BestStart Te Aroha

boy scooping sand
girls holding hands
babies smiling
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1670278181Flax.png
Aroha
Magic
Silver bowl
Group circle
Reading
Light box
Water slide
The Education Review Office has rated us as one of NZ's top childcare centres for providing positive learning outcomes for children! We provide award-winning childcare and early education in Te Aroha from 7:30 am - 5:30 pm, between Monday and Friday.

Whaowhia te kete matauranga, Fill the basket of knowledge

Nestled under our beautiful maunga Mount Te Aroha you will find the magic of our small rural centre. The soundtrack of our day is orchestrated by the chimes of the clock tower around the corner and the shrieks of laughter while exploring something new. At night we are lit up by the clock towers lights, but in the day by the excitement of new discoveries.

Our town is part of our identity, and we are a part of Te Aroha's identity too. We all love our small community and embrace this by having a localised curriculum. Many of the locals recognise our green hi vis vests when we are out and about visiting the local schools or supporting our local music and movement programme.

Whanaungatanga is at the heart of everything we do, meaning we view our community as an extended family. Our centre is a place where everybody belongs and are always welcome. We are committed to reflecting the aspirations of our parents to ensure consistency is evident in the home and centre life and that we are working on goals for children’s learning and development together.

Our Team

We are a small but passionate team of local kaiako. Each with our own baskets of knowledge that we use to support and lead one another and our BestStart Te Aroha whānau. 

What We Offer

  • Regular Excursions and involvement within the community
  • 20 hours free for 3-5 year olds and WINZ subsidies available* if required
  • Experienced tight-knit team of passionate teachers
  • Healthy Heart Award - nutrition and health is important to us

Our spaces

Our centre has two buildings within one learning community. These are for our under 2's and over 2's each with their own homely, yet thoughtfully designed indoor and outdoor environments that include high quality, engaging resources designed to spark curious minds at every stage of their learning and development. 

Whare Pēpi

(Under 2's)

Whare Tamariki

(Over 2's)

Video Gallery

Welcome to BestStart Te Aroha
Quality Service Award 2023

kind words from our parents

Parent

My children have made huge improvements in their confidence and self-help skills and all the staff are friendly and helpful. I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone I know.

Parent

A wonderful centre which my daughter loves to attend. The staff are helpful and willing to listen to me and my daughters concerns.

Parent

I’m so happy with the differences in my child, she has learnt a lot of different things and her learning is improving extremely well.

Parent

BestStart Te Aroha has been awesome and very helpful throughout lockdown by providing heaps of activities on story park. When the centre opened for level 3 my son was very lucky and able to go back, he had the place to himself so had heaps of quality interactions with his teachers. I have recieved heaps of stories about Hunter on Story park which is so cool. I am very greatful to be part of such a caring and informative centre.

Parent

Shane has settled into BestStart Te Aroha, it has been awesome to watch his confidence grow and watch him develop meaningful friendships within the center. He enjoys being able to take control of his own learning and really enjoys the different experiences provided by teachers, such as messy play, water play and outside excursions. He enjoys his days at the center, and as a parent this makes me feel a lot more comfortable, knowing that he is enjoying his day.

Parent

We have loved getting new ideas to keep our daughter occupied during lockdown. Every day there was a new activity to try, or a mat time story from the teachers. It was also great to see the teachers enhancing or adding to another teachers projects, that’s what team work is all about. Our 2 & 1/2yr old daughter loved mat time stories so much that she created her own mat time with ALL her teddys, books and of course mummy and daddy. The teachers at BestStart Te Aroha have done an amazing job of helping keeping our children busy, occupied and also in their thoughts so that some form of normality could still happen in their little minds by keeping in contact.

Parent

All the staff have been super welcoming, have made an effort to remember not only my sons name and little bit about him but also my partner and I. Every staff member makes an effort to smile and say hello when they see you. My son has a great time and I have already seen soo much growth in him since starting.

Parent

The staff are very welcoming and supportive of every child’s needs. Such an amazing centre with tonnes of support and learning experiences for our tamariki. Keep up the amazing work.

Parent

BestStart feels like a second family to us and our daughter loves going to this place.

Parent

The teachers are awesome, so lovely and caring and my daughter always loves going to daycare

Parent

We love Beau’s teachers, we absolutely believe they care for Beau as much as we do. He is so excited when he gets to the Pepi room. His Teacher’s have made the transition to daycare so smooth and easy.

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