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Our story · Est. 1986
Sue Stevely-Cole opened the first Bear Park in St Heliers in 1986. This is the story of what she started.
Eleven centres across Auckland and Dunedin, founded, owned and run by teachers.
Sue Stevely-Cole spent seven years teaching primary school. In 1986 she left the classroom and opened the first Bear Park in St Heliers.
Four years later she opened a second. She was onto something.
Her intention was a home away from home for young children. A place where a child is trusted with a real idea, and a teacher is close enough to take it seriously.
Nothing rushed. A whole morning could belong to one question.
Sue chose the bear for what it gives a child: comfort, loyalty, and friendship without judgement. Forty years on, it is still the standard we hold ourselves to.
Eleven centres now, across Auckland and Dunedin, each with its own character, every one still run the way Sue ran the first.
The proof walks back through our doors: the children we cared for now bring us their own.
One centre became eleven. The idea never changed.
We honour tamariki as capable people with ideas worth taking seriously. Our programme is grounded in te Tiriti o Waitangi, Te Whāriki, the Reggio Emilia approach and the Enviroschools kaupapa.
01WhakamanaChildren make real decisions here, and we back them.
02KotahitangaEvery child arrives already someone. We start from who they are.
03Whānau TangataWhānau are part of the learning, and part of the place.
04Ngā HonongaChildren learn in conversation, with teachers close enough to keep it going.
05KaitiakitangaThe garden is theirs to tend. Care for the world starts that small.
Eleven centres across Auckland's North Shore, Eastern Bays, Central and West Auckland, and Dunedin. Every one staffed beyond what the ratio asks, so no child is one face in a crowd.
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Bear Park has always staffed generously. More teachers per child means each teacher holds fewer relationships, and holds them deeply. When your child spends a morning chasing one idea, someone is there for all of it.
It changes the feel of a day. Teachers have time to sit inside play rather than direct it from the edge, and time to share what they saw with you at pick-up.
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