Written by the team at Dashing Ducks Croydon

Daycare in Croydon: Meet the Team Behind Dashing Ducks

Most families comparing daycare in Croydon start with the practical stuff. Which days are free, what the fees come to after subsidy, whether there is parking. Fair enough. Then they walk through the gate and the questions change. Who will be in the room with my baby at ten in the morning? Will it be the same person in March? Does she know his name yet?

We put something on Instagram last week that answers part of that. Our four leaders climbed onto the cubby house in the Croydon yard for a photo, then swiped through to pictures of themselves as small children. Our families found it funny. It is also the most honest thing we could show you about this centre, because those four people are the ones your child will actually spend the day with.

Who is actually in the room at our daycare in Croydon

Miss Annelise is our Nominated Supervisor. You will usually hear her before you see her, which is generally because something funny has just happened in the preschool room. She has a lot of energy and she spends all of it on the children.

Miss Riya is our Educational Leader and our Pre-School Room Leader. She is calm in a way the rest of us find slightly unfair. If you want to know what your four year old is learning while they appear to be stacking blocks, Riya is the person who can tell you.

Miss Eshpi runs the Toddler Room, which is the hardest room in any centre and the one she likes best. Toddlers are chaos and it does not bother her. There is usually a dance happening at afternoon tea.

Miss Anna leads the Nursery. Sensory play is her thing, and so is bringing her own culture into the room for the babies and their families.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Dashing Ducks Croydon (@dashingducks_croydon)

What a Nominated Supervisor and an Educational Leader actually do

Both titles come from the regulations rather than from us. Every service approved under the National Quality Framework has to have a Nominated Supervisor, the person responsible for the day to day running of the centre. If something needs deciding today, that is Annelise.

The Educational Leader role sits in Regulation 118. The provider has to designate someone in writing to lead the development and implementation of the educational program. In practice Riya works alongside the other educators on what goes into the program, how an observation of your child on Monday turns into an activity on Thursday, and whether any of it lines up with the Early Years Learning Framework. The regulations are not prescriptive about who can hold the role, which means the choice a centre makes says something.

Room leaders are a different thing again. They are not a regulatory requirement, they are a staffing decision. We use them because someone in each room needs to hold the thread: who is unsettled this week, who has dropped their nap, which two children have decided they are best friends.

Why the same faces matter more than the tour does

You can learn a lot about a centre from a tour. Not this part, though. Continuity is something you only really notice six months in, when your child is still being met at the gate by the same educator who settled them on day one.

Young children attach to a specific adult, not to a building. Raising Children Network has clear reading on secure attachment and why so much early learning rests on it. A room where the leader changes every term makes that harder, however good the playground looks.

This connects straight to the first EYLF outcome, where children develop a strong sense of identity. A child cannot build that with a rotating cast. Staff turnover across early childhood education is a real problem in Australia and we know we are fortunate it has not been ours, but we also work at keeping it that way. When a parent tells us their daughter has been talking about Miss Eshpi at the dinner table all weekend, that is the job done.

Come and meet them

Our Croydon centre is on Wychbury Avenue, open from 7am to 6pm, for children from six weeks to six years. Nappies, wipes and chef-cooked meals are included, so the bag you pack is lighter than most parents expect.

The only real way to judge a team is to stand in the room while they are working. You can book a tour any weekday, or read what other Inner West families have said about us first. Annelise will almost certainly say hello before you reach the office.

Book A Tour