So you have come to a time in your life where you need to look at finding some care and education for your child?  The possibilities seem endless, and you, like all parents, want what is the very best option for your child.  So how do you choose? 

I am often asked what the difference is between Kindergarten, and “Daycare”.  We prefer to refer to our centre as there for the purpose of care and education rather than “daycare”.  So let us look at the differences and similarities so you can make the very best decisions for your child and your whanau. 

Kindergarten 

New Zealand Kindergartens Incorporated (Te Pūtahi Kura Puhou o Aotearoa) is a large, national organisation. They represent a collective made up of, 25 regional kindergarten associations and around 460 kindergarten and additional services nationwide. 25 of the 30 regional kindergarten associations are members of NZK. Kindergarten Associations are independent and autonomous, community-based and always not-for-profit. 

Kindergartens have traditionally run as a sessional service for 2 – 5 year olds with the older children attending a morning session and the younger children attending an afternoon session.  Due to the increased needs of parents many Kindergartens are now offering a “full day” session of six hours.  Kindergartens traditionally run to the school terms, and utilise the same hours, and term times as New Zealand schools do.  As such, New Zealand Kindergartens are usually fully funded for 100% of their staff to be fully qualified.  This means that they are funded at a higher rate than any other early learning service. 

At their core, Kindergartens follow the same early learning curriculum as other early learning centres, we have a world class curriculum known as Te Whaariki.  Nga Tamariki learn through child led play in a safe, nurturing and responsive environment. 

Daycare / early learning centres

Daycare / early learning centres, such as here at BestStart Vivian Street, have a number of options available to them.  We can run full day sessions (we open 7:30 – 5:30) and can run morning, afternoon, school day or full day sessions.  We must operate within our licensed hours, but we can find the timetable that best suits your family.  We cater for children as young as a few weeks old, to six years old. 

Daycares, or Early Learning Services, as we prefer to be known, can be owned privately, by individuals, by groups or communities, or by corporations.   

As a service, we run the same early learning curriculum document as Kindergartens.  Our teachers are trained the same way, through the same tertiary institutions and are registered with the same governing body – The New Zealand Teacher’s registration council.  We do not receive the same amount of funding as Kindergartens however and we run to 80% of our teachers being fully qualified as opposed to the 100%. 

Early Learning Services can all look very different depending on the vision or philosophy that the Centre is basing their programmes on.  At BestStart Vivian Street, our vision is:  “What matters to your family, matters to us”.  This is why we will regularly check in with you on what is important to your family, and when you enrol your child with us, we will look at what your aspirations are for your child, and how we can use your child’s interests, to build a completely individual plan for your child’s learning, incorporating your family wishes, Te Whaariki and also other guiding documents such as Tapasa and Tataiako, to plan a programme of learning for your child. 

Each child will have a new plan each term, clearly set out with learning objectives, success criteria (how we will know your child has achieved their learning goals) and snippets of their learning throughout the term. 

We look at each child as an individual, as Taonga to their family and the wider community.  We incorporate our knowledge of attachment theory, and the importance of building secure, safe and responsive relationships to help us provide a home like learning environment providing care and education to your child.  We have passionate, happy and engaged teachers who are committed to improving outcomes for children. We engage with our wider community through excursions into the community we live in, engaging with local areas such as libraries, cafes, supermarkets, parks, bus services and local shows. 

In short, Kindergartens are another form of Early Learning Centre, where the curriculum, teacher training, and responsive environment are very similar, the main differences lie in the funding and operating hours.