BestStart Melling

Welcome to the Hiwa-i-te-rangi Room, a calm and nurturing space designed to support our tamariki as they begin their early journey of discovery. Here, we prioritise strong, loving relationships, consistent routines, and responsive care to help tamariki feel safe, secure, and confident. 

Our environment encourages sensory exploration, curiosity, and the development of foundational skills through play. With soft spaces, natural materials, and age-appropriate resources, we create opportunities for movement, communication, and connection. We work closely with whānau to ensure each child’s individual needs, routines, and cultural identity are respected and celebrated. 

Every moment in Hiwa-i-te-rangi is an opportunity to build trust, promote development, and foster a lifelong love of learning. 

Welcome to our Tupu-ā-nuku Room. Our play-based philosophy supports children's natural curiosity and learning through meaningful, hands-on experiences. 

We provide a nurturing and supportive environment to help our tamariki  feel safe, settled and confident. In our room, our tamariki  begin to develop key life skills such as independence, communication and self-help abilities. We have scheduled daily mat time to promote group participation, facilitate language development and enhance social skills.  

Our kaiako collaborate closely with families to support their aspirations and wishes on how they would like to see their child grow.  As our tamariki grow, they are prepared for the next step in their early years education by being introduced to the Waiti (Preschool) room. 

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.

Through promoting a calm and nurturing environment at the heart if Waiti children are learning social and emotional competencies and strategies to learn to self regulate and control their emotions, empowering learners to be confident, capable learners who strive to be independent.  

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.