BestStart Kaiapoi

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Kaiapoi-room
BestStart Kaiapoi (formerly ABC Kaiapoi) is a gorgeous, specially designed childcare centre set against the stunning rural backdrop of Kaiapoi. We are a large centre and have ample room for your child to play in a safe and nurturing environment where learning is driven by children’s interests.

Our caring and qualified teachers will nurture and extend your child’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical development.

We have loads of excellent age-specific resources to help your child learn and develop to their full potential.

We believe that to effectively guide children into school, both teachers and parents/whānau need to be active participants in the journey. Because of this we welcome family contributions at any time.

What makes us different:

  • We have three large playgrounds for children to explore and discover
  • We have five large classrooms – providing ample space to extend children’s learning. This include a separate room for our under ones.
  • Our under two bedroom has full stand-alone cots with a home away from home feel
  • Qualified, passionate and experienced staff with low teacher to child ratios
  • Bright, clean and well-resourced centre

Come and visit us!

We understand that it can sometimes be hard leaving your child in our care for the first time and know that it is important for you to be happy when leaving your children. Therefore we encourage you and your child to visit the centre as many times as you like, until you’re both comfortable.

Visiting the centre gives you the chance to see our teachers working with the children and in turn this is how they will interact with your child. You don’t need to book for a visit, simply drop by or call us for more information.

Video Gallery

Nursery

kind words from our parents

Parent

After visiting multiple preschool’s and feeling unsure, I enrolled my then 11 month old daughter into ABC Kaiapoi Nursery. Feeling nervous with the separation and change I ended up leaving the first day very happy and comfortable with my decision. All the teachers showed a genuine interest and passion for not only my child though also what they do. They worked with all of us to make the transition as easy as possible. The nursery team is amazing so fun, friendly and caring. The teachers all went the extra mile to learn about my daughter to ensure all her needs were met. She has great relationships with everyone and is so independent and happy to be there. Even though we work full time we all ways feel included in her day, we are well informed at the end of each day and through story park regularly. In the first two months she grew so much with all the learning, socializing and playing, It made me very proud. Thank you to the team at ABC Kaiapoi I couldn’t be happier.

Parent

The team at ABC have far exceeded the expectations for us with looking after our two boys. From day one of settling in a very clingy boy, they showed such genuine care and took the time to really get to know both my sons, what makes them tick and also us as a family. The boys get to experience so much and the activities they do for the different age groups are great – as is the very flash new outside areas. Kids get to be kids at ABC Kaiapoi and are encouraged to try all sorts of really cool things as well as still getting the nurture care they need. My husband and I love being able to drop the boys off and know they are being looked after by such a neat, caring group of teachers.

Parent

ABC Kaiapoi is amazing! My daughter is absolutely thriving, I love that they have a spilt Nursery so she is in a room with only crawlers, giving her loads of space to safely learn to move. She is always happy to settle and play and has quickly established lovely relationships with her Nursery teachers. I am always very informed about her day and the teachers regularly update stories and photos to storypark about her. ABC Kaiapoi is always well presented with loads of fun and stimulating resources and my daughter gets excited about arriving! I would highly recommend this centre to anyone, fun and friendly staff and the perfect learning environment.

Parent

Our family of three children have been involved with ABC Kaiapoi since 2012 and have had awesome experiences from the nursery room with babies right through to the 4 year old Prep room. The staff are all approachable and understanding. They all give lots of their time and support and always a friendly welcoming greeting to both parents/caregivers and children for arrivals and good byes. ABC is a large centre however still has the close knit family atmosphere which I love. ABC does well with individual needs of each child including special diets or children needing extra supports in place. They have many special events provided by the centre such as Xmas parties, discos, grandparents and special persons day and trips out as well as special visitors coming into preschool. The prep room has the Be School Ready programme which focus on school ready skills, takes the children for school visits and has strong relationships with all the local schools and this makes the starting school transition so much easier. My older kids still love seeing ABC visit their new entrant school class. I feel privileged to still have a preschooler at ABC and every day he is happy, learning more things, exploring and having lots of fun in a caring supportive environment.

Parent

My daughter had really bad separation anxiety and ABC Kaiapoi helped heaps they are very kind and helped me and my daughter ease into the goodbyes. She grew quite a strong bond with the ladies that work there and she now waves and smiles and says bye mum and that's it. It is a great feeling knowing I'm leaving her in such care. They update regularly and my daughter has made great friends. The staff are super friendly,carparking is a breeze the play areas are a great size and it's a nice clean centre. We recommend this centre to anyone that's thinking about where to take there young ones. It really is a great centre!

What we're proud of

Read our latest ERO report Read our latest ERO report e-Portfolios e-Portfolios

LATEST STORIES FROM OUR BLOG

Our special pet rabbit Coco

The Nursery children have really taken an interest in our pet rabbit Coco lately and each day search the outdoors to try and find him.

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Our busy toddlers

​We love getting hands on and exploring actively in our Toddler Room.

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BestStart Video Kaiapoi

BestStart is a registered charity owned by the Wright Family Foundation. We support initiatives and programmes within BestStart and the wider ECE sector that support equitable outcomes for all children.

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