FAQs

Health and safety are a top priority at our centre, and our policies are continuously reinforced by our staff. These include (but are not limited to) regular safety checks of all equipment, identification of and mitigation of any hazards,  the storage of chemicals and hazardous items in locked cupboards, and educating children on personal safety matters such as walking inside, staying seated while eating, not throwing equipment and encouraging respectful caring behaviour at all times.

At our centre we have at least one first aid trained staff member per 50 children onsite at all times.

To make the transition as stress-free as possible, we recommend several short visits prior to the start date, where you stay with your child as they familiarise themselves with the new environment. From there we can also build in several independent visits where you come and settle your child into the classroom with the teachers and then leave for an hour or two, building their confidence until they are attending their planned booking.

Once your child starts with us, feel free to visit or phone the centre at any time to find out how they are getting on – you might find this unnecessary once you see how much they love our centre! And if you would like us to give you a call during the day at any time during those first few weeks please just let us know.

We have learnt from experience that it is best to devise a regular routine for saying goodbye and discuss it with your child before arriving at the centre. Some tips to make it a bit easier include:

• Talk to your child about what activity you are going to do with them before saying goodbye (such as staying to complete a puzzle or reading a story)
• Keep the goodbye process short to minimise stress
• Always let your child know you are going to leave but will be back later to pick them up. If your child gets upset at this point, we recommend sticking to your routine
• Leave them with one of the teachers rather than just on their own
• Always leave as soon as you have said your goodbyes
• Crying can be a common emotional reaction when you leave – this does pull on our heart strings, however rest assured this usually stops soon afterwards as children settle into their day! If it doesn’t, we will phone to let you know and work out together how to best move forward from there for the wellbeing of your little one
• Children will pick up on your emotions about coming to the centre. Make sure you have positive conversations about the centre and always ask them how their day was when you pick them up

The children at our centre are very busy which means there is often a need for parents to pack a few extra things. We recommend packing the following named items:

• Two or three complete changes of clothes, including underwear, socks and shoes if toilet training
• Sunhat in summer
• Warm hat and jacket in winter
• Appropriate footwear
• Nappies if necessary
• Formula or breastmilk and bottles if required
• Birth Certificate needs to be sighted and Certificate of Immunisation needs to be supplied with the enrolment form prior to starting visits

Parents provide a lunch box for their child with enough food to cover morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea.

As part of enrolment and pre-visits your classroom team leader will check in with you regarding any food related preferences. We are a nut free centre so please make sure there are nut free food items in your child's lunch box. If your child has a serious allergy, we will ask for further documents to be filled in and develop a clear emergency medical plan with you.

We love to build close relationships with all our families and use an online tool called Storypark to share your child’s learning with you.

The team are always available to discuss any matter regarding your child and centre. We recommend that you make an appointment so that teachers can be available without interruption.

Yes, we do! Under this scheme if your child is between the ages of 3 and 6, they can receive up to 6 hours per day for a total of 20 hours per week free. For more information, please get in touch.

Please phone the centre or email the centre to let us know that your child won’t be in. – You can leave a message if no one picks up the phone.  

We will follow standard procedure when it comes to accidents or illnesses and only call an ambulance if necessary.

We respect parent/caregiver choice around immunisation.  If your child is immunised, please provide their Plunket book on enrolment so that we can photocopy their immunisation chart.  If you have chosen not to immunise your child, please let us know on enrolment, so that you can be notified if there is ever an infectious disease/illness in the centre.