BestStart Melling

Hiwa-i-te-rangi room is such a beautiful room with lots of incredible resources for our little ones to explore. It is a calm environment where the infants can learn how to take their first steps. Hiwa-i-ta-rangi children share the beautiful out door space with our toddler room. It has a great outdoor area with two big huts, one mini slide, climbing boxes and a sandpit with a mud kitchen. 

Hiwa-i-ta-rangi room provides a learning environment that is safe, supportive, fun, challenging and interesting, coupled with the right amount of nurturing, guidance and teaching from our teaching team of qualified, caring and dedicated teachers. We value relationships and open communication and welcome parent/whanau feedback and contribution. We pride ourselves on knowing each child well.

Our babies are supported to learn and develop at their own pace, and each child is valued as an individual.  We value relationships and open communication and welcome parent/whanau feedback and contribution.  We pride ourselves on knowing each child well.  This enables us to provide a learning environment that is safe, supportive, fun, challenging and interesting, coupled with the right amount of nurturing, guidance and teaching from our teaching team of qualified, caring and dedicated teachers. 

Children are in here from two years until between two years to three years old, but can transition early based on their readiness. Our ratio is one teacher to ten children. We have a free flow environment between inside and outside.
We work hard to support the children in developing self-help skills and learning to take responsibility to look after our environment.
For example, using the toys in appropriate ways, keeping toys in certain areas and tidying up when finished.
We also put a lot of emphasis in using manners, being kind to each other and respecting and listening to the teachers.
We provide a variety of fun activities where children can explore and learn.

Our toddlers are supported and guided by their teachers as they develop confidence and courage to pursue their play independently.  Both toddlers and infants are closely connected, allowing both age groups the ability to interact outdoors together, while their age appropriate programme is available indoors. 

In the Waiti room we follow children interests and learning by facilitating many learning opportunities to support these interests. We believe that children are leaders of their own learning, and we follow their lead. We are committed to ensuring that we provide opportunities for children to practice literacy, numeracy, science, physical movement, rhythm. These opportunities are woven into our daily activities. 

The interests of the preschool children are extensively responded to, and our curriculum is continuously evolving to meet the diverse and complex learning needs and interests of our children. The Preschool Room is fully equipped to enable children to engage in a range of literacy and numeracy experiences, where they develop a love of learning for numbers, text, language and symbols in a meaningful and fun context. Children have daily access to messy activities, outdoor play, art experiences, music, science and dramatic play. 

The Waita Room create weekly activities that are based on the tamariki and their ever changing interests. One week can be about exploring everything dinosaurs, the next week could be about cars. They find creative ways to explore these interests and link their learning to everyday life and how they are related to the previous weeks of interest.

They help prepare tamariki for school by working together to build strong foundations using their interest and participating in engaging activities. In the Waita room, Tamariki are encouraged to be independent and responsible for their own Bags, Clothing and Toileting. 

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.