Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday
9.15-11.45am

Babies CanPlay Sessions -
Thursday : 9.30am - 12.00pm & 12.30-3.00pm

Haere mai. Welcome to Lyttelton Street Playcentre. We are a fun and friendly Playcentre in Spreydon, located right beside the entrance to Pioneer Stadium. We have been there since the 1970s and are currently planning a modernisation of our building at the end of this year so we will soon have wonderful new facilities.

Playcentre is Great for your Child

Outdoors, we have a fabulous landscaped environment with a large sandpit, lots of trikes and scooters, a huge swing set including barrel swing and climbing ropes, slides, water play, and a fort. Our play equipment allows us lots of flexibility, so on session you may find us making volcanoes in the sandpit, creating our own Olympics obstacle course, having a picnic in a tent, or helping the children manage their own pretend construction site complete with signs, hard hats and safety vests.

Indoors we have family play with pretend kitchen, high chair, cot, “babies” and shopping corner. We also have lots of different resources such as music, blocks, puppets, train sets, and dressups, plus painting, playdough, and craft. On session we may be ‘foot painting’ a large canvas on the floor, exploring science with a magnifying glass or magnet, or dancing to a CD. We cater to the interests of individual children, so whatever your child is in to we can accommodate.

We have a lot of new babies attending with their older siblings and offer facilities such as breastfeeding couch, cot, high chair and baby play area. The Babies CanPlay programme is a separate play session for babies under 2 years of age, which also provides support and information for whaanau and parents. The Babies CanPlay programme runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays - contact the Canterbury Playcentre Association office for more information.


Playcentre is Great for You Too!

Meet other families, make friends in your area, share worries and have a laugh about what funny thing your child did this week. We offer lots of activities that it is not easy to offer at home - let your kids make a mess at Playcentre where the cleanup is simple and straight-forward!

Playcentre has a great parent education programme where you can develop your own skills in a supportive environment at your own pace. Three of our parents have been so inspired by the education programme that they have gone on to work as Playcentre supervisors.

How Lyttelton Street Playcentre is Different

• Our parents choose to stay on session with their children which provides a great social environment and opportunities to make friends with other families who you see every week
• We have a much higher ratio of adults to children than the required 1:5
• We do not have a minimum number of sessions you need to attend each week - you can attend one session or all three
• We have a high involvement of parents in the running of the Centre - about 75% of our parents hold a committee position, spreading the workload and being truly co-operative
• We are family focussed - we recognise that there are times you can give more to Playcentre and times you can’t, and we will respect your family’s needs (eg. sleep routines that overlap with session times), and we know you will pay back that support to another family when you are in a position to do so
• We have Dads, Grandparents, and other family members attending with children as well as Mums
• We keep our fees as low as possible and choose to fundraise to buy new equipment and run the centre rather than raise that money through fees


What Our Families Say

“My boys and I attended Playcentre in Manukau before we transferred down south. We knew that we wanted to continue with Playcentre, but were unsure of which centre to choose. I called up old friends in Christchurch to get their input as to which centre in our new area would suit us - I was told that Lyttelton Street were whanau based, friendly and relaxed, so we chose to attend two sessions a week there. I’m so glad we did! The other parents have been so welcoming, positive and supportive, and my children and I all look forward to our mornings there. It’s a great place to be.”
Stephanie, Mum to Elias (3yrs) & Leon (20mths)

“Gabrielle loves waterplay and it’s great to have the option of paint and playdough as well, which is something we don’t often do at home as it can be quite messy to tidy up.”
Rachel, Mum to Gabrielle (2yrs) and twins Emily & Jacob (9mths)

“I came to Lyttelton Street Playcentre when my oldest child was 18 months. I was new to the city and didn’t know anyone but through Playcentre our family has made many fantastic friends. It’s been a wonderful environment for my children to play, learn and grow up in. I’ve enjoyed being involved with Playcentre in general and Lyttelton Street in particular and I’d recommend this centre to anyone.”
Anna, Mum to William (5yrs), Sasha (2yrs) & Eleanor (8mths)


Come & See Us

Feel free to drop in to any of our sessions for a quick visit, or call our Information Officer to arrange to stay for a whole session. All families get three free visits before being invited to enrol. We run sessions on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 9.15am until 11.45am. In Term 3 we will be adding a Tuesday morning session, please call our Information Officer to go on the waiting list.

Contact Details

Tiffany Hider, President
Phone (03) 337 2732


Nadia Sole, Information Officer
Phone (03) 339 0559

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