 The movement started during the Second World War to provide a break for mothers as well as means to allow for the social development of the child within a cooperative environment.In the initial years of the war, educator Gwen Somerset, who is responsible for the movement's philosophy, began to use Feilding's Community Centre (which in itself was the first in New Zealand) to hold classes on child development and parenting, and to facilitate children's daycare by means of a playgroup; this acting as the forerunner experiment to the playcentre movement.The first proper playcentre was established in 1941 in the Wellington suburb of Karori.