It was all smiles last week at the Kubby House Child Care Centre after the centre and staff were given a high assessment rat-ing by the Department of Education.
Kubby House underwent an Assessment and Rating (A&R) process at the beginning of the month and received a ‘Meeting NQS’ (National Quality Standard), which demon-strates the centre is meeting childcare stand-ards in all seven different areas of their opera-tions.
Early childhood learning consultant Nichole Jenkins has been supporting the centre in a consulting role for the past two years and said she was thrilled with the outcome.
Mrs Jenkins said the NQS is a key aspect of the National Quality Framework and sets a high, national benchmark for early child-hood education and care services in Australia.
She said an overall rating of ‘Meeting’ is considered to be a great achievement and she praised the hard work of the staff and centre coordinator Peta Rufo on their achievement.
“The work Peta and the staff have done is quite extensive and it’s been achieved in such a short expanse of time,” Mrs Jenkins said.
“While it’s their core business to achieve high standards, it’s the impact those high standards makes on the quality of care for chil-dren that is paramount.
“Peta is exceptional, so kind and caring and such a fabulous leader.
“Kubby has always had a focus on improve-ment and lifting the capacity of the team, and now that’s coming to fruition which is so won-derful to see,” Mrs Jenkins said.
Up until last year, the centre was run by a volunteer committee with Cobar Shire Council taking ownership in September 2021.
Council’s general manager Peter Vlatko said after a few tumultuous years, one of their first jobs was to engage Mrs Jenkins to do a self-assessment of the service.
“We wanted to understand the areas where improvement was required and focus our atten-tion in those areas,” Mr Vlatko said.
“Possibly if we had an A&R at that point in time, we would have expected to receive a ‘working towards’ rating in some, if not most quality areas, so to receive ‘Meeting’ for all seven quality areas is a fantastic result.
“It’s a testament to the work that has been done over the past 10 months from all staff involved with the service, particularly since Peta’s engagement as the Centre Coordinator in January 2022.” Mr Vlatko said the professional development
opportunities that Council is able to offer
Kubby’s staff will provide them with a structured
pathway for continual improvement.
“We have come so far already.
“Our staff truly are amazing – they love
what they do, they love the kids and they are
so open and willing to learn and grow.
“I’m proud of the efforts of all the staff who
have contributed to this successful outcome,
their hard work, resilience, and their passion
for this industry,” Mr Vlatko said.
“It’s been their dedication to the children
and their families throughout all the challenges
that has got us to this point.
“It’s a really exciting time as we look to the
future, and get ready to move in a much larger
purpose-built facility.”
