BestStart Richmond Kindy

At BestStart Richmond Kindy, parents and whanau are supported and encouraged to be an integral part of their children’s learning journey.

We stand together and support one another to create an inclusive and special learning space where play is valued as the most important way to learn and grow. We work alongside families to set each child up for learning now and for the rest of their life. 

Having family and wider whanau involved in kindy life supports each child’s learning. We offer multiple ways for our families to be involved in ways that are right for them including invitations to our Kindy events and celebrations. To support families to feel comfortable prior to starting, we offer settling visits where we welcome families to spend time with us together; stay, play, ask questions and get to know one another.

Families are the most important teachers of their children and we use the information families share with us to work together to develop a learning plan to support each child to develop and grow. Developing skills to play with others are important aspects of learning so we support each child to develop their own kindy family through playing and learning together and developing friendships.

It's important that our children make community connections, understand their place in the community and learn from our special town. One of our favourite things is to get out and about! We arrange for experts from our community to come to our kindy too, so children can learn from them. Some of our kindy activities include:

Bush Kindy (a full term of weekly lessons) for our more independent children at the local Waipahihi Reserve.
Monthly visits from Cath Oldfield of Kids Bike Taupo to support children to ride a bike
Planned school visits for our 4-year olds to Waipahihi School and Hilltop School
Yearly performances in the Tuwharetoa Kapa Haka Festival (Taiopenga Tuwharetoa).
Regular trips on the Taupo Connector Bus service into town to visit local amenities.
Weekly walks to the Community Gardens (which are right next door to Kindy) to learn about growing and caring for plants and how to keep ourselves healthy with nutritious food.