KIDS’ PLAY
WE RANK CHILDCARE
THE majority of Gold Coast’s childcare centres provide quality care for our little ones but one in 12 do not, according to government ratings.
The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority assess childcare centres on seven criteria – education, health and safety, physical environment, staffing, relationships with children, partnerships with families and communities, and governance and leadership.
The categories are marked as either “significant improvement required”, “working towards national quality standards (NQS)”, “meeting NQS”, “exceeding NQS” or “excellent”. Each centre is graded an overall rating.
According to ratings, 104 of the 326 childcare centres on the Gold Coast have an overall rating of “exceeding NQS”. The Southport School childcare was the only centre to get the top grade “excellent”. Twenty-seven of the centres had an overall rating of “working towards NQS”. No centre received the lowest rating.
Compared to the national average of childcare centres “working towards NQS”, the Gold Coast is well below, with 8.3 per cent scoring the rating compared to 18.6 per cent across Australia. The city is also lower than the average for Queensland at 13 per cent.
Foxwell Magic in Coomera were rated at the other end of the scale when assessed in April 2017, just over a year into opening.
A centre spokesperson said they learnt a lot from the grading system and were having their latest rating conducted, and the centre was positioned to improve in all areas.
Kindyland Kids have three centres across the Gold Coast and all of them have an overall rating of “exceeding NQS”. Compliance officer Trish Wright credited the score to the culture at the centre to allow children to make choices.
“We work to have children learn naturally by modelling correct behaviours, allowing them to make good decisions without adults prompting them,” she said.
“Through consistent dayto-day procedures, children understand health and safety and automatically put their hat and sunscreen on before going outside, wash their hands before eating and generally make good choices. These are embedded in the culture at the centre and the children follow and understand the practical life skills happening around them.”
Opening its first centre in Runaway Bay in 1987, followed by facilities in Harbour Town and Paradise Point in the next four years, Kindyland Kids owner Gwynn Bridge said adapting with the times has kept each centre’s high quality ratings.
“A centre can have all the bells and whistles but without educators and management working consistently together on quality improvement it would be difficult to maintain the Exceeding rating,” she said. “The industry standards have come a long way from when we first started and in recent times have become more rigorous”.
“We have to not only meet those standards every day but put in place practices that will exceed them.”