BestStart Kelvin Street

Our centre is lucky enough to participate in the Wild @ Heart Bush Kindy programme here in Invercargill!

This is a minimum of a five-week programme where your child will join their friends,  our Wild @ Heart leader, Mr Kevin, and one of the teachers from your child’s centre for a day of outdoor exploration! We leave at 9:30am and return by 2:00pm one day per week.

By spending unhurried time in nature we are able to be creative, drive our own learning, challenge ourselves and our bodies and take appropriate risk, and create lifelong memories. We also connect to our tūrangawaewae (our identity and place we call home).

There are so many benefits to spending time in nature:

Emotional development: Spending time in nature helps children connect with their feelings and emotions.

Physical development: Outdoor activities provides children with opportunities to develop gross motor skills and coordination.

Cognitive development: Nature provides a rich variety of stimuli in multiple areas such as language, problem-solving and critical thinking.

Sense of wonder: Children develop a sense of awe and wonder about the world in which they live which instils curiosity.

Environmental awareness: How to take care of ourselves and our environment.

Improved attention

Reduces stress: Nature is peaceful and calming, it reduces anxiety and helps us to relax and recharge.

This is our dedicated infant space created specifically for our youngest tamariki. We provide a calm and nurturing environment where our unhurried care moments are woven into a curriculum that is designed to empower our babies to learn alongside others and discover their world. We also love to take our tamariki for hikoi | walks to our local Queens Park in the prams as we explore our wider community.  

A calming natural environment with open-plan, inviting activities for all abilities, and responsive staff attentive to diverse needs and wants.

A unique space for our actively moving and socializing toddlers to learn at their own pace. Kaiako | teachers and tamariki value and enjoy building on whānaungatanga | relationships and communication with each other as tamariki engage in social interactions and friendships begin to blossom. Our tamariki love to engage with our natural environment where their imaginations come alive through sensory exploration of our core curriculum areas and regular visits to our local Queens Park.   

A language-rich environment focused on literacy, strong relationships with tamariki and whānau, and purposeful, intentional teaching.

Our focus is to create engaging environments that support emotional intelligence and celebrate multiculturalism, promote curiosity, where our tamariki are encouraged to use their imaginations to make discoveries about themselves and the world around them.

With our strong connection to whānaungatanga, our environment builds on compassion, care and empathy for others and our environment. We encourage all our tamariki to be the leaders in their own journey, where an excitement and love for learning is encouraged in our very active room!  Our environment is created to allow time for just being with children, observing, listening and being present, where we want our tamariki to unfold at their own pace, through uninterrupted play.  

Our Kortiritiri | Shooting Stars group provides our older tamariki with opportunities to foster and strengthen friendships while engaging in stimulating and FUN experiences.

We continue to build on everything they have learnt during their time here at BestStart Kelvin Street and set a foundation for their future learning as they transition to school through our Set for School programme that supports independence in looking after personal belongings.  We want our tamariki to grow their knowledge, attitudes and skills so they feel confident about themselves as learners.

We focus on building positive relationships, learning about responsibility, developing problem-solving skills and resilience. We do this through literacy, numeracy, understanding the world around us, creativity, arts and music, sharing and relating to others, using our physical and gross motor skills and more.