Every childcare centre across the Wide Bay and Burnett ranked in 2023

Several of the 143 childcare centres across the region have failed to meet the standard, while others have persisted through Covid to exceed government expectations. See how your centre ranks in 2023:

All childcare centres in the Wide Bay Burnett are exceeding, meeting or working toward National Quality Standard. Photo: iStock.

Young children of the Wide Bay and Burnett are in good hands this year with 95.6 per cent of all childcare centres meeting or exceeding the national standard.

The National Quality Framework, determined by the The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, assessed each centre in Gympie, Bundaberg, the Fraser Coast and Burnett, and program’s performance across seven key quality areas.

Those criteria included 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 - which together made up a centre’s National Quality Standard level.

An app named KindiCare, which launched in 2020, has released its latest Queensland rankings to reveal the state’s best and worst kindergartens.

KindiCare has drawn from the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority ratings, as well as reviews from Google and the KindiCare platform.

Scroll down to see all Qld childcare centres ranked best to worst.

Out of 143 child care centres across the Wide Bay and Burnett region, only five, or 3.5 per cent, are failing to meet the National Quality Standard.

In comparison, 29.37 per cent, or 42 centres out of 143 in Wide Bay and Burnett, have exceeded NQS.

All childcare centres in the Wide Bay Burnett are exceeding, meeting or working toward National Quality Standard. Photo: iStock.

Two child care centres “working toward” the NQS are in Bundaberg - those being the Acorn Child Care Centre and The Mango Tree Childcare Centre - and were last graded in 2021.

Both centres had a “good” rating of 8.2 and 8.1 respectively.

In comparison, Bundaberg had six failing childcare centres in 2021.

The remaining centres “working toward” the NQS are the Kingaroy Early Learning Centre in South Burnett and Gayndah Early Learning Centre in North Burnett, last graded in 2019 and 2016 respectively.

Both centres were also ranked lowest in the Wide Bay Burnett region by KindiCare, with ratings of 6.9 and 6.8.

All childcare centres in Gympie and the Fraser Coast reached a “meeting” or “exceeding” NQS ranking.

The director of Bundaberg’s top childcare centre, Goodstart Early Learning in Takalvan Street, Rebecca Wyllie, said their educators took pride in the centre’s ranking and named it a “great achievement”.

Their centre was ranked 9.5 by KindiCare and exceeded the NQS.

Ms Wyllie said their three keys to success were relationships, communication and safety: relationships with families, the community and between educators, communication with parents and commitment to safety, wellbeing and inclusion.

“With so many of our educators having committed many years to our service, we have been able to build a safe and respectful learning spaces,” she said.

“We have a strong child lead focus with a philosophy that puts children first.”

Ms Wyllie said staffing issues and Covid effects had been main challenges impacting the early childhood education industry.

“To overcome this, Goodstart has a strong orientation process for new staff and great incentives for those joining our team,” she said.

“Goodstart offers many training options, and opportunities for learning are highly regarded and supported all throughout the organisation.

MyKindy at Victory College in Gympie said the adjacent school's facilities and specialised staff had contributed to their success.

Gympie’s top rated childcare centre, MyKindy at Victory College, is a long day care ranked 9.2 by KindiCare.

MyKindy director Laura Grobler said the centre sought to provide “the highest quality care and education” to families and children in the “beautiful Gympie community” and it was “a great honour” to achieve the ranking.

Ms Gobler said, as their secret to success, the centre placed importance on “respectful, reciprocal ad genuine relationships” with the children, their families and educators.

MyKindy at the Victory College campus in Gympie.

“We are blessed with a wonderful team of educators who provide a nurturing and loving environment as they design exciting and interesting learning programs for our children,” she said.

MyKindy also has access to facilities at Victory College such as the library, stadium, sports ovals and agricultural facilities as well as specialist teachers, Ms Gobler said.

The Gympie community, alongside MyKindy, had faced the challenges and threats of Covid and flooding.

“We have witnessed the resilience of our community, and in those times, the way we have all come together to achieve a common goal to succeed,” Ms Gobler said.

“We experienced the uncertainty of these times, however with our faith and trust in the Lord, we knew that we would be able to overcome any potential hardship.

“We wanted to ensure that our children and their families knew that mykindy was a safe place, and that it was, and is, a place that they feel loved and supported.”

KindiCare founder Benjamin Balk said the centres which fell to the bottom of the list often provided a crucial service to a regional area with less funding and resources.

All five centres who have been ranked as “working toward NQS” have been contacted for comment.

Originally published as Every childcare centre across the Wide Bay and Burnett ranked in 2023