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Preschool Education
We understand that parents are looking for an excellent start to their son’s education... That’s why we created it!
Preschool staff - Bottom row left to right: Kerrie Lesko, Colette Super, Louise Wilson, Rhonda Ellsmore Top row left to right: Jeff Symms, Tiffany Mitchell, Fabiola Freitas, Debra Wilson, Karen Humphreys
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Mr Jeff Symms
Deputy Headmaster Head of Preparatory School
The Southport School opened a kindergarten program, dubbed the TSS Preschool in 2013, as an opportunity to provide a first class early years education option to the families of the Gold Coast.
Since its opening, the quality of the TSS Preschool has become well-known across our city. Over 500 boys have settled into school life confidently and wellprepared, due to having been a part of one of these three special classrooms.
The history of the TSS Preschool has been one in which formal acknowledgement of its quality has been quickly given. In Australia, kindergarten programs must be rated by the national body: The Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA). After a review of the centre by an expert panel, each centre is awarded one of the following ratings: 1. Working towards the National Quality Standards (for those centres who are not demonstrating that they meet the standards for quality care) 2. Meeting the National Quality Standards. 3. Exceeding the National Quality Standards. After just one year of operation, the school requested that our preschool be evaluated, a process that normally does not occur until a centre has been open for three years, and we were delighted to receive the highest possible rating of ‘Exceeding’. For a program to be awarded this standard in such a short time was a real achievement and a commendation to the incredible work ethic and talents of our preschool team.
In 2016, Mrs Humphreys, Preschool Co-ordinator, examined the standards required to achieve an ‘Excellent’ rating and determined that we believed our service was providing an excellent standard of care and education, and so commenced the process of putting together our application.
This required documenting across fifty-eight key standards, and providing evidence of how our preschool was ‘leading the way in early childhood education within our community’. A key component of receiving an ‘Excellent’ rating is that the service is considered the community leader in early years education.
The authoring of this documentation was immensely time consuming and demanding, yet when complete and ready for submission, summarised our approach and communicated our commitment to excellence, very clearly.
Following the submission of the application, Mrs Humphreys and I were interviewed by officers of ACECQA – so that they could probe and further flesh out our application. This interview was very specific, and targeted, and took three hours to complete.
It was in December 2018, months after the process was complete that we were delighted to hear that we had been successful and TSS Preschool had been awarded an Excellent rating.
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It is important for the whole TSS community to appreciate the significance of this.
The ‘Excellent’ rating by ACECQA is very hard to get. Each year, less than one-third of applicants are successful, and failure in an application dictates that you cannot apply again for three years.
Queensland actually leads the way in this sector and TSS Preschool will be the seventeeth service to be awarded an ‘Excellent’ rating, but importantly, our preschool is the first, and only, service on the Gold Coast to reach this standard. This is something our whole community can celebrate and promote.
A few statistics which help put this achievement in perspective:
• There are 2,861 kindergarten programs in Queensland alone and we are one of only 17 to be awarded the Excellent rating, and the only program on the Gold Coast to have been so.
• While Queensland has the largest number of excellent rated services (17), there are only 49 in the whole of Australia that have achieved this distinction. NSW – 11, ACT– 7, NT – 2, SA – 5, TAS – 0, VIC – 8 and WA – 2.
• Less than one–third of applicants for ‘excellent rating’ are successful and the awarding of ‘Excellent’ can only be given by the National body (ACECQA), who ensures quality of standard across the whole country.
The achievement of this ‘Excellent’ rating is an incredible endorsement of the work our Preschool team undertake, and further evidence of our school’s commitment to deliver the very best educational opportunities to the boys of the Gold Coast.