BestStart Weymouth

The legend of Māui and the Sun leads our local curriculum and aligns with our centre vision of "Let’s grow together."
Our Kiwi room welcomes pēpi (babies) of different ages and stages, encouraging them to learn and play alongside each other—just as Māui did to achieve his goals. We believe it’s important to grow together as a group, fostering tēina/tuākana relationships and slowing down to move at a pace that suits our pēpi.

We are a well-resourced, vibrant learning space. We’re proud to be part of a multicultural community and celebrate this diversity within our centre and beyond. With a team of qualified, passionate kaiako, we nurture children’s developmental milestones and support them to become confident, competent lifelong learners.

We achieve this through quality care and intentional teaching, offering tamariki rich opportunities to explore, learn, and grow across our 16 areas of play—each supporting their unique learning journey.

Like Māui and his brothers, we have many tasks to accomplish, so as a team we strive to create an environment that is vibrant and engaging. Our teaching practices are intentional, inclusive, cohesive, and deeply connected to our shared values and beliefs.

Our room can be a very busy place, filled with countless wonderful moments where meaningful teaching and learning take place between tamariki, kaiako, and the environment. It is important for us as kaiako to find moments within our busy routine to have meaningful conversations with the children, allowing us to be intentional about their learning while providing a fun and engaging environment.

Our room’s Treaty links to Māui and the Sun and our vision of "Let’s grow together," reinforcing the important skills we aim to foster in our tamariki to help them become capable and confident young people.

With a very experienced teaching team, we support our tamariki to learn about listening ears, kindness, teamwork, and patience—just like Māui and his brothers showed when trying to catch the sun. These fundamental skills guide our tamariki on their journey towards being ready for school and transitioning into the Tane Mahuta (preschool) room.

The story of Māui and the Sun is very special to us and connects deeply with our vision of "Let’s grow together." It guides our Te Tiriti (Treaty) room, our intentional teaching practices, and how we build strong relationships with tamariki and whānau—all with the goal of helping our tamariki get Set for School.

Just as Māui and his brothers showed determination and teamwork in the legend, we too set up our environment with purpose—to encourage tamariki to have choice and agency over their learning. We strive to nurture leadership within each child, and we support the development of self-help skills, teamwork, communication, and the ability to follow instructions.

We work in partnership with whānau to set goals and provide confidence that, when their tamariki leave our centre, they will have all the skills they need to thrive in their schooling journey beyond BestStart Weymouth.