Top 10 childcare centres: Are they in your suburb?

Worm farms, mud kitchens and karate are what sets the nation’s top daycare centres apart, in a new ranking. See the full list.

Exclusive: Just 35 Australian childcare centres are rated as “excellent’’, almost a decade after national quality standards were introduced for 16,452 centres.

One in every 12 childcare centres is failing basic health and safety standards, shocking new statistics from the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) reveal.

Nearly 10 years after the federal, state and territory governments introduced quality standards, one in seven centres is flunking minimum requirements.

More than 2000 centres are still “working towards’’ minimum standards, after failing the latest quality checks, which rate centres on health and safety, staffing, the physical environment and regulatory compliance.

And 1102 centres are operating without the required number of carers, due to workforce shortages that have forced ACECQA to waive staffing requirements.

Nationally, 6.7 per cent of centres have been granted a staffing waiver – including 11 per cent in South Australia, 8.8 per cent in Tasmania, 8.7 per cent in NSW, 6 per cent in Queensland, 5.3 per cent in the Northern Territory and 2.4 per cent in Victoria.

One in four centres – 4322 in total – exceed the minimum quality standards.

But only 35 have achieved the highest “excellent’’ rating.

The nation’s best daycare centres have been revealed. Picture: iStock

The nation’s top-quality childcare centres are celebrated in new excellence awards by childcare app KindiCare, which reveals that flash facilities are not as important as children’s experiences at daycare.

Worm farms, mud kitchens, nature play and karate lessons for kids feature in the nation’s top-rated childcare centres.

The winners – based on ACECQA ratings along with Google reviews and ratings by parents using the KindiCare childcare-finder app – included single-centre operators and large childcare providers.

The top centre – with a perfect 10 – is the not-for-profit Goodstart Early Learning centre in Tuggerah, on the NSW central coast.

Children can decide whether to play indoors in the airconditioning, venture into the outside veggie patch, get messy making “pies” in the mud kitchen or tear around the bike track on tricycles.

“Our team is passionate about the role they play in children’s lives and are dedicated to providing a safe, nurturing and stimulating environment,’’ Tuggerah centre director Adam Angwin said.

“We are all here to make a difference.

“We have big ambitions to create successful communities and leaders of the future.’’

Queensland’s top centre, ranked by KindiCare, is A Head Start Children’s Centre in Currumbin Waters on the Gold Coast.

Children are taken on excursions to the bush and beach, and have daily lessons in dance, music, art and languages.

“The centre has a strong connection to play, nature and our local community,’’ centre owner Joe Scanlan said.

“We’re committed to enriching each child’s potential for excellence in a loving and homely environment.’’

Victoria’s top centre is Goodstart Early Learning at Hughesdale in Melbourne, where most of the multicultural educators have worked for more than a decade.

Kids can play in a mud kitchen, a dry creek bed, sandpits and a vegetable garden.

In South Australia, The Learning Sanctuary at Norwood in Adelaide has topped the KindiCare quality chart.

Kids at the Montessori centre take karate and tennis lessons, and learn to care for the environment with a worm farm, recycling and composting.

The children grow herbs, fruit and vegetables in the garden to use in cooking classes, or feed to pet chickens, rabbits, birds and fish.

In Tasmania, Goodstart Kings Meadows centre, where siblings can play together during family sessions, is ranked the state’s best childcare centre.

In the Northern Territory, the Yirrkala Preschool in Arnhem Land – where Aboriginal elders run traditional storytelling and dance activities – is the top centre.

Aboriginal rangers teach the children to make bush soaps, collect honey, make traditional fish traps and collect bush medicines.

KindiCare founder Benjamin Balk said the training and commitment of educators was just as important as flash facilities.

“The winners all have passionate and dedicated staff,’’ he said.

“When you go to visit or tour a centre, don’t look at the quality of the building that might be 20 years old.

“You might like some of the niceties, like giving you a coffee in the morning, but talk to the centre director to find out what the educational focus is.

“Get a feel for the overall happiness of the centre.’’