BY BENJAMIN BALK, KINDICARE

SEPTEMBER 12, 2022 

Three early learning centres have shared top honours in the 2022 KindiCare Excellence Awards, tying for first place in Western Australia. Princeton Preschool by Busy Bees, Starbright Early Learning Centre and Pachamama Early Education and Childcare all scored a KindiCare Rating of 9.6.

Discovery at Play Early Learning Centre Vasse was named top regional early learning centre with a 9.5 rating and second in the State.

The KindiCare app and Childcare Comparison Website, developed by founder and CEO Benjamin Balk to make the process of selecting a quality early learning centre more transparent for parents, has revolutionised the early learning search journey for Australian families.

The KindiCare Excellence Awards recognise the top performing early learning services across the nation based on their Kindicare Rating. The KindiCare Rating provides a unique score for every early learning service that is based on their current and historical assessment and ratings under the National Quality Framework from ACECQA, parent and community feedback and reviews, the stability and length of operation of the service as well as other characteristics known about a service – providing a comprehensive real time picture of quality and value for money that’s easy for parents to understand.

Pachamama Director Kristen McPhail has created an award winning centre in the Perth Hills that has global connections and influence. Its outdoor space is a captivating gallery of steel sculptures by local artist Martin Jaine, made from salvaged metal from farms and old industrial and mining sites.

“The purpose of these sculptures is to set the scene for creativity,” said Ms McPhail. “We have arches made from wrenches, screwdrivers and discarded discs, numbers and letters, and we try to instill a different way of thinking in the children – encouraging them to look beyond the simple function of something, like an archway, to something extraordinary.

“We have life-sized animal sculptures in our yard, such as an elephant, horse, goanna and flamingos.  We built streams into our physical landscape contours, nature playgrounds built from jarrah timber and repurposed farming equipment, an aviary for our feathered friends. All of this encourages children to see – and feel – our world in creative ways.”

Mr Balk said Pachamama provided an exceptional example of innovative and creative approaches to early learning coupled with a strong emphasis on staff wellbeing.

“Pachamama places a high value on staff retention with an exceptional work environment, rewarding long service and offering ‘exceeding performance’ wage rates,” said Mr Balk.

“Staff recognition has been a common theme amongst this year’s winning early learning centres and in the wake of the Jobs Summit, provides a clear message to providers struggling to attract and retain staff.”

Indoor learning environments at Pachamama have been designed to exude the warmth and familiarity of Grandma’s house, not an institution.

“We focus on being a home away from home, steeped in nature, creativity and diversity and these four things, put together, is what really sets us apart from everybody else,” said Ms McPhail.

“Children are able to relax more and build better bonds with their peers as well as educators, who also feel like they’re working at home.

“We invite our competitors to Pachamama, encouraging them to have a look, talk to us and see what we do, so they can get ideas to improve their own centre in any way that they find helpful.

“We don’t keep our secrets to ourselves. We want the whole industry to be the best that it can possibly be, and are happy to be a part of helping to make that happen.”

Mr Balk said that the 2022 KindiCare Awards this year recognised just over 2,000 early learning services nationally who achieved a KindiCare Rating of 9.0 or above. About 10% of services nationally were recognised with an Excellent Award with the top 2% of the nation’s best performing early learning services receiving the newly introduced Outstanding Award for achieving a KindiCare Rating of 9.5 or above.

“It is fantastic to be able to recognise the hard work and dedication of the childcare providers, educators and staff at these top performing centres nationally who strive every day to give the best possible start to learning for children across Australia,” said Mr Balk.

View the 2022 KindICare Excellence Awards Western Australian Winners and Finalists >>>