BestStart North Road  

Here at BestStart North Road (formerly EduKids North Road) in Invercargill, the children are the heart of our centre and community. Kaiako (teachers) foster, enrich and support the relationships of the people, places and things that make each child unique. We are guided by the principle whanuaungatanga which for us means an open-door policy that allows for strong reciprocal relationships with parents and whanau, leading to a partnership in learning.

We offer a stimulating natural environment including venturing out to explore and learn about our own community's natural environment. We empower our children by fostering independence that leads to a sense of achievement and well-being (whakamana).

We celebrate successes!! We're proud to have received BestStart's Trust Mark award in 2017 for Quality Teaching, Leadership and Management and Working with Others. This celebrates the effort, excellence and innovation of our centres team. We have also been rated one of the top childcare centres in NZ by the Education Review Office.

We embrace our natural environment and have long term goals around sustainability including our community garden and centre chickens.

What our environments can offer your whanau:

Nursery (Tuataras) Our nursery provides a warm home like environment for children 3 months to 2 years. We have created a beautiful infant nook to keep our tamariki safe and nurtured. We also offer a great young explorers group with our very own six-seater buggy that allows for our infants to head out on a regular basis into our community to explore a variety of locations.

Pre-school room (Paihamu) Provides education and care for children aged 2 to 3.5 years. We offer child initiated free play. We have a strong passion for nature and caring for ourselves and our community. Come in and see our variety of pets which include turtles, birds, fish, frogs and walking fish. We also offer a Nature Adventurers group that venture out into our local bush area to learn and explore.

Prep room (Pukekos) Offers a project based approach to learning with exciting opportunities for our tamariki daily. The Natures Discovery group gets us out into the bush at least once a week to learn about and develop a respect for our natural world.