Clarke Gayford gets his first parent group invitation

Clarke Gayford and Jacinda Ardern will bring their baby into a supportive "village" in Pt Chevalier. Photo / Doug Sherring

The Prime Minister's baby can look forward to going to school in a "tight knit" community according to the principal of what could be the child's primary school while Clarke Gayford has already been invited to join a group of parents who take their babies to visit a retirement village.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and partner Gayford are joining what locals describe as a mini baby boom in Pt Chevalier.

Young families have moved into the inner-Auckland suburb in recent years, pushing up the waiting list for the local kindergarten to 150 and swelling the local school's roll by about 100 since 2010.

"There seem to be more and more people about during the day pushing prams," said Stuart King, who chairs the Pt Chevalier Kindergarten's whānau group.

"Last time I was at the Plunket clinic, about a year ago, the nurse was telling us the average number of kids is increasing. Instead of having two kids, people are now looking to have at least three and some are looking to have four."

Jacinda Ardern, who lives in Pt Chevalier with partner Clarke Gayford, revealed she was pregnant today in an announcement on Instagram stating: "I think it's fair to say that this will be a wee one that a village will raise."

Pt Chevalier School principal Stephen Lethbridge said the area was "a tight-knit community that is very fixed on doing the best they can for their kids in the area".

"The Prime Minister's baby can look forward to having all of the best things that the New Zealand education system has to offer," he said.

The school has grown from 605 students in 2010 to 700 today, and has taken over part of the site where the kindergarten formerly operated. Lethbridge said the school board decided to keep the extra land in open space "so we have more grass for kids so they can experience what it's like to be a Kiwi kid even close to the centre of town".

Unusually in multicultural Auckland, the children at the decile 10 Pt Chevalier School are 75 per cent European, with 10 per cent Asian, 8 per cent Pasifika and 6 per cent Māori.

But Lethbridge said the school employed a Māori language teacher three days a week and had 120 children in its kapahaka group.

"We have a strong focus to make sure all of our kids have experienced te reo Māori and tikanga Māori," he said.

Elderly residents from nearby Selwyn Village help children at the school with extra reading, and a "Baby Buddies" group of parents takes their babies into Selwyn Village every Friday for the residents to hold and enjoy.

Home-based educator Kim Saunders posted on the group's Facebook page after Ardern and Gayford's announcement: "Pretty fab huh, maybe Clarke can come to baby buddies."

She said Ardern visited Baby Buddies on the day after she became Labour Party leader in August.

"Mums and nanas come, and dads come along some time. Sometimes it's like 15, there's no set rule," she said.

"They visit with the residents so the residents hold them or feed them.

"There's two I can think of who stand out in my mind. One was grumpy and didn't like to be told what to do, and she's completely transformed, because no matter how much dementia they have and what they are suffering, somewhere in the back of their mind is a little mental switch and they know how to hold a baby."