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Welcome from our Lake Terrace Centre Manager
Verity Parkyn
Originally from Liverpool, I moved to New Zealand in 2001 and completed my Bachelor of Teaching and Learning in 2014. I’ve been part of the Lake Terrace team ever since, making this centre deeply meaningful to me.
My practice is grounded in relationships. I prioritise creating a calm, respectful environment where children feel safe, seen, and confident to learn. I believe a strong sense of connection and belonging is the foundation for everything; for children, whānau, and kaiako alike. My approach is child-centred, inclusive, and focused on ensuring every child has equitable opportunities to thrive. I’m passionate about building genuine partnerships with families and fostering a team culture built on trust and support. When a community works together, children benefit the most and that’s always the goal.
What I love most about Lake Terrace is the feeling you get when you walk in; it’s warm, authentic, and connected. Our team supports one another, our families are engaged, and together we’ve created something really special. The moments that stay with me are the quiet, powerful ones, a child finding their confidence, a family placing their trust in us, or a teacher growing into their potential. Watching children leave for school, ready and capable, is always a mix of pride and a little sadness. What motivates me every day is simple: what we do matters. We have the privilege of shaping early experiences, supporting families, and working alongside a team that feels like home.
Our Community
Our tamariki and whānau feel a sense of belonging at Busy Bees Lake Terrace, and we welcome new families in, to feel right at home too. Our teachers live locally, in Burwood and surrounding suburbs, which supports our strong sense of community and comfortable and welcoming environment.
Our Environment
At Busy Bees Lake Terrace in Burwood, our spacious centre environment offers separate indoor and outdoor areas tailored to each age and stage of learning and development, as well as areas where tamariki can come together to share tuakana-teina (older-younger child) interactions where wonderful teaching moments are shared.
Our Programmes
In addition to our regular early education curriculum, we offer our Kaitiaki Kids programme, a weekly excursion, run termly, allowing the children to venture out into our community visiting local parks, red zones, wetlands etc. We also offer a before school programme, and liaise with local primary schools; coming together and host transition to school evening with the involvement of primary school teachers and principals.
We are proud to hold the Rito Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award from the Heart Foundation for the amazing things we do here to promote healthy food and physical activity.
We are a lunchbox centre. This promotes independence as well as encourages self-help skills in preparation for school. We encourage families to make healthy food choices and ensure their child’s pouaka kai (lunch box) meets centre guidelines as well as Ministry of Health criteria for Early Learning Services.
Our Curriculum
We are committed to follow the aspirations of the New Zealand National ECE Curriculum, Te Whāriki. Te Whāriki envisages kaiako in early learning settings working in partnership with parents, whānau and community to realise this vision. The expectation is that, in their early years, children will experience a curriculum that empowers them as lifelong learners, right from their early exploration of the world around them, through to preparation for school.
Our Programmes
Bee Curious, our Busy Bees Curriculum Framework, has been created to guide and inspire kaiako in supporting tamariki through rich, interconnected learning experiences. Built on the strong foundation of Te Whāriki, it reflects the principles of Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum and the aspirations we hold for our children as they grow.
Our MOVE programme deliberately sets out physical activities that give children the opportunity to learn, practice and master physical skills whilst developing their resilience, perseverance, patience, co-ordination, gross-motor skills, teamwork and much more, all while having loads of fun!
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