Northern Beaches childcare centre, mi kids, exceeds National ACECQA standards

award winning childcare centre northern beaches

We are very excited and extremely proud to report that the Department of Education has completed its Assessment and Rating process and, as a result, mi kids has been rated as “exceeding national quality standards under the National quality framework“.

childcare national standards exceeding

We are so proud of our mi kids team for helping create such a nurturing, responsive, inclusive and safe environment for the children. This rating (see criteria below) is evidence of our passion to deliver something that exceeds industry standards.

The mi kids team will collectively continue to work to improve all areas and will strive to ensure that all National Quality Areas are exceeding standards. We are beyond excited to have been given such a notable rating and have our efforts and commitment to providing quality care acknowledged by our leading body.

We achieved an exceeding rating in 4 out of the 7 Quality Areas under the National Quality Standards, with the remaining 3 assessed as meeting.

It is not easy to achieve an exceeding rating, and we are very pleased that we have been able to be assessed at this level within the first 18 months of operation.

We look forward to working with you and your children to help shape our continual improvement processes so we can achieve Exceeding in all the National Quality Standard Quality Areas.

I have provided more detailed information below, which details our results and the areas that have been identified for improvement.

In particular we would like to thank our senior leaders Melissa Cooper, Julie Anderson and Melissa Traversa for their dedication in developing and implementing the systems and procedures that drive outcomes such as this. Our wonderful staff are also instrumental in these outcomes, they have been willing to learn and work with these processes to achieve these results. So please join us in provided a big thanks to all of them.

Further reading : ACECQA and Starting Blocks »

mi kids Assessment Against National Quality Standard

The National Quality Standard (NQS) sets a national benchmark for the quality of children’s education and care services across Australia.

Services are assessed against the NQS and receive a rating for each of the seven quality areas of the NQS, as well as an overall rating. The following is a table that displays the 7 Quality Areas and our rating for each.

Rating Outcome Summary

An overall rating of Exceeding NQS is given to services that go above and beyond the requirements of the NQS in at least four of the seven quality areas. The following is a brief summation of our strengths and the areas that we need to continue to work on.

QUALITY AREA 1

All educators consistently make curriculum decisions, including the organization of daily routine, maximising learning and development outcome for every child’s individualised needs.  Educators critically reflect on their teaching strategies and mi kids philosophy and interactions with families to help promote independence

QUALITY AREA 2

Educators ensure children are supervised effective at all times and regularly reflect individually and as a team on practices to support child safety. However, we need to continue to improve in this area by:

  • including more family input in our emergency evacuation and extending our emergency procedures to the local community point.
  • using family engagement to shape practice regarding children safety
QUALITY AREA 3

The building furniture, equipment, facilities and resources are well maintained and developmentally suitable and support the access of participation of every child.  All educators are confident to make changes to the environment and their practices to strengthen inclusion and participation.

QUALITY AREA 4

Purposeful consideration is given to the organization of educators to ensure familiarity and continuity and this is done by a critical review of qualifications and strengths and professional goals of educators.

However, we need to continue to improve in this area by:

  • using the voices of the families to help us problem solve in regards to ethical dilemmas that may emerge.
  •  sharing the achievement of staff members with our community
QUALITY AREA 5

Educators ensure that children feel like they belong, can participate in all experiences and that their contributions are appreciated and recognized.  Interactions with children are warm and friendly and promote a sense of wellbeing and security However we need to continue to improve in this area by:

  • further explore the UN convention for the rights of a child
  • exploring strategies that educators can use to incorporate children’s perspective in everyday decisions.
QUALITY AREA 6

mi kids have supportive relationship with families and all staff demonstrating commitment to actively work with families to enhance children’s inclusion, learning and well-being.  The team establish and maintain partnership with the community and link community and support agencies to enhance learning and participation

QUALITY AREA 7

mi kids have well established governance arrangements and administrative systems which consistently supports the operation of high-quality care. The induction of educators and staff is comprehensive, consistent and sustain quality relationship ensuring continuity of educators.  Mi kids commitment to ongoing learning and performance improvement lifts the quality of the service, benefiting staff, children, family and communities.