BestStart Elles Road
Education & Care
200 Elles Road, Appleby North (Invercargill City) · Invercargill City
BestStart Elles Road is an education and care service for 75 children in Invercargill. Our analysis of the ERO report found strengths in curriculum alignment with Te Whāriki and health and safety practices, but noted areas for development in whānau partnership integration and bicultural practice, particularly in building teacher capability for te reo Māori and tikanga.
AI-generated summary of this centre's ERO review data — verify against the ERO report below. How summaries are generated.
Roll breakdown
By age
By ethnicity
Note: a child may be counted under multiple ethnicities (total may exceed roll).
Operator
BestStart Educare Cultural & rohe
ERO operator-wide review
Education Review · 2025-09-11 · covers the wider operator group
ERO's most recent review for this centre is an operator-wide review — ERO has chosen to review the parent group rather than this centre individually. The findings apply across all centres in the group.
Source: Education Review Office operator-wide review dated 2025-09-11, licensed CC-BY 4.0.
Earlier individual centre review
Akanuku · 2023-02-21· superseded by operator-wide review above
"The service curriculum is consistent with Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Infants and toddlers experience an environment that is calm. Children have choices in their learning and make decisions about their involvement in the programme. Their learning goals are set with whānau and learning over time is documented in assessment records."
Curriculum aligned with Te Whāriki; calm environment; child choice and goal-setting evident.
Not explicitly evaluated in this review.
"seek and integrate throughout the curriculum, the views of children, parents and whānau to respond to their cultures, languages, and identities"
Need to better integrate whānau views and cultural responsiveness into curriculum.
"continue to build teachers capability to meaningfully integrate te reo Māori and tikanga Māori into day-to-day practice."
Te reo Māori and tikanga integration developing; teacher capability building needed.
"Health and safety require a stronger focus to ensure that the service continues to meet all licensing requirements."
Meets regulatory standards; one non-compliance on supervision addressed post-visit.
Not explicitly evaluated in this review.
Source: Education Review Office review of BestStart Elles Road dated 2023-02-21, licensed CC-BY 4.0. The 4-point overall judgement is ERO's; the 6 dimension grades are our analysis of ERO's prose (see methodology). · Centre has 2 individual reviews on file — showing most recent.
Composite score
How this is computedOne or more dimensions missing from ERO data
Where BestStart Elles Road hasn't been graded on a dimension, the composite uses the national average for that dimension as a placeholder. Each affected axis below is flagged est. When a new ERO review lands, the placeholder is replaced and the score may shift.
The composite is a weighted average of six ERO dimensions, each scored 0–100 (A=90, B=70, C=50, D=25). The "(p47)" style suffix shows where the centre sits within its EQI band (peer percentile, when ≥10 comparable centres in band). See methodology for the formula + limits.
Location
200 Elles Road, Appleby North (Invercargill City). Nearby centres marked in grey — click to navigate.
Map tiles © OpenStreetMap, © CARTO · Brand-teal pin = this centre, 800m radius shown
Frequently asked
- Is BestStart Elles Road a free kindergarten?
- BestStart Elles Road is a Education & Care service. 20 Hours ECE applies for 3-5 year olds at participating centres.
- What's the roll at BestStart Elles Road?
- 75 children attend BestStart Elles Road (roll year 2025).
- Where is BestStart Elles Road?
- 200 Elles Road Appleby North (Invercargill City) Invercargill City
How much will this cost you? Use our FamilyBoost + Childcare Subsidy calculator to estimate your weekly out-of-pocket after government support.
Nearby & related
Compare BestStart Elles Road side-by-side with another centre →
Find your zoned schools near Appleby North (Invercargill City)
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Sources & verification
Every fact on this page links back to its government source. Verify directly:
- Centre identity, contact, roll, ethnicity, 20 Hours ECE flag: MoE ECE Directory record (Service #45957) ↗ · CC-BY 4.0 via data.govt.nz
- ERO reviews: ERO institution page ↗ · Crown copyright (reuse permitted with attribution)
- Suburb safety & demographics: SafeSuburbs ↗ · crimestats.co.nz ↗ · NZ Police RCVD + Stats NZ 2023 Census, CC-BY 4.0
- Funding policy (20 Hours / Childcare Subsidy / FamilyBoost): parents.education.govt.nz · WINZ · IRD · Crown copyright (policy only — we cite parameters, don't republish)
- Map tiles: © OpenStreetMap · © CARTO · ODbL + CC-BY 3.0
- Machine-readable formats: facts.json · markdown.md
Full source list, licence text, refresh cadence: /sources. How we match, clean, and rank: /methodology.
Data sources & freshness (4 sources · last refresh 12 July 2026)
Service type, address, roll, ethnicity, Equity Index, 20 Hours, Takiwā, lat/lng
Annual financial returns (community-based + umbrella orgs)
Per-centre review reports + 6-dimension letter grades (curriculum / wellbeing / whānau / bicultural / health & safety / leadership)
Safety score, crime/1k, 2023 Census demographics
Last build refresh: . See full methodology + data sources pages for licences, refresh cadences, and known gaps.