Real Estate vs. Early Childhood
Well friends, this is it. As you know, we’ve been assessed and eagerly awaiting to find out our “Rating”.
And we are thrilled to announce that we received an overall rating against the National Quality Standard of…
Exceeding National Quality Standard!!
At the risk of sounding like an Emmy award winner…. I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank each and every one of our staff members. From management, all the way to our incredible educators on the front line.
If you read our last blog post (see here), I gave you some insight into our holistic approach to Assessment & Rating and you were able to see a glimpse our dedicated team spirit and overall positive morale. Even now, over a month on, our crew is powering on with an undeniable ‘pep’ in their step!
In the last blog post (Mindset Matters) I compared the whole process of Assessment & Rating to real estate. I wrote - “As you can imagine, the process is complex and lengthily. The preparation and anticipation can be taxing and overwhelming. Some might compare it to putting your much-loved family home up for auction, an open house. Letting others in, to question and critique what you’ve put your heart and soul into. Can you relate to the sense of pressure and vulnerability?”
And you know, if you imagine your home being auctioned; ‘sold’ would obviously classify as a win but ‘the highest bid’ would validate your homes worth. Am I right?
Well I want you to think of it this way. Whose blood, sweat and tears went into making your house a home? Who put in countless weekends in the garden or spent hours researching the best options for your dream bathroom renovation? That’s right… you. So why, regardless of the price tag, would you let strangers decide how valuable your home is?
Sure, I hear you… we need to have standards and there is a realistic need to ‘value’ property, but at the end of the day… you know the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. I Don’t in fact, love the way that quote sounds. Especially when talking about much-loved homes, but I’m sure you get the picture. I side with ‘Darryl’ from the Aussie classic “The Castle” - he paraphrased the old English proverb perfectly… “It's not a house it's a home, a man's home is his castle.
How on earth does this relate to early childhood and especially Assessment & Rating you ask? Well stay with me, because I’m about to wrap it up here with a profound little bit of insight.
Just like an open home; our service has been observed, evaluated and given an overall rating. As a team we had to surrender to the feeling of anticipation and vulnerability while choosing to make this an opportunity for growth and reflection. Because we 100% believe there is a need for regulations and National Quality Standards within the Early childhood sector. (Just like real estate needs to anchor their house prices to a particular ‘value’)
And just like a house auction, all we needed was to ‘sell’ or in our case ‘pass’ in order to be meeting the National Quality Standard. Obviously, we passed with flying colours…. Exceeding, thank you very much!! But at the end of the day, as long as we were meeting the expected mark, it doesn’t matter what our overall rank is. And why? Because we know our worth. We know that as a dynamic collective, we put our heart and soul into what we do. We are confident in our approach and we pride ourselves on the quality service we provide for our much-loved children and their families.
We believe in our WHAT, WHY and HOW.
And in the name of growth, we have been non-stop reflecting on how we can continue this level of quality and further expand our approach as we believe we ‘never stop learning’.
We have some big plans for the future of MELC and love being able to share our journey with you.
