Goodstart Early Learning is celebrating its 15th birthday with 99% of its almost 700 centres in Australia meeting or exceeding the National Quality Standard. The provider says its not-for-profit model is a key reason why it has succeeded where predecessor ABC Learning failed.

Brisbane

Goodstart Early Learning, Australia's largest not-for-profit early learning provider, is marking its 15th anniversary with the achievement of having 99% of its nearly 700 centres meeting or exceeding the National Quality Standard for early childhood education. This milestone highlights the success of Goodstart's unique not-for-profit model, which is attributed to its ability to provide quality at scale more effectively than many for-profit providers. After stepping in during the 2008 collapse of its predecessor, ABC Learning, Goodstart has been praised for providing stability and high-quality care to families and children across the nation.

The Assistant Director of Good Start Early Learning Centre in Virginia, Brisbane, Vee Symes, celebrates her long-standing tenure, noting the lasting impact the organisation has on children and communities. Goodstart, now operating a third of its centres in rural, regional, and low socio-economic areas, has been a transformative force in improving early learning standards and accessing comprehensive care for all children, regardless of their location.

CEO Ros Baxter and early learning advocate Dr. Caroline Croce-Barlow emphasize the importance of Goodstart's model, which contrasts with the challenges facing many for-profit providers in maintaining consistent quality across services. Goodstart's commitment to quality, backed by data and evidence-based improvements, remains steadfast as the organisation continues to support both its staff and the wider community. As they celebrate 15 years, Goodstart is focused on maintaining its mission of delivering high-quality early learning experiences to every child under its care.



Australia’s biggest early learning provider marks 15th birthday

For early childhood educator Vee Symes, no two days of work are ever the same. Every day is a new exciting adventure that I can share with the children, families. The Assistant Director of Good Start Early Learning Centre in Virginia, here in Brisbane's northern suburbs, is one of the longest serving staff members of Good Start, which for the past 15 years has been the country's largest not-for-profit early learning provider. I was in the kindergarten room for around 10 years, so I've seen the evolution of many children go from here, progress in their careers, move through the world. In 2008 though, amidst the global financial crisis, more than 100,000 Australian children, their parents and teachers faced uncertain futures with the collapse of Good Start's predecessor, ABC Learning. I still remember it very clearly. For me it was a daunting time. I was wondering what my job role was going to look like in the future, but when we got that reassurance that Good Start was stepping in, and they were going to give us a safe place to work and continue that quality, we were very excited. I know it was pretty horrific for educators at the time who were working in the centres. Ros Baxter is Good Start's CEO. From what started as a bit of a disaster really, we had an approach from four of Australia's most significant charities to really look at how could they take what had begun as ABC Learning and turn it into something that really made a difference. While initially stepping in with a promise of providing families with stability, Good Start can now lay claim to having 99% of their around 700 centres meeting or exceeding the national quality standard for early childhood education. Good Start has been a benchmark for how you establish quality at scale. According to early learning advocate Dr Caroline Croce-Barlow, Good Start's not-for-profit model is a key reason why the organisation has succeeded where ABC failed. We're in a sector where there are quite a lot of big providers who operate more than 50 services, say. Most of those big providers are for-profit providers, and it can be really hard I think when those big providers say, look we can't get everyone up to scratch, or it's really hard, how are we supposed to do it? Good Start shows us how you're supposed to do it. My favourite thing is drawing. I like to climb on the trees and brush fingers. Today a third of Good Start's centres are located in rural and regional towns and low socio-economic suburbs. It's not just the children that attend our centre, we are really having a big impact on the community of children that don't even attend our centre. Good Start says all children deserve high quality care no matter where they live. Things like improvements in how governments fund early learning inclusion, things like how do we make sure that our workers are compensated appropriately. A lot of this has come about because of Good Start data and evidence, and we're really proud to give that bequest back to the community. Now as Good Start celebrates its 15th birthday, educators like Vy Saim say the organisation's 16,000 staff remain committed to delivering high quality early learning to every child in every Good Start centre. I don't just work in childcare, I work at Good Start. Being able to provide environments for children that promotes and makes everyone want to come here every day.

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