Our shared Vision for Kids College Childcare: rated as exceeding the national standards
KIDS COLLEGE CHILDCARE RATED AS EXCEEDING THE NATIONAL STANDARDS
KIDS COLLEGE HAS BEEN RATED AS EXCEEDING THE NATIONAL STANDARDS IN 2015 ON THE PREVIOUS NATIONAL QUALITY SYSTEM AND NOW RATED AGAIN IN OCT 2019 AS EXCEEDING ON THE NEW NATIONAL QUALITY STANDARDS.
WE ARE THE SECOND CHILDCARE NORTH OF THE RIVER IN PERTH TO ACHIEVE EXCEEDING OVERALL, SINCE THE STANDARDS CHANGED BACK IN FEBRUARY 2018.
In this article we explain how the childcare system in Australia works and how Kids College is exceeding the national quality standards.
What is the National Quality Framework?
Fact: Research shows quality early education and care leads to better health, education and employment outcomes later in life.
National Quality Framework
The National Quality Framework aims to improve the quality of early childhood education and care services in Australia.
Providing children with quality experiences early in life can lead to better health, education and employment outcomes, building a productive and fair Australia.
The National Quality Framework includes legal requirements that all services must comply with.
What services are included?
- Long day care
- Family day care
- Preschool/kindergarten (apart from Tasmania and WA)
- Outside school hours care.
National Quality Standard
The National Quality Framework sets a higher national quality standard to encourage services to continue to improve their programs and practices.
Services are assessed and rated against seven quality areas of the National Quality Standard.
The 7 quality areas of the National Quality Standard
- Educational program and practice
- Children’s health and safety
- Physical environment
- Relationships with children
- Collaborative partnerships with families and communities
- Governance and leadership
How do services get a quality rating?
Assessors will visit each service to rate it against the seven quality areas of the National Quality Standard.
The quality areas are made up of standards and elements that describe what research shows are the most important parts of a quality early education and care service.
Services receive a rating for each of the quality areas and an overall rating based on these results. Services must display their ratings.
How are most services rated?
The services will receive one of the following ratings: Significant Improvement Required, Working towards NQS, Meeting NQS, Exceeding NQS and Excellent. Those who have not undergone ratings yet are listed as provisional.
How do you achieve an overall rating of EXCEEDING?
To achieve a rating of exceeding you need to achieve a level of meeting for each and every element under the seven quality standards. There are 40 elements. In addition to this you need to show the three additional themes under each of the 40 elements. That means we need to demonstrate in practice and in our documents 120 different pieces of information.
The additional themes are:-
- Practice is embedded in our service operations
- Practice is informed by critical reflection
- Practice is shaped by meaningful engagement with families and/or the community.
Our shared vision
We are working every day to continually improve our service going above and beyond to create a shared vision of the Kids College family. Our vision is informed by early Childhood Australia’s Code of Ethics, the Australian Government’s National Quality Standards, the national Early Years Learning Framework and the United Nations Rights of the Child. These are the overarching principles that shape our values. These explain how important early childhood education is.
Our Kids College philosophy is developed as our shared vision for the children, families, educators and community of the Kids College family.
Our Quality Improvement plan is developed as our to-do list and details our steps to increasing outcomes for our families every day. To be the best we can be every day and to continually improve we are continually developing on the three exceeding themes.
Our practice is embedded into everything we do
Our quality is consistent across our entire centre with each room and every educator in our team and reflects our philosophy and the principals of the early Years Learning Framework. We live our philosophy and ensure our core beliefs inform our practices everyday to embed them into every action. Our long-term friendships with our families are a testament to our ability to live our everyday lives true to our philosophy. I was once told it wasn’t necessary to show new people around Kids College and you can easily see and feel this is a truly special place. That was very high praise which assured me we are remaining true to the incredible trust our families place in us, caring and educating their precious little ones.
Our practice is informed by critical reflection
We challenge the usual way of being and critically reflect on our practices. We consider, question, analyse and re-evaluate planning and decision making. We have a deeply embedded culture of continuous improvement to create improved outcomes for children, families, our educators and our community. We seek new and exciting perspectives and take considered action in our pursuit of excellence. We feel that there are always new and exciting opportunities out there for those who look.
We are proud of our reputation as pioneers in childcare and take great enjoyment and satisfaction in our efforts to go above and beyond the normal, seeking out excitement and improvement for the families that we hold dear. Our educational values extend beyond the children and include our educators and our community as we have forged alliances with other pioneers in early childhood education both locally and internationally.
Our practice is shaped by meaningful engagement with families and our community
We are very proud of our unique culture at Kids College. When families join Kids College we all become part of our shared community, the Kids College family. We grow up together over the many years families spend with us and influence children and families at the most crucial point in their lives. This friendship is part of the old adage ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. Our long-term relationships with families build our centre with shared decision making and problem solving. We tailor our unique environmental, cultural and community to foster a culture of inclusiveness.
We need our community input to engage in our shared vision. Please take a moment to consider letting us know what is important to you. We want to engage with you and walk this road together.
Continuously seeking your input
We are continuously working on our service and wanted to let you know the various ways you can share in our Kids College community.
Our website is a rich source of information. We have a website with a vast array of information and advice. Throughout the years we have been asked every kind of question so we chose to put all this on our website to hopefully help everyone out there. The internet is a big ocean of information and it can be hard to know who to trust. Let us know what you want to know about and if you are an expert in an area please do let us know what advice you have to offer.
We have a very big presence on our facebook page with posts each and every day keeping you up to date with us and offering ideas, thoughts and advice. A mixed bag of all the elements that come together that makes Kids College special. We do love to have some fun too with hilarious memes and we love our top tips to pass along little tips and tricks that help busy families. Please let us know your ideas to share with our community.
You don’t even need to have children at Kids College to follow our page or engage with our website. The information we disseminate hopefully can help everyone. Make sure to follow Kids College Childcare on facebook and let your friends know too. Please note we do not post photos of children without prior permission. If you do see a photo we have permission from that family or have used a stock image.
Our activities in the classroom are informed by the information you give us on your child’s needs and interests, where we extend the fun and learning knowing your child will be a confident, strong and involved learner.
We send out our newsletters to your nominated email account showing everyone what the children are learning at Kids College.
Each child’s unique learning journey is tracked and documented through their portfolios as a keep sake to treasure these precious memories forever.
We have advertised proudly at Westfield Whitfords Event Cinemas, the children love seeing their school on the big screen.
Kids College philosophy
‘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.’
National Quality Standards
4.2.2 Professional standards. Professional standards guide practice, interactions and relationships.
7.2.1 Continuous improvement. There is an effective self-assessment and quality improvement process in place.
Kids College family
Please join the Kids College family community and share in our vision of creating the very best childcare where children experience love, laughter and learning every day. You can reach us on Jennifer@kidscollege.com.au
With love, laughter and learning from your friends in the
‘village it takes to raise a child’
Teacher Jen and the Kids College Childcare family