Excellent Rating Notification for Byron Bay Preschool Coogera Centre

Date awarded: 19 June 2024
Valid until: 18 June 2029

Byron Bay Preschool Coogera Centre 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.  

The Suffolk Park based service was recognised for its:  

• collaborative partnerships with professional, community or research organisations
• 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:

• Partnering with the Community Gardens Management Committee (CGMC) to rebuild the Suffolk Park Community Gardens through the service’s Nature Hearts Bush Program. The partnership was established in response to children’s interest in using the space to grow their own produce during the Nature Hearts Bush Program visits to the site. The children inspired the CGMC members to grow produce again and worked in collaboration with the community to rebuild the space over several months. Due to the partnership, the previously neglected community garden is a thriving community space, facilitating regular and meaningful interactions between the children and local members, improving social and wellbeing outcomes of all stakeholders.  
• Facilitating cost-free trauma and flood recovery workshops for families and children struggling with loss. Following a string of severe events in the previous two years, Byron Shire, including the Suffolk Park community, faced trauma and crises. The service’s leadership team and an educator collaborated with an early childhood development specialist service, a child and family service provider, and the approved provider’s other service, Byron Bay Preschool Cavanbah to deliver the workshops over six weeks. The weekly workshops were held for families and children of both services and included parent group counselling and trauma-informed, play-based experiences for the children. Following the workshops, improved outcomes were seen in children’s emotional wellbeing, sense of belonging and identity, and families demonstrated improved coping skills. Due to the success of the workshops, the service decided to embed more trauma-informed play-based experiences in its programs.
• Implementing Critical Action Research (CAR) as a tool for quality improvement to ensure the service is responsive to children’s, families’ and educators’ perspectives. The educators in each room undertake a CAR project over a year, allowing changes to be targeted, participative and meaningful to each child and family. Examples of CAR projects include exploring questions focusing on children’s participation, family engagement and mental health in early childhood. The CAR approach fosters educators’ autonomy to lead significant changes that respond to the circumstances, interests and needs relevant to their own groups of children. Findings and outcomes of the CAR projects are presented to all staff of both Byron Bay Preschool Coogera Centre and the approved provider’s other service, Byron Bay Preschool Cavanbah, and incorporated into the quality improvement plan at the end of the CAR cycle. This provides an authentic, relevant, successful and ‘bottom up’ approach to quality improvement.
• Implementing team-teaching and mentoring practices to address challenges experienced by the shortage of qualified and experienced educators and early childhood teachers in the Northern NSW region. For example, a newly employed early childhood teacher team-taught with an early childhood teacher for six months before taking on a lead role in their room. During team teaching, for example, the early childhood teachers have joint programming time to establish professional goals, identify gaps in knowledge and skills and support each other to engage in reflection and conduct research.

As a leader in the sector, Byron Bay Preschool Coogera Centre’s leadership team supports community-based education and care services across its region though their significant roles in the Northern Rivers Preschool Alliance (NRPA). For example, the service’s nominated supervisor holds the volunteer role of President of the NRPA, facilitating knowledge sharing, quality improvement initiatives, and compliance adherence among its 42 education and care services. In addition, the service supports its local community’s children and families and advocates for early childhood education and care through its commitment to community focused initiatives. The Village Vibes initiatives, facilitated by the approved provider, include regular playgroups and workshops that cater for children from infancy to their transition to school. Through these initiatives, the service staff share information, build trusting relationships, help reduce barriers to participation and advocate for access to early childhood education and care and community health services.