BestStart St Andrews  

BestStart St Andrews (formerly TopKids Te Rapa) believes in encouraging, extending and enhancing children’s ideas as they actively explore and question the world around them. We are located conveniently in Sunshine Ave, Te Rapa with plenty of off street parking making drop offs and picks ups a breeze.

Our Pukeko Room (0-2 years) - We view all children as unique individuals: powerful, confident, capable and important members of our centre. Relationships with parents and whanau are built around trust, honesty and open communication. These relationships help us to offer the children consistent home-to-centre routines and experiences while at BestStart Te Rapa. Self-help, independence and social skills are encouraged and further developed through daily routines, interactions and role-modeling from not only teachers but also older peers. The staff encourage Baby Sign language to support our children communicate their needs and wants. Key teachers are used to help our children form a secure attachment with at least one staff member so that the settling process is seamless.

Our Tui Room (2-2.5 years) - Our Tui Room is a space designed especially for our newly transitioning two year olds. This special space encourages them to further discover and develop their language, their cognitive skills, their self-help and social skills. We recognise this particular age group requires more support to strengthen their sense of belonging, and independence as they begin to integrate more with the older children. Numeracy, Literacy, Te Reo and self-help skills are all incorporated on a daily basis through play-based activities and mat times. The children in the Tui Room have a set resting time; however, those who don’t sleep are provided with activities to stimulate their imaginations and creativity. The underlying atmosphere in this area is influenced by the belief that children thrive from knowledge and being nurtured.

Our Kiwi Room (2.5-3.5) - Our Kiwi Room is a busy, active learning environment! Here your tamariki will embark on an adventure of learning: mastering everything from self-help skills in the toileting and dressing area to developing a culture of whanaungatanga: connecting with others and building positive reciprocal relationships. Along with these skills comes the ability to take in so much more, our daily programme gives many fun opportunities as well as focused learning such as a love of books, prewriting skills and maths concepts; the enjoyment of art and construction, and an ever increasing ability to communicate with peers and adults. We provide a variety of play areas that enable children to gain a sense of independence and are encouraged to make choices about where and with whom they would like to play. We have an established routine during the day that is also able to be flexible, illustrating the importance of meeting the changing needs of children in our care. After working on all these valuable skills within the Kiwi Room they become well equipped for their next journey… the preschool room!

Our Tuatara Room (3.5-5) - In our Preschool room the children are inspired and encouraged to become competent, confident learners. We support an emergent curriculum – this is a style of teaching that presents children with the gift of discovering the world around them by encouraging them to explore life through their own interests and passions; it is ‘child lead’ as opposed to ‘teacher directed’ learning. The Preschool team are passionate about what they do and thrive off the children’s excitement as they discover new knowledge about themselves and the world. Our preschool children get involved in a yearly Rippa Rugby competition as well as performing in the BestStart annual cultural festival which is an amazing opportunity for us all to experience the traditions of Aotearoa. Natural resources and loose parts are an integral part of our programme. Numeracy and Literacy are seamlessly embedded throughout the day. With the support of our Be School Ready programme, links to our local primary school, and the role of the teachers, the children are well on their way for becoming school ready!