The Learning Centre

The Learning Centre opened in April 2007 and is a family owned childcare centre, providing a homely atmosphere with great qualified teacher to child ratios.

Located next to Vermont Street Reserve in the heart of Ponsonby, it has a spacious outdoor environment for under 5's to develop and learn.

TLC provides care and education for children from 6 months to 5 years.

Our ratios are:
Age Group - Ratio (Educator / Child)
Infants 6-13M - 1:3
Toddlers 14-26M - 1:4
Toddler 27M-3Y - 1:5
Young Child 2-4Y - 1:6
Pre-Schooler 4-5 - 1:8


We have created an indoor environment that is homely rather than institutional, so that children can feel at home and comfortable. To enable this we chose a Ponsonby Villa and have tried to furbish it in a homelike way.

The centre also has an amazing outdoor garden environment for the children. We have worked with our landscape designer, to create a lush garden to provide a space for children to explore, to play and to rest.

The garden is also surrounded by Vermont reserve which enhances the feeling of being surrounded by nature despite being in the middle of the city. The children will be able to participate in the gardening including to help with the maintenance of our worm farm.

We believe that a great early childhood education is one of the greatest gifts we can give a child for a good start in life. At the heart of that education is genuine warmth and care for under 5's to allow us to 'listen' to the child and to build an education around the individual child. So we have sought out educators for whom early childhood education is a vocation not just a job. And for this reason, we have chosen ratios which allow those educators to focus on the children

Philosophy
At The Learning Centre we are inspired by the principles of the Pikler and RIE (Resources For Infant Educarers) Philosophies founded by Emmi Pikler and Magda Gerber.