Let’s face it, balancing parental work with both personal and professional work can be a challenging endeavour. And during busy seasons, the difficulty in being fully present for your child’s needs can spike beyond your capabilities.
Instead of leaving them in the home environment with a babysitter, a good strategy that busy parents can employ is to enrol their child on a childcare centre. This move not only frees up your time, but it also provides your child with a safe opportunity to learn, grow, and be set up for future success.
That said, not all childcare facilities offer the same high-quality services you may be expecting. Some may have vastly different learning philosophies than others, even if they may fall under the same framework.
To ensure that you’re bringing out the best in your child, it’s important to do your research when choosing the right childcare centre for your child. That’s where we step in.
In this article, we’ll drop some key considerations parents must make before selecting a childcare centre for their child. Let’s jump right into it!
Every childcare centre in Australia needs to meet the standard set by the regulating government body that oversees it, which, in this case, is the National Quality Framework (NQF).
Under the NQF, early education facilities will be classified in one of three ratings: Meeting, Exceeding, or Working Towards the NQS. These ratings reflect the effectiveness of a centre’s ability to perform key metrics such as child safety, staffing, and education programming.
Moreover, early education facilities also need to be approved as a provider for education by the Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA). This authority is responsible for approving providers and ensuring that the business follows state and territory requirements.
Both these governing bodies provide early childhood care and education centres with the necessary licenses to operate. They also impose laws, regulations, standards, and learning frameworks that these facilities must abide by as a prerequisite to continue rendering services to parents and students.
As of 2026, in Australia, there are two approved learning frameworks that education facilities can use. These are Belonging, Being and Becoming for children aged 0 to 5 and My Time Our Place for school-aged children. These frameworks assist educators in planning and delivering quality education programs for their students across different age groups.
Besides securing these licenses, these licenses also need to be on display at the location and website of the business. This is on top of business registration documents that all businesses must meet before operating. These facilities must also be proactive in complying with future policies enacted by these regulating bodies.
When all these documents are accounted for, you can rest assured that the educational facility that you’re in contact with meets Australia’s regulatory standards. That being said, regulatory compliance is just a drop in the bucket in terms of all the things you have to consider to give your child the education you believe they deserve.
While regulatory compliance is foundational for childcare centres to operate, the quality and type of education they provide is what attracts potential customers. And it should come as no surprise that different childcare centres adopt different educational approaches.
Starting daycare with Guardian will allow your child to access play-based learning, or a type of education where cognitive and social skills are moulded through guided exploration.
Other daycares may incorporate Montessori-based learning, which promotes a more hands-on learning method. Another popular method some daycares utilise is the one inspired by Reggio Emilia, where collaboration and creativity are at the forefront.
In any case, these educational categories still follow the frameworks imposed by regulatory bodies. The programmes and daily schedule just take on a different form, which can support different areas of growth for your child.
As a parent, it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with the different schools of learning that you can provide for your child. Ask the school admin about their teaching methods and try to assess whether such methods can benefit your child and make their upbringing a good one.
While there’s no superior core teaching style, learning philosophies can shape how a child sees and acts upon things—and this can be brought out into adulthood. So do take the initiative to consider how these learning philosophies are applied in practice, and continually observe if your child is better off with it. Remember, you can always change up your school if outcome goals aren’t met.
Another important aspect to consider is the hygiene and safety standards of the childcare centre.
Children are vulnerable to illnesses and infections. And if a childcare centre isn’t regularly cleaned or maintained, then this could lead to your child facing health problems that could be stressful to deal with and bad for the entire family’s quality of life.
On top of that, security measures should also follow strict guidelines. You wouldn’t want your child to wander in places where they shouldn’t, or have trespassers become a common occurrence. Having the right security measures in place helps keep the entire facility safe and conducive to learning.
As such, picking a childcare with a good safety and cleanliness track record isn’t merely encouraged, it’s supposed to be non-negotiable. You can observe this on an initial visit—look at the state of the classroom, the bathrooms, and the public play areas. You can typically tell if you’ll encounter cleanliness problems there or not.
Childcare centres typically have to meet health and safety requirements imposed by the NQF, but compliance shouldn’t be all you should look at. You should also consider the safety protocols and daily health standards of the facility at large.
When these things are considered, then you’ll have better peace of mind knowing that your child is safe and in the right hands during their early formative years.
The quality of a childcare centre ultimately depends on the people running it.
Take a look at the profile of the management team and teachers in the school. Do they have the education or experience that you can entrust? And most importantly, do they have the qualifications and certifications required of them to teach your child?
Be sure to also observe work culture and staff turnover rates. If the rate of staff turnover is high, this could indicate internal problems that can spill over to the quality of the education your child is receiving.
Moreover, you should also check if the school’s director or leader is hands-on in their leadership approach or if they delegate control to the teaching staff. A strong authority figure can mean smooth operations—and this can directly impact the quality of care your child receives. So be sure to review these measures before enrolling your child in your chosen centre.
When looking for a childcare centre, you should also look into the environment within the school premises. The amenities play a big role in shaping the environment, and such factors can heavily impact the child’s daily experience.
Well-designed facilities should support learn and play while balancing safety and practicality. As such, when evaluating your child’s future childcare centre, you should consider the variety and quality of the amenities found within the childcare centre.
For instance, outdoor play areas are spaces that should be found in every childcare centre, allowing children to play and develop their social and motor reflex skills. Rest and meal areas should also have their own spaces to ensure children can engage in the appropriate activity at the right times of the day.
Libraries, audio-visual rooms, and auditoriums are also key spaces that these educational facilities should possess. Regular activities that enrich your child’s learning, like field trip visits, can also be effective in helping your child expand their worldview at a young age.
By paying attention to the school’s amenities and offerings, you’ll get a good idea of your child’s learning environment. In turn, this can help you narrow your enrollment decision to childcare facilities that promote the growth and readiness of your child in the direction you want them to take.
One final thing that parents should look into before enrolling their child in a childcare centre is its perception in the local community.
Community sentiment gives parents a glimpse of how the local people see the school—and this feedback can go a long way in influencing your decision to enrol your child in that facility or not.
While one-off experiences exist and shouldn’t be the ultimate factor to sway your decision, online reviews and parent testimonials can reveal patterns in education quality, service quality, and outcomes of success.
As such, it’s a good idea to gather sentiment and data about a childcare facility from other local families, particularly those who have enrolled their child in said facility before. In doing so, you can build a more realistic picture of what the centre is like beyond its marketing.
We hope that you’re now more informed on how to make the best enrollment decision for your child. Best of luck in choosing the right childcare centre for your family!
