Best childcare centres revealed: Full list of Geelong and Surf Coast rankings

Geelong and the Surf Coast’s elite childcare facilities have been revealed. Find out whether your centre is living up to the strict national standards.

A Torquay early learning centre and kinder has credited a holistic approach to learning and wellbeing as the reason behind its top rating from a national childcare authority, ranking it among the best centres in the country.

Little Groms Early Learning Centre is one of 54 childcare centres across Geelong and the Surf Coast to be currently rated as Exceeding National Quality Standards’ by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).

The popular Geelong Rd centre boasts a series of unique features such as sibling and peer play – allowing children of various ages to play together – a chemical-free environment, beach and bush experiences and a focus on healthy eating via organic and locally grown fruit and vegetables, a juice station, smoothie bar and alkalised water station.

Little Groms Educational Leader Skie Peterson said the centre focused on collaborative and holistic learning and wellbeing, and said the ACECQA quality framework had pushed childcare and early learning centres across the country to lift their standards.

“The national quality framework coming in has really underpinned that passion for services to provide best quality for children,” Ms Peterson said.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, and definitely I’ve seen a lot of change, and it really shifted when the framework came in – it just raised the standard, it really did.

Little Groms Early Learning and Kindergarten Teacher Skie Peterson with Piper Roberts, 4, and Rowdy Stevens, 4. Picture: Mike Dugdale

“It’s something you work really hard towards, but ultimately it’s not for that rating from the Department, it’s for the benefit of the children and their families. Ultimately when you provide best quality for a child, you’re essentially affecting their entire life outcomes and impacting the entire community they will grow up in.

“It all begins here, and I think passionate educators are really committed to that. The research shows high quality education in early childhood really does effect lifelong learning outcomes.”

ACECQA assesses childcare centres against seven ‘quality areas’ of the National Quality Standard (NQS), which include educational program and practice, children’s health and safety, physical environment, staffing arrangements, relationships with children, collaborative partnerships with families and communities and governance and leadership.

Centres receive a mark for each category – rising from “significant improvement required” to “working towards NQS”, “meeting NQS” and “exceeding NQS”.

Each centre then receives an overall rating using the same four designations, with just a handful of centres across Australia also receiving an “excellent” rating for achieving “exceeding NQS” in all seven quality areas over a three-year period.

According to the ACECQA ratings, 54 of the 209 centres in Geelong and on the Surf Coast regions have an overall rating of “exceeding NQS”, 116 had an overall rating of “meeting NQS”, 23 are rated as “working towards NQS” and 16 are currently unrated.

No local centres are currently rated “significant improvement needed”, nor “Excellent”.

Originally published as Best childcare centres revealed: Full list of Geelong and Surf Coast rankings