Karori Kindergarten is part of the Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens network, located at the foot of Wrights Hill near the end of Campbell Street in Karori, Wellington. It is a smaller kindergarten with four fully qualified teachers and up to 30 children in each session, now providing education and care from 8:30am to 3:30pm.
The kaiako (teachers) work collaboratively with whānau to explore, understand and develop each child's interests and ideas, creating what the kindergarten describes as a rich curriculum built on that partnership. Sustainability is woven into the day-to-day programme — the kindergarten recycles as much as possible and works to nurture children's sense of responsibility for the world around them.
The grounds include a spacious, natural outdoor environment featuring a worm farm, a weta hotel, and a much-loved Flemish giant rabbit named Killabunga. Families can follow the kindergarten on Facebook or register their interest in enrolling through the wider Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens website.
Karori Kindergarten sits at the foot of Wrights Hill near the end of Campbell Street in Karori, Wellington, and is one of the kindergartens run under the Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens network. It describes itself as a smaller kindergarten, with four fully qualified teachers and up to 30 children in each session. As of its current programme, the kindergarten now provides education and care from 8:30am to 3:30pm, Monday to Friday.
At the centre of Karori Kindergarten's programme is a partnership between kaiako (teachers) and whānau (families). Rather than delivering a fixed programme, the teachers work together with families to explore, understand and develop each child's own interests and ideas. The kindergarten describes this collaborative approach as the foundation of what it calls a rich curriculum — one that responds to the children actually attending rather than following a single set plan.
One of the standout features of Karori Kindergarten is its spacious, natural outdoor environment. Children have access to a worm farm and a weta hotel — both hands-on ways to engage with the natural world and its small creatures — alongside a resident Flemish giant rabbit named Killabunga, who the kindergarten describes as much loved by the children.
Sustainability runs through the kindergarten's curriculum more broadly. The team recycles as much as possible and works to nurture in children a sense of responsibility for the environment they live in, treating sustainability not as a one-off topic but as an integral, ongoing part of daily kindergarten life.
As part of Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens, Karori Kindergarten sits within a larger organisation of kindergartens across the region, giving it access to shared resources, policies and community services offered across the network — including things like a Community Navigation Service and support for pay equity and early childhood education advocacy, which the wider organisation is involved in.
Families interested in Karori Kindergarten can follow its updates on Facebook or register their interest in enrolling through the Whānau Manaaki Kindergartens website, which starts the enrolment process. The kindergarten publishes its open dates each year — for 2026, sessions run from Monday 12 January to Friday 18 December, with the kindergarten closed on Wednesday 7, Thursday 8 and Friday 9 October.
For Wellington whānau after a smaller kindergarten with a strong outdoor programme and a sustainability focus, Karori Kindergarten's setting at the foot of Wrights Hill — worm farm, weta hotel, resident rabbit and all — offers a distinctly nature-led early childhood environment close to the Karori shops and surrounding suburb.