BestStart Waikanae

Our infant room is for our smallest pepē,  As your child’s first teacher, you know your baby better than anybody else and through sharing your knowledge with us, we get to know their routine, likes and dislikes, comforts and what soothes them, helping them settle into centre life with ease.

Our kaiako are passionate about 'serve and return'. This highly effective teaching strategy is about recognising and responding to your baby's cues to build trusting relationships, growing their confidence to lead the way in their play. This means we provide tamariki with the freedom of movement to explore, develop and learn at their own pace. An unhurried approach to development is our focus, with trusting and respectful teaching practices consistently reflected within our daily routines.

We have a baby nest which is for our immobile babies that need a safe place to explore and open spaces to freely and safely explore for our movers and shakers where we provide the 16 areas of play.

Our teachers embrace this curiosity, adventure and energy to bring learning to life. By observing what your child is passionate about we create learning experiences to engage their minds. We develop a learning plan for your child in consultation with you. 

 

We are lucky to have a large, natural environment, bugs to hunt and mud to make pies with, which supports the children to learn about their physical world. We also make good use of the Hemi Matenga Nature Reserve that is on our doorstep.  We have a fantastic relationship with Waikanae Primary School next door who support us in setting up our tamariki set for school.