Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: daycare north shore

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    NZ
    Posts
    22

    Smile daycare north shore

    We have 2 children (aged 3 and 4) and have recently moved to Auckland. Living on North Shore. We will hopefully both be starting work in Jan. Need good childcare esp. For DD (4) who has developmental delay. Would like to stay on NS. Any recommendations? Will be working on Queens St and Grey Lynn. Any suggestions nearer to places of work. Any help appreciated.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    2,691

    Default

    Have you check out Kindercare? They are not the cheapest childcare option on the shore, but have an excellent reputation for their school preparedness programme for 4 year olds. Alteratively, if you are wanting some more one-to-one type of childcare, how about Porse or Barnadoes? There are a ton of other daycare/early childhood education centres on the North Shore, or some people have their kids in kindy and use a childminder to make up the rest of their working hours. I would suggest checking out the centres close to where you live, and visiting a few until you find one that is a good fit for your family.

    http://www.kindercare.co.nz/

    http://www.porse.co.nz/

    http://www.barnardos.org.nz/Care-and...troduction.htm

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Auckland, NZ
    Posts
    42

    Default

    Information about two.

    1st. Discoveries in Marangi Bay. our daughters went there for about 6 months. Had issues with bullying, frequent injuries (falls from equipment,slips etc), also had issue where eldest daughter wasn't being fed as she didn't like anything they offered so they wouldn't give her anything.

    2nd. Sunset kids in Glenfield. girls went there for 3 weeks before we pulled them out. Our eldest tripped over whilst running and hit her head on a concrete planter. Despite us living 30 mins away and her having a giant lump on her head, they weren't going to take her to the doctor. They were going to wait until we got there so we could take her. Turned out they only had 2 members of staff on at the time, even though there were nearly 40 children at the centre.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Sydney, Australia
    Posts
    2,691

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by happydave View Post
    Turned out they only had 2 members of staff on at the time, even though there were nearly 40 children at the centre.
    That is probably because the child to adult ratio for pre-school age children is 1:15. This is considerably higher than found in the UK, where it used to be 1:8 (or at least it was before we left the UK in 2007). Some childcare centres have better ratios (and therefore charge more), and kindies usually have a fair number of parent helpers at each session, but it is certainly a consideration. There are quite different ideas about health & safety and minor accidents here compared to the UK, and coming from the UK where the very idea of 3 year olds banging real nails into bits of wood with real hammers is quite scary to begin with, it can take some time to adjust to the way things are done here. Adequate adult supervision and properly trained ECE staff make a huge difference, which is why I's personally always recommend spending time at a number of different childcare centres/kindies until you find one you are happy with.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    NZ
    Posts
    22

    Default

    Thank you for all your comments. We ended up visiting 6 and from a shortlist of 2 opted for Summerfields on corner of Rosedale and Bush Road. Great space, good ratio. Really supportive when discussing our dd's additional support needs.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •