KIDS COLLEGE CHILDCARE CENTRE APPLICATION FOR THE NATIONAL QUALITY RATING OF EXCELLENCE
The team at Kids College are very proud to be rated as exceeding the national standards and are excited to celebrate our excellence in our delivery of education and care by continually improving our standards, going above and beyond to set us apart as a truly excellent early childhood education childcare centre. Kids College is a very special and unique place that is made so by the dedication and love of all our staff team and our families. Our philosophy is reflective of our shared values and is embedded into every aspect of our service. Our practices are informed by critical reflection and are shaped by our meaningful engagement and partnership with our families and our community. At Kids College we engage and involve families and the community in discussions about quality and what is important in education and care to them. We learn from and are inspired by innovation and creativity and are very proud to be pioneers in early childhood education. We promote and reinforce the value of early childhood education and early childhood educators and advocate for our profession. We would like to be recognized as champions of quality improvement by achieving the national quality rating of excellence.
KIDS COLLEGE IS EXCELLENT IN THESE CRITERIA
At Kids College we exemplify and promote exceptional education and care that has improved outcomes for children and families, particularly providing excellence in the following criteria we have evolved to become pioneers in are:-
Collaborative partnerships with professional, community or research organizations
We are collaborating on a world first development of a social emotional learning initiative by Yale University Center for Emotional Intelligence called the RULER approach. We are working in collaboration locally and internationally to pioneer a new and innovative way to increase emotional intelligence and are the first Australian early childhood education setting to implement and amended this approach to suit early childhood education in Australia.
Inclusive partnerships with children and families
Our practices are informed by critical reflection and are shaped by our meaningful engagement and partnership with our families and our community. We have seen the need for a common approach to behavior guidance through emotion coaching.
We have adopted a whole school approach that encompasses emotion coaching using 1-2-3 Magic and Emotion Coaching and the Talk Less Listen More program. This is also enhanced by our use of the RULER approach, particularly the inclusion of our previous learning resources like the Kimochi’s to scaffold children’s emotional literacy.
Practice and environments that enhance children’s learning and growth
We have seen the enhanced outcomes for children first hand by watching how the children play and learn and observing their strengths interests and needs. We have proven the results of our RULER approach through our study based on the Australian Government’s Reflect, Respect and Relate resource. We can enhance our quality of relationships with children and families by increasing wellbeing though the RULER approach. We did this research study to answer our research question, which was, does the RULER approach increase the quality of early childhood education through increasing relationships and increasing wellbeing? Is RULER understandable to children in early years education and should RULER be included in early childhood education in Australia? We were delighted to prove that the RULER approach did increase outcomes for children, was understood by them and we have proven the appropriateness of RULER approach in early years education in Australia.
Sustained commitment to professional development and support of educators
Our positive workplace culture, organizational values, support of our educators and our sustained commitment to professional development have been embedded into our every day practices and demonstrate our excellence. Kids College has had an exceptionally strong focus on professional development over the years. We have a unique yearly group professional development cycle, which is used in conjunction with individual professional development plans catering to each unique educator. We extend our commitment into the future with a positive workplace culture that values and supports innovation and creativity that collaborates with and resonates with the changing face of early childhood education learning together as we go.
KIDS COLLEGE HAS A STRONG LEADERSHIP ROL
Kids College demonstrates leadership that contributes to the development of a community, a local area, and the wider education and care sector. We have taken the initiative to develop and model exceptional practice that improves outcomes for children and families that are willingly shared to inspire and educate others.
Kids College has taken a strong leadership role that extends beyond ourselves to our local community, the local area and internationally in early childhood education. We have worked in partnership with not just local but international researchers and innovators to create better outcomes for children and families. We have taken the initiative to develop and model exceptional practice and are working together to develop and amend the RULER approach to suit early childhood education in Australia.
Our educational leader is an Early Childhood Teacher with a training and assessment qualification, which allows her to be our professional trainer and take on a leadership role. She has also taken on further university study to learn stress reduction and mindfulness to further enhance our wellbeing focus. We are proud to be part of initiatives such as the Kids College Wellbeing staff book. We have a dedication to including our community in workshop opportunities and we are dedicated to our involvement in research and development of exciting early childhood education initiatives with both the RULER approach and the 1-2-3 Magic and Emotion Coaching.
KIDS COLLEGE HAS A SUSTAINED COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE
At Kids College we have demonstrated a sustained commitment to excellence and have comprehensive forward planning to ensure we are innovators and are learning every day to create an early childhood education setting of excellent quality. Our practices are influenced by opportunities, characteristics, circumstances and needs within our local and international community which are continually shifting and moving into the new technological age we are living in. We are critically reflecting on ourselves and meeting the needs not just of our community but advocating for children’s rights internationally too. We have been able to demonstrate our principle of high expectations for children, educators and ourselves by considering people as competent capable learners and creating secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships. We are in a process of ongoing learning and reflective practice to amend and design a continually adaptive program that meets needs and leads to a sustained commitment to excellence.
OUTCOME OF OUR APPLICATION FOR EXCELLENCE
In 2018 Kids College applied for the rating of excellence with ACECQA. We were successfully awarded excellence in two criteria but did not achieve an overall rating of excellence. Whilst this was disappointing we have used it as an opportunity for more feedback and have continually improved with the aim of reapplying for excellence.
We are very proud to say we achieved excellence in our Inclusive partnerships with families’through the Talk Less Listen More program connected with the TLLM + 1-2-3 Magic and Emotion Coaching program as well as our RULER approach. We also achieved excellence in enhancing children’s learning and growth with RULER and our study Reflect, Respect, Relate study.
We have continued to strengthen our collaborative partnershipswith YALE university and now have an online mentor Mela who we liaise with about our amending the RULER approach to our unique Australian early learning service. We are the second childcare in the world to use this approach, with the first being at Yale university itself. We are working with Behaviour Tonics and are in the process of assisting Behaviour Tonics to create a 1-2-3 Magic and Emotion coaching on line course.
We are keeping up with our sustained commitment to professional developmentwith our unique yearly professional development calendar and have added SUDI, Choking, Asthma to our recent courses offered to our community.
We strengthen our leadership rolewith our commitment to our facebook posts and our articles on our website to share and learn from our community locally and internationally leading the way in early childhood education. We are working particularly on our area of expertise, social emotional initiatives, such as RULER, Wellbeing programs and 1-2-3 Magic and emotion coaching. We have also developed different project leaders in our team who lead and manage different programs. For example our project leaders are:- India for Fundamental movement skills, Kayla for our Reconciliation Action Plan, Clare for mental health with Be You program, Rachael for STEM education, Amy for wellbeing, Trudy for toilet training, Denise for 1-2-3 Magic and Emotion coaching, Jennifer for Child protection, Protective behaviours and RULER.
Our sustained commitment to excellenceis embedded into our everyday practices and in our values. We getting ready to do another Reflect, Respect, Relate study into how the RULER approach is creating better outcomes for families and children.
Showcase our excellence
We have taken on the feedback from our application for excellence and are working actively to strengthen our practices. We are very proud of being rated exceeding and are looking forward to when we can apply for excellence to showcase our exceptional service and advocate for the importance of early childhood education.
NQS
4.2.2 Professional standards guide practice, interactions and relationships.
7.2.1 There is an effective self-assessment and quality improvement process in place.
Quote from Kids College Philosophy
‘We are aiming for continuous improvement with comprehensive plans for sustaining our commitment to excellence moving with the changing needs of our families and the greater climate of early childhood education.’
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If you could add something to our program, come up with great ideas, or know of resources or people we can contact could please send us an email on Jennifer@kidscollege.com.au as we really do value your input. 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