Seven Things To Look For In A High Quality Child Care Centre

If you are a first time parent with no real experience with child care it can be hard to understand what high quality care is. 

To make things a little easier for first time families here are seven things to undertake when searching for the ideal child care centre for your child:

1. Visit your preferred services and speak with the Director and Educators 

Make an initial phone call or visit the website of the services you are interested in to confirm that places are available for the times and days that you need. Make a mutually convenient time to visit with your child.

Before your visit, think about things that are important to you and your family and make note of some questions you would like to ask the director or educators. These may include:

  • How will I know what activities my child has done that day?
  • What is the sleeping routine like in my child’s room?
  • How will my child’s heritage be incorporated in the education programme?

Meet with the educators and make sure you and your child feel comfortable interacting with them. Considering that the early years (ages 0-5) are the most sensitive for brain development, the people who help care for your child are those who help shape your child’s development.

2. Look at the indoor and outdoor areas of the service

Is the Centre:

  • Clean and safe?
  • Welcoming?
  • Well resourced?
  • Offering plenty of indoor and outdoor space?
  • Does it meet your child’s needs?

3. Accreditation

The National Quality Standards offer a useful way of measuring a centre’s performance against extensive standards. All services which have been assessed against this strict framework are required to display their rating somewhere that is easily accessible to families. For instance, our Centre at The Rocks in the Sydney CBD was recently assessed as Exceeding in all Quality Areas

4. Group size and teacher-child ratios

Ensure that not only are educators friendly and capable, but there is also an adequate number of them. Working directly with children means being physically present with them and being directly engaged in providing education and care. For centre based services the educator to child ratios are:

  • birth to 24 months – 1:4
  • 25 months to 35 months –  1:5 
  • 36 months to 6 years – 1:10

At Little Kingdom Childcare, we have an abundance of highly qualified carers and educators to ensure that your child will receive high quality education and care at all times. 

5. Safety

It is important that your child is safe (physically) as well as feels safe (emotionally). Physical safety is paramount and includes appropriate resources being available to children. Feeling safe means children dare to explore and try out new things. They are spontaneously affectionate with their caregivers and each other.

6. Value and inclusions

Things to verify include:

  • What is included in the fees that you pay? 
  • Are extra curricular activities provided?
  • Does the Centre undertake regular excursions and incursions?
  • Does the Centre provide seminars for parents?

7. Parent-friendly

A high-quality provider will encourage you to visit the service regularly because they know that a partnership between parents and staff is key to the wellbeing of your child.  At Little Kingdom Childcare, we understand that family is the most important and influential aspect in the lives of young children and make this the foundation of our service. We truly become an extension of your family! 

Little Kingdom Childcare offers exemplary quality education and care in the Sydney CBD and Georges Hall. With stimulating play spaces, child-led learning, healthy nutrition and the most passionate and experienced educators, we truly become an extension of your family.

To book a personalised tour of our centres please click here