Coastlands Preschool is proudly owned by Gay and Greg West.
Gay and Greg have both been in education, first as kaiako, then as principals and managers, since the early 70s. Greg has also worked for the Ministry of Education. In 2001 they saw a need in the Eastern Bay of Plenty for a private school and opened Rangitaiki Independent School in Coastlands. Sadly the school closed in 2016.
They moved to the Eastern Bay of Plenty from Northland in 1997 and have called it home ever since. They have three children and seven mokopuna. Three of these mokopuna live locally and all have attended, or currently attend, Coastlands Preschool.
They opened Coastlands Preschool in 2006 with the aim of creating a quality environment for parents to send their children to, one where they would be proud to have their own grandchildren attend. They saw the importance of providing children with plenty of space and the need for good ratios, which remain important to our centre today.
Initially only an over two centre, they saw a need to expand to include under twos in 2017 when one of their mokopuna needed to attend preschool when he was one. Positive they could improve on the care and facilities available locally, they set about bringing our Rūma Tui to life. Two and a half years later (after a lot of blood, sweat and tears), they were proud to open this room in 2020 and have another of their mokopuna be part of the first group of tamariki in this rūma.
Gay and Greg can often be seen in the centre dropping off, or picking up, their mokopuna.