BestStart St Albans

At BestStart St Albans, our centre vision is 'A place where tamariki can thrive and be themselves'. Throughout our centre, our children are involved in all aspects of the centre routines, and drive our child led curriculum based around their interests. We empower our children to make decisions that affect their own learning - this drives everything we do.

A place where tamariki can thrive and be themselves

What makes us different?

We strive to support all our children to take managed risks within our environment. We understand the difference between risks and hazards and believe that supporting children through risk taking experiences helps challenge their thinking and empower them to become stronger, confident individuals later in life. 

Throughout the centre our children are involved in all aspects of the centre day, from driving our child let curriculum based around their interests to supporting cooking or baking morning or afternoon kai, or cutting up vegetables for lunches.

As an added extra we have an onsite cook who prepares all our meals under a full vegetarian menu. Our cook works alongside our families with any special requirements to ensure that your child comes home well fed after a day at Preschool. 

Nursery

Our small, intimate Nursery is licensed for 16 children and offers large spaces for children to grow and develop within the environment.

To support transitioning from home to centre, we offer free settling visits for all new children. We believe that this helps them and you to get to know and become familiar with the teachers, other children, and the space before officially starting. During this time, teachers work with our families to get to know the child's routine at home.

Preschool

The Preschool room is licensed for 34 children and within our Preschool we work to support our children's independence. Our large, natural backyard is home to our centre vegetable garden where we teach children about growing, harvesting, and cooking our own vegetables. Our challenging equipment allow children to develop upper body strength, and our sandpit and separate mud pit allow our children to get messy and just be kids. 

For more information about the specific fees for your centre, please contact us directly (03) 365 1761 /  stalbans@best-start.org. You might be eligible for support paying their childcare fees. For more information click here.