Business North March 2021

98 | BestStart Educare Northland REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Providing the best start in Northland BestStart Educare Northland has 400 licensed spaces at eight centres in Whangarei, Kaikohe and Whangaparaoa. A rea Manager for BestStart Educare Northland, Audrey Kirk, has had a connection with early childhood care and education for much of her working life and today oversees eight thriving centres in Whangarei, Kaikohe and Whangaparaoa. Her job is to support centre management around building and Ministry of Education compliances, such as curriculum and licenses. It’s a role she thrives on. “For me now the enjoyment is developing the managers and teachers so they in turn can mentor and guide their team to keep abreast of best-practice in early childhood.” And with a career spanning decades Audrey says that young children of today have evolved in different ways, given the shifts in society, parenting, the definition of family and the demands of modern life. “There are a lot more children we would class as vulnerable, so we have a really impor- tant role to play in their care in these precious early years.” Balancing this demand is a network of support for staff and ongoing professional development. “Teachers by definition are empathetic and want to make a difference and they need sup- port to maintain this on a daily basis.” Audrey also feels that there is a special character to Northland that comes with work- ing and living in a multicultural society where ‘people look after each other’. Overall BestStart Northland has 400 licensed spaces with the latest centre to open, in Whangaparaoa. From the outsiders perspective, looking at large buildings with significant numbers of young children inside, may give the impres- Sue Russell “For me now the enjoyment is developing the managers and teachers so they in turn can mentor and guide their team to keep abreast of best-practice in early childhood.” sion that children would get lost in them, but in fact, a great deal of planning and consider- ation into age appropriate spaces happens to ensure children receive quality care. “These centres will have up to six class rooms and group sizes are much smaller.” When the Whangaparaoa centre opened BestStart Educare put a great deal of time and energy into transitioning parents into the reality of a larger building for their children. “We work hard to create a sense of belong- ing with the family, with very strong family engagement and our spaces are deliberately designed so that when the young child walks into it they can immediately see themselves and that they belong here , with pictures of themselves and parents displayed.” Audrey also says each centre has its own way of being, based on the community of families that gather around them. “The develop their own vision and their own philosophy.” When Covid struck, early childhood centres were only open for children of essential work- ers so the priority was to very quickly design an ‘at-home’ programme. “We did lots of things to connect with families to keep them connected with their centre and we found out a lot more about our families which built even stronger links between home and teachers,” says Audrey. And meeting those challenges so well result- ed in BestStart Maunu Village in Whangarei being selected by the public for a finals spot in the Northland Business Awards for medium businesses of 10-24FTE and an Innovation award. “We were thrilled to be the only early child- hood centre nominated as a finalist and to also be a finalist in the Northland Inc Innova- tion section meant a great deal to us because it recognised how well we adapted to the challenges Covid brought.” KOKICH ELECTRICAL