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At Kakapo Creek, we don’t just understand the importance of the first 1000 days of a child’s life, we prioritize it. That’s why we offer home-styled care with a consistent caregiver in our nursery rooms. We believe that these early days are crucial for a child’s development, and we’re here to support you every step of the way.
Infants are assigned a consistent caregiver to accompany them throughout their journey in the Kakapo Creek nursery. As children demonstrate a readiness to join our two-year-old classroom, a teacher moves with them to ensure consistent relationships are maintained. Science tells us that close, warm, reciprocal relationships are the single most important factor in raising amazing humans.
Our specialist under-two-year-olds classroom is not just sunny and spacious, it’s a haven of safety and nurturing. Equipped with everything a baby or toddler could need, it’s where they spend their days, joining our older children for blended family play. This mix of ages, along with the consistent caregiver model, ensures that children experience the best of both worlds—mixed-age family-styled care in a safe, nurturing environment.
See our gallery below for photos of our baby’s room.
While we do accept children under one, this is only in exceptional circumstances. We prefer to enrol only children aged one and over for reasons of parental attachment and child wellbeing. These exceptional circumstances may include unique family situations or specific developmental needs.
We have a long wait list for under-two-year-olds and prioritise families with older siblings and those over one year of age. To increase your chances of securing a spot, we recommend early enrollment. Please click here to put your name on our wait list for under-two enrollment.
Because we understand the importance of a child’s first 1000 days, we provide consistent caregivers throughout your child’s early childhood journey. In our nursery children don’t change teachers on birthdays, disrupting attachment relationships.
Attachment-rich care has many expressions. At Kakapo Creek, we ensure that our highly skilled and experienced teachers work five days a week so that your child’s favourite nursery teacher is always available. We minimise the use of relief teachers by overstaffing every day, and when we do need relief teachers, we draw on our own privately contracted relievers, not agencies.
Upon new enrolment, our free settling period is designed to help your child adjust to the nursery environment and maximise attachment practices. It includes a home visit to ensure that the connection between home, family, and centre is prioritised and that you and your child are personally known. This period is crucial for building trust and familiarity, and it’s just one of the ways we ensure attachment-rich care.
When children reach the age of two and demonstrate developmental readiness, they transition to our second nursery room. This classroom is specifically designed to meet the developmental needs of children at this age, providing them with the right environment and activities to support their growth. Children don’t move classrooms on their birthdays; instead, small groups of children move in a cohort when ready, and a teacher from their classroom moves with them, ensuring a smooth transition.
Research unequivocally shows that our approach, with its focus on consistent caregivers and attachment-rich care, is the best for children’s emotional and social development. This is not just a claim, but an established fact that should give you confidence in our program.
Children may be enrolled in school hours or full days, depending on your family’s needs and your child’s readiness. We understand that every child is unique, and we are here to accommodate your family’s specific situation.
Because we understand the importance of a child’s first 1000 days, we operate our nursery for 0-3 year olds separate from our preschool. Our warm, responsive and nurturing teachers will ensure your child is safe, loved and happy. Our youngest are placed with a key caregiver who will remain with them for their under-two journey with us. Attachment relationships are vital to optimal development in children, and consistent nurturing care develops a sense of safety and trust—an emotional state vital for learning to occur. Our nursery has two classrooms that operate together under the leadership of one head teacher.
Because younger children need greater care, protection, and ratios, we provide separate care for children aged 1-2 and 2-3. Our under-twos are placed in a specialist under-two-year-old classroom that is the best fit for their unique personalities and maturity levels. We have an average ratio of 1:4 for our children aged under two.
Our under-two-year-olds have a separate outdoor play area that they use throughout their day. In addition, opportunities are given each day to mix with older children for family time, such as sandpit and outdoor play. This provides our under-twos with a perfect blend of specialist infant-toddler care and mixed-age play, where they can be in touch with their older siblings and learn from older children. It also gives them confidence when they move to an older classroom—they know their way around and feel at home in the larger spaces.
While we do accept children under the age of one, this is in exceptional circumstances. We prefer to enrol only children aged one and over for reasons of parental attachment and child wellbeing.
When children turn two, they gradually transition from their infant classroom into our 2-3-year-old room. A teacher they know and trust moves classrooms with them to ensure continuity of care and relationships. Our toddler’s classroom has a ratio of 1:6 for our children aged 2-3.
In this toddler classroom, our gentle, experienced teachers help you and your child through this unique developmental period as they transition from baby to preschooler.
In this classroom, teachers can give you support and advice on temper tantrums, toilet training, how and when to drop a daytime sleep, and how to help your child navigate their newfound independence.
In this toddlers classroom our gentle, experienced teachers help you and your child through this unique developmental period as they are transitioning from baby to preschooler.
In this classroom teachers will be able to give you support and advice on things like temper tantrums, toilet training, how and when to drop a day time sleep and how to help your child navigate their new found independence.
Two-year-olds share their outdoor play space with our older preschoolers. This provides our two-year-olds with a perfect blend of specialist toddler care and mixed-age play where they can be in touch with their older siblings and learn from older children, too.
Transitions to preschool take place slowly and in consultation with parents and teachers. We understand that transitions can be stressful, and our teachers take time to ensure that your child is ready to minimise any anxiety. Because our toddlers have been playing in the outdoor spaces with the older preschoolers and because they have met our preschool teachers in our open, shared outdoor spaces, we find that our transitions are usually happy and natural.
Typically, transitions occur at the end of a school term with a small group of children moving to a preschool classroom. The transition period is gradual to allow for individual needs. Transitions occur when a child is ready, not when they have a birthday – chronological age is quite different from developmental readiness! Generally, children show they are prepared to transition to a preschool environment when toilet trained and have dropped their daytime sleep.
Privately owned and operated by Ian & Kaye McKean, Kakapo Creek is designed using the very best evidence based family research, incorporating attachment theory and neuroscience.
09 410 2181
Monday – Friday
7:30am – 5:30pm
409 – 411 Beach Rd,
Mairangi Bay, Auckland, New Zealand
