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Welcome from our Centre Manager
Dana Henderson
I have been part of Busy Bees Silverdale since its opening in December 2017. I’m passionate about creating an environment where children feel a strong sense of belonging and are supported to thrive. I care deeply about supporting and advocating for each child’s individual needs.
Although I’m the Centre Manager, I really value spending time with the children, alongside the teaching team. Being involved in children’s learning and building meaningful, genuine connections is a part of my role that I truly enjoy.
Outside of the centre, I’m a proud mum of five. In my spare time you’ll usually find me on the sideline cheering on one of my children at their sports game. I also have a love for nature and the wonderful learning opportunities it offers children.
A Welcoming, Natural Environment for Tamariki to Thrive
Our Silverdale early learning centre is filled with natural open spaces, vegetable gardens and generous outdoor opportunities. This environment helps tamariki develop as confident, competent learners who communicate and express themselves as individuals.
Alongside that freedom sits a safe, nurturing space carefully set up by kaiako. Children learn, develop and grow through social interaction and play, with plenty of room to explore and follow what interests them on the day.
Our toddlers and pre-schoolers thrive on using their imagination as they become 'explorers' in their own environment. They're encouraged to investigate, learn the names of animals, insects, and plants and their roles on our Earth, and take care of their centre, their community, and the great big world we live in.
Childcare Classrooms at Our Silverdale Centre
Scouts (0-2 Years)
Our warm and inviting babies room, with caring kaiako who love nurturing and educating our youngest tamariki. Communication with parents matters here, and we incorporate home routines into the centre day wherever we can.
The room is inspired by the RIE approach, where children are treated with respect and allowed to grow and learn at their own pace. There's a dedicated space for younger babies to learn to crawl and reach their milestones safely, and as they progress, they build independence by sitting at the tables with their peers.
Flyers (2-3 Years)
Children are given opportunities to explore, be challenged and develop confidence as they build their self-help skills.
Our toddler room works alongside the preschool room, so children can engage and play with older tamariki in our shared outdoor space. When it suits the day, we can separate the age groups for mat times and meal times.
Explorers (3-4.5 Years)
Our preschool in Silverdale encourages strong relationships between peers by having older children work alongside younger ones. Kaiako support and observe learning while creating a challenging and curious environment.
Children develop self-help skills such as using the toilet, dressing themselves and serving meals, and we hold regular mat times for songs, stories and discussions.
Travellers (4.5 – 6 Years)
Our Travellers' group prepares children for school by building confidence and capabilities through activities like roll call, mat sitting, phonics, and projects. It focuses on listening, comprehension, following instructions, name recognition, and writing. Children join based on individual needs and interests, with approximately 2 terms before starting primary school.
Our Travellers group prepares children for school by building confidence and capability through activities like roll call, mat sitting, phonics and projects. The focus is on listening, comprehension, following instructions, name recognition and writing.
Children join based on their individual needs and interests, usually around two terms before they start primary school.
Food & Nutrition
Fresh, healthy meals are prepared on site every day by our dedicated cook, who works alongside the centre team. From wholesome ingredients to balanced portions, every meal is thoughtfully crafted to support healthy development and foster good eating habits from an early age. Our team is currently striving towards the Tohu Manawa Ora | Healthy Heart Award from the Heart Foundation.
Growing and Baking Together
Our centre has vegetable gardens and fruit trees. These gardens help tamariki learn through hands-on activities, encourage them to work together to plant and harvest, and teach them where food comes from — while building a love for nature and care for the environment.
Kaiako also bake regularly with the children. It's a chance to learn a range of food preparation skills and fine motor movements such as pouring, sifting, and spooning, and a great hands-on sensory experience that fosters independence and supports simple maths as they measure and count.
Promoting Sustainability
We've partnered with City to Farm through their Zero Waste Zero Carbon in Schools programme, diverting food scraps from landfill and providing local farms with compost for their banana palm plantations.
At Busy Bees Silverdale, we use a bokashi compost system, placing food scraps in a bucket for the children to take turns sprinkling bokashi over. The inoculant ferments the scraps, pickling them to minimise odour and speed up their breakdown into topsoil. Bins are collected weekly and taken to a local Hibiscus Coast farm.
Our chickens do their bit too, eating food scraps to reduce waste and providing fresh eggs for the children to enjoy.
Our Curriculum
Learning at our Silverdale centre is grounded in Te Whāriki, Aotearoa New Zealand's bicultural early childhood curriculum. Te Whāriki is woven around the idea that every child should grow up as a competent and confident learner, strong in their identity and secure in their sense of belonging. This gives our kaiako a framework for building each day around the interests, strengths and culture tamariki bring with them.
Connecting with Nature
The natural world is a giant, open-ended learning laboratory. Children are innate scientists who love to experience the sights, scents, sounds and textures of the outdoors, and our semi-rural location means we can make the most of that every single day.
Through free play, tamariki connect with nature right here in our own playground. They build masterpieces from dirt and sand, hunt for twigs and sticks, watch worms wriggle through the soil, gaze at clouds, jump in puddles and stop to listen to the birds.
School Readiness Programme
Our purposefully designed Transition to School Programme equips children with the essential knowledge and skills they need for the next step, so the move to primary is a seamless and successful one, as well as a strong foundation for the learning that follows.
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!
Nutritious food is the foundation for healthy growth and development in our children. Our Nourish menus fuel our children and support full, healthy tummies enabling clear minds to focus on the learning and set children up to thrive at our centre.
The Busy Bees Way is our commitment to families and guides everything we do across our centres. From nurturing your child’s wellbeing and supporting their individual learning journey, to building genuine partnerships with whānau and respecting every child’s unique identity, culture and strengths, we’re committed to providing an exceptional early learning experience where children can thrive.
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