Excellent Rating Notification for Goodstart Early Learning Red Hill

Date awarded: 16 February 2024
Valid until: 15 February 2029

Goodstart Early Learning Red Hill has been awarded the Excellent rating by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), the highest rating a service can achieve under the National Quality Framework. Goodstart Early Learning Red Hill is the first service to be awarded the Excellent rating in 2024.

The Queensland based service was recognised for its:

• commitment to children that respects, reflects and celebrates culture and diversity, including place of origin
• inclusive partnerships with children and families  
• positive workplace culture and organisational values, sustained commitment to professional development and support of educators

Examples of exceptional practice at the service include:

• an outstanding commitment to respecting, understanding and embedding the culture of the Turrbal people, the traditional Landowners and custodians of Brisbane. Goodstart Early Learning Red Hill notes that the purpose of using Turrbal language is to ensure that their respect for Indigenous culture is deeply embedded in the program and is not viewed as a separate learning experience. The service acknowledges the Greater Brisbane Region is Turrbal and Yagara land. 
• the service has developed and installed a Sea of Hearts in their local community. The Sea of Hearts is a collaborative installation that is set up in a community garden and is made from blank hearts that are decorated by children, families and community members to reflect on the National Reconciliation Week theme for that year. This initiative has been ongoing since 2021 and during this time the installation has had over 200 hearts contributed, making strong connections to community and building awareness of First Nations histories and cultures.  
• since 2022 the service has developed a Children’s Council to support child engagement and empowerment. The Children’s Council are small meetings of three to four children where they share tea and discuss service topics and initiatives with the Educational Leader and Centre Director. The responsibility of attending the Children’s Council is shared equally between all children and the meetings have the same agenda as staff meetings and parent meetings, which ensures that consistent conversations occur. So far, the Children’s Council has provided input on playground upgrades, rest time practices and implementing their bush kinder program.  
• the service engaged an action research model to reflect upon and change their approach to leadership. The action research occurred as a result of participating in a leadership program, From the Ground Up, and supported the service to develop a new distributed workflow which shared the responsibility for educational leadership between team leaders.  
• As a leader in the sector, the service has established the Invitation to Play initiative where they open their service up to external educators so they can network, observe and learn new concepts. Beginning in 2021, Invitation to Play began as a workshop with 50 participants and has grown each year with over 100 participants attending each session now. 

About the Excellent rating

Services that receive ‘Exceeding National Quality Standard’ in all seven quality areas can apply to ACECQA for the Excellent rating. From 1 July 2023, the Excellent rating is awarded for five years. After this time services have the option to re-apply.