Bombay Playcentre is a childcare centre on Paparata Road in Bombay, in rural Franklin south of Auckland, holding a 4.0 Google rating.
Centres in the Playcentre tradition work differently from most daycare: parents stay for sessions rather than dropping children at the gate, share the running of the place, and often pick up early childhood qualifications themselves, while children play freely across a wide age range, from babies to nearly school age. Sand, water, paint and messy play are treated as the real curriculum, so expect clothes that come home well used. Because the parent community carries the sessions, it pays to visit during one, watch how adults get down to the children's level, and ask how settling in works and what the adult-to-child ratio looks like on an ordinary day.
Set on Paparata Road among the Bombay Hills, it puts the parent-led playcentre tradition within easy reach of local families.