BestStart Te Awamutu  

BestStart Te Awamutu (formally TopKids George Street) is a quality childcare centre in Te Awamutu that caters for 75 children. We have three rooms – nursery, toddler and preschool each of which supports all ages and stages of children’s individual learning in a supportive and collaborative environment.

Step through the doors of the nursery at BestStart Te Awamutu and you will discover a warm and welcoming team and atmosphere. We believe building strong and trusting relationships is essential in our children’s wellbeing, sense of belonging and learning.  We begin to foster these relationships with our children and whanau through our primary caregiving practice as we nurture a foundation from which children learn to interact and build close relationships with others.

Alongside our primary caregiving practice, we believe partnerships with whanau is important in providing quality care and holistic education for our children.  We believe our children’s home culture is an important part of a child’s developing identity as they bring with them new language, knowledge and experiences to share with us and guide their learning.  At BestStart Te Awamutu we also frequently take excursions to our local library and parks giving children the opportunity to explore and form connecting links within their community.

In our Nursery we encourage our children to be self-motivated, having a can-do attitude and an understanding of themselves as a learner.  We provide opportunities for our children to develop their independence, building their self-esteem and pride in themselves.  Our programme also fosters children’s communication and sense of expression through implementation of baby sign language.

The Preschool Room at BestStart Te Awamutu is a learning environment that caters to the 20 eldest akonga at our centre. The Teachers in the preschool room take great pride in being able to help akonga achieve their own personal goals through the use of positive guidance, trusting relationships and timely investigation. Within the preschool room we take a project based approach to learning, in which the children are encouraged to learn through the exploration, research and investigation of the world around them.

Our preschool room has a focus on preparing children for the school environment. Children are encouraged to prepare themselves for their years at school through the acquisition and strengthening of self-management, social/emotional and literacy/numeracy skills. The preschool room teachers believe that quality education is provided through a collaborative approach to learning in which teachers, students, whanau and the community come together to provide quality learning outcomes for children. As a part of our be school ready initiative we take regular trips to a local primary school to participate in their school preparedness program. This program allows our children to become familiar with the school they will be attending. They learn about its routines, environment and expectations.

We love to go on regular excursions to the local park, “Wednesday Wonderland”  and other places in our community that relate to our current learning.

Our centre has a very homely feel and in partnership with parents, whanau and caregivers we provide a programme that caters for your child’s strengths and interests.