BestStart Waiuku

BestStart Waiuku is a centre where everyone joins in and has lots of fun! We're open 6.30 am to 6.00 pm all year round and care for children from 0 to 6 years old in our beautifully age-appropriate environments.

Nurturing the learning journey at every age and stage

We provide a warm, safe and friendly environment for our children to grow and develop. Our three buildings cater for the individual learning needs of our children. We pride ourselves on being an open centre where the children transition between rooms effortlessly, allowing them to explore new areas and resources as they grow within the centre.

The Kowhai Pēpē Room
This is set up for children who are learning to roll, move, sit and eventually walk. We have a cosy room set up with open-ended age-appropriate resources to cater for children from birth till approximately the age of 18 months. We have a primary caregiving system which allows your baby to form a secure attachment to a key teacher, which reduces stress not only for your baby, but also for the parents. We aim to be a home away from home, and follow a similar routine to home; however, we can set a routine if parents wish.

The Kowhai Room
This room caters for older infants who are confident on their feet and gives them more room to explore. It has a great outdoor environment which provides many opportunities for physical development, including a bike track, large sandpit, obstacle course and a covered-in shed to use on rainy days. The large open indoor play area offers lots of fun and engaging places for children to explore. We follow children’s interests and provide lots of activities with open-ended age-appropriate resources to cater for young children’s development. We also follow a primary caregiving system for our older infants to support their emotional wellbeing.

The Manuka Room
This room offers a stimulating and safe environment for our tamariki aged 2-3.8 years to explore, learn and discover. The younger children are learning important skills such as communicating their needs, knowledge of themselves and each other. For the older children the teaching team foster independence and self-help skills. As educators we value our individual learners and encourage their contributions both within their own and within others’ play. Through this we embrace child-led activities and encourage leadership skills. We promote our learners to make discoveries, explore their natural environment and develop their own working theories first-hand. Our children explore expression and creativity daily to enhance language and communication skills, numeracy, emotional literacy, problem solving and developing new perspectives. 

The Kauri Room
This is for our biggest tamariki who represent the great Kauri Tree. The children are confident learners who participate within their very own home away from home - a vast open & inclusive learning environment. They have a large outdoor playground with a cycle track, swing area, a mud pit, and a huge sandpit! Tamariki were involved in the planting of our central Kauri Tree within the playground, they really do love exploring the natural environment. Tamariki also have their own chickens who they regularly feed & care for,and a vegetable garden which they help to maintain, plant, and harvest their own vegetables all year round. 

Tamariki (children) and kaiako (teachers) go home with sand in their shoes, big smiles on their faces and great stories to share with their families. BestStart Waiuku is your childs destination for early learning.

For more information about the specific fees for your centre, please contact us directly (09) 2350373 / waiuku@best-start.org You might be eligible for support paying their childcare fees. For more information click here.