What Makes a Good Day Care Centre?

If your child is fast-reaching the time when day care is needed, this is an exciting time, for both parent and child; and you obviously want the best for your child. Many parents ask the question, ‘what makes a good day care centre? 

We delve into the amenities and qualities that you would find at a top day care centre.

• Secure environment – If you visited any of the child care centres in Ballarat, you would see CCTV cameras just about everywhere, with manned security during opening hours. There should be at least one soft room, where toddlers can release their energy safely; most day care centres have an indoor and outdoor soft play space. Access is strictly limited to staff, parents and, of course, the students; a secure perimeter encloses natural play areas with pleasant grounds.

• Qualified carers & trainees – Staff would typically be a mixture of qualified carers and trainees, who work under supervision; the principal would be experienced in managing a nursery, while the institution would be state licenced. There should be a rapport among the staff with a positive and upbeat energy; an early learning program should be warm and inviting.
• Modelling correct behaviour – Staff should model correct behaviour, which is an important aspect of learning social skills. Children naturally model their behaviour on the adults within their small world and if the day care staff are always kind and polite, the children will respond positively to this. Click here for top tips using your phone.
• Fun-based activities – Everything in a nursery should be geared towards having fun; art, drama, dance and movement, would all be happening during regular days. One role of an early learning program is to instil a love of learning that stays with the children throughout their lives; creativity and imagination need to be developed at an early age.
• Good communication – There should be good communication between school and parents; many nurseries use a small notebook for parents to leave notes for the carers and vice-versa. A short dialogue every day is enough for important information to be shared between mum and carer.
• Caring & loving atmosphere – Any location for young children should have a special feeling about it; carers usually love working with children and this is an essential aspect of a good day care centre.
• Natural play resources – Wooden blocks, toys and other natural materials are used to make learning resources. Children should be given time to play with their chosen resources on a daily basis, which help to develop fine motor skills and coordination.
• Healthy food and refreshments – You would expect nursery food and drink to be healthy, with fresh fruit, milk and biscuits.
• Sleeping area – The kids would typically sleep right after lunch, at least for one hour, one of the classrooms with the blinds closed would double as a sleeping room. 

All day care centres should be registered with the Australian government and should display their licence on the premises.