Our children are the future
Every child should have the best possible start in life. To achieve this A Better Start researchers are creating the tools and methods to predict, prevent and intervene early so children have a healthy weight, are successful learners and teenagers can access the tools they need to look after their mental health.
A Better Start is the National Science Challenge working to help children, teenagers, their whanau and family achieve the best possible start in life. Our job is to find practical, evidence-based solutions that make a measurable difference for tamariki.
We can do that only when we work with communities, draw together indigenous and Western approaches to knowledge and bring the best researchers from different disciplines here and overseas to take a holistic approach rather than address health, wellbeing and learning issues in isolation.
About
Improving the potential for all young New Zealanders to lead healthy and successful lives
The Science
Collaborative research and science excellence
News
Updates and events
News and events
Study finds antibiotics are unlikely to be a major contributor to childhood obesity
A Better Start National Science Challenge’s research into the association between antibiotic exposure and childhood obesity is one of the largest studies of its kind ever conducted. It used a sample size of nearly 290,000 children and their mother’s (151,359 children...
Prediction of early childhood obesity acceptable to many caregivers of tamariki in New Zealand
A Better Start National Science Challenge’s Model Acceptance study is the first large-scale survey on the subject of caregiver acceptability of early childhood obesity prediction models in a multi-ethnic cohort of parents, caregivers, and grandparents anywhere in the...
Te Taonga o Taku Ngākau Ancestral Knowledge and the Wellbeing of Tamariki Māori
Read the published report for 'Te Taonga o Taku Ngākau' Ancestral Knowledge and the Wellbeing of Tamariki Māori project by Leonie Pihama, Naomi Simmonds and Waikaremoana Waitoki. This project investigates ways that mātauranga Māori related to the raising of Māori...
New research into early learning success builds children’s resilience, cultural connectedness and wellbeing
The foundations of early literacy success and subsequent educational achievement and healthy wellbeing are developed in the early childhood period. New research funded by A Better Start National Start Challenge advances science at international levels and addresses an...
E Tipu e Rea
Grow and Branch Forth
E Tipu e Rea is A Better Start’s Māori name.
In 1949, shortly before his death, Māori leader and scholar Sir Āpirana Turupa Ngata of Ngāti Porou wrote into the autograph book of schoolgirl Rangi Bennett a passage about his vision for Māori youth.
E tipu e rea mō ngā rā o tō ao
Ko tō ringa ki ngā rākau a te Pākehā
Hei ora mō te tinana
Ko tō ngākau ki ngā tāonga a ō tīpuna Māori
Hei tikitiki mō tō māhuna
Ko tō wairua ki tō atua
Nānā nei ngā mea katoa.
Grow and branch forth for the days destined to you
Your hands to the tools of the Pākehā
For the welfare of your body
Your heart to the treasures of your ancestors
adornments for your brow
Your spirit to god
Who made all things.
