Start with Heart

Your baby's first relationships shape everything that follows.

The very beginning of your baby's life is a special time. As organisations such as Brainwave Trust Aotearoa have long helped New Zealand families understand, the earliest weeks and months of life are a time of rapid brain development. Everyday moments of love, comfort and connection help build the foundations for lifelong learning and wellbeing.

Start with Heart is BestStart's infant programme for babies and children under two. Grounded in research and aligned with New Zealand's national curriculum Te Whāriki, the programme supports babies through warm, responsive and relationship-based care, helping them feel safe, secure and connected as they learn and grow.

Building strong foundations through the first 1,000 days

The first 1,000 days of a child's life are a period of remarkable growth and development. During this time, babies develop through relationships, interactions and experiences they have every day.

Research shows that responsive care, meaningful interactions and secure relationships play an important role in supporting children's learning, wellbeing and sense of belonging. That's why Start with Heart is built around three core principles that guide the way our teachers support babies every day.

Responsive Caregiving

Every baby communicates in their own unique way. Through careful observation and attentive care, our teachers take time to understand each child’s individual cues, routines, preferences and emerging interests.

Responsive caregiving is about recognising and responding thoughtfully to what a baby is communicating, whether through sounds, gestures, expressions or movement. By responding consistently with care, we help babies feel safe, understood and confident that their needs will be met.

Everyday routines such as feeding, sleeping and nappy changing are more than just care moments. They are opportunities to build trust, strengthen relationships and support a child's sense of wellbeing and belonging.

This means we:

Follow each baby's individual rhythms and routines
Respond thoughtfully to verbal and non-verbal communication
Create calm, unhurried caregiving experiences
Build trusting relationships through consistent, nurturing care
Work closely with whānau to provide continuity between home and centre

Serve and Return

From birth, babies are communicating with the world around them. A look, smile, gesture, babble or sound is often an invitation to connect.

Serve and return describes the natural back-and-forth interactions between a baby and a caring adult. When a baby 'serves' by reaching out and an adult 'returns' by responding, important learning takes place. These meaningful interactions help babies develop communication skills, strengthen relationships and build understanding about the world around them.

Our teachers intentionally create opportunities for these interactions throughout the day, recognising that some of the most powerful learning happens through simple moments of connection.

This means we:

Respond to babies' sounds, expressions and gestures
Talk, sing, read and engage throughout the day
Follow children's interests and curiosity during play
Encourage meaningful back-and-forth interactions
Create opportunities for connection during everyday routines

Building Secure Relationships

When children know trusted adults are nearby to comfort, support and respond to them, they develop emotional security that underpins learning and wellbeing, giving them confidence to explore, learn and develop.

Our infant teachers draw on the Circle of Security model from Circle of Security International, which applies attachment theory to early learning. Teachers provide both a Secure Base from which children can explore and a Safe Haven they can return to for comfort and support.

Parents may recognise this pattern at home: their child heads off to explore, then returns for reassurance, comfort or to share their discoveries before setting off again. The same happens at early learning, where teachers provide a familiar, responsive presence.

We build warm, consistent relationships with every child and partner closely with whānau to create continuity between home and centre. This helps children develop trust, resilience, belonging and emotional security.

This means we: