Donald Street Pre-School is a small, family-run early childhood centre at 37 Donald Street in Karori, Wellington, offering what it calls a caring, loving and supportive learning environment for children aged 2 to 5. Licensees Bruce and Miranda Major took over the preschool in 2012 and live just above it with their two daughters and their dog Stanley, managing the day-to-day running themselves with the support of a dedicated teaching team.
Inside, the preschool has a family home feel, with different activities set up in different spaces and a large range of excellent resources sourced from overseas and locally. Books are a real feature: the selection is vast and varied, includes bi-lingual titles, and there is a library children can access to take books home.
Families can choose between full-day sessions (8:00-5:30) and shorter days (8:00-3:30), with a minimum enrolment of three short day sessions per week. Prospective families are warmly invited to come and visit, meet the teachers and collect an enrolment form - contact Bruce or Miranda on 04 970 5709 or email admin@donaldstpreschool.co.nz to ask about current vacancies.
Donald Street Pre-School sits at 37 Donald Street in Karori, a suburb of Wellington, and sums itself up in a simple phrase: a caring, loving and supportive learning environment. What makes that phrase ring true is how the centre is actually run. Bruce and Miranda Major took over the preschool in 2012, and instead of keeping home and work separate, they moved in above it. They live upstairs with their two daughters, Millie and Immie, and their dog Stanley, and manage the day-to-day running of the preschool themselves. For the children here, the distance between preschool and home is a staircase - and it shows in the atmosphere.
Inside, the centre has a deliberate family home feel. Rather than one large open space, the preschool is arranged with different activities in different spaces, so children can move between quieter corners and busier play areas as the mood takes them. Over the years the team has built up a large range of excellent resources, sourced both from overseas and locally, keeping the environment well stocked and inviting.
Books are one of the real signatures of Donald Street Pre-School. The book selection is vast and varied, and includes bi-lingual titles alongside the rest. There is also a library for the children to access, so they can choose books to take home. It is a small feature with a lasting effect: the preschool day continues at bedtime, and families get to share in the reading habit from the very beginning.
Bruce and Miranda manage the day-to-day running of the preschool and are, as they put it, very fortunate to be supported by such a wonderful teaching team. Hannah Ashwell was born and raised in the Wairarapa and fell in love with Wellington while studying commercial dance; she describes being part of the preschool's 'beautiful whānau'. Pip Jolliffe grew up on the Kapiti Coast, spent her OE in London working as a nanny, and returned to Wellington, where she is raising three children of her own. Maddy Thompson, originally from Whanganui, is in the last year of a Bachelor's degree in English and plans to pursue a diploma in Early Childhood Education - a path that took shape when she worked as a cook in an early childcare centre after moving to Wellington in 2022. Between them, the team brings backgrounds in dance, nannying, cooking and study to the everyday life of the centre.
The preschool enrols children aged 2 to 5, with two session options to choose from. The full day runs from 8:00 to 5:30 - a 9.5-hour day - while the shorter day runs from 8:00 to 3:30, a 7.5-hour option. There is a minimum enrolment requirement of three short day sessions per week, which helps make sure every child attends often enough for the routine, the teachers and the friendships to become familiar.
Choosing an early childhood centre is a personal decision, and the team at Donald Street makes it easy to see whether it is the right fit. Their invitation to prospective families is refreshingly straightforward: come and visit the preschool to see the wonderful facilities, meet the teachers and collect an enrolment form. For information about current vacancies, contact Bruce or Miranda on 04 970 5709 or email admin@donaldstpreschool.co.nz.
Set in the Karori community and run by a family who live on site, Donald Street Pre-School offers something increasingly rare: a small, homely setting where the same familiar faces greet children each day, the shelves are full of books waiting to go home, and the door is open for parents to come and see exactly where their child would spend their days.