and their school to the community. Then we moved onto an interactive question – answer session including the school representatives and our whanau. The parents and families, whether it is their first time to send a child to the primary school, or they being new to New Zealand and wanting to know about how the transition works, were able to ask all the questions they had regarding their children’s transition to school. It included discussions around, what to expect? how and when to start getting in touch with the schools? how does the academic calendar work? and how does the new admissions work is the child’s birthday is in the middle of the year?
The conversations were extremely engaging, supporting and informative for our families. Our tamariki also felt very special to be a part of this hui alongside their parents and families, as they got to get introduced to the teachers and had some interactions as well. We were successful in building this bridge between our community, as a team of teachers and felt immensely satisfied to hear back from the local schools and our families and whanau about how everyone found this hui very helpful.
We are looking forward to continuing this endeavour to support our tamariki’s transition in the years to come, as a Centre ritual.