From the Executive Director

There is never a dull moment here at the NBCA. But after getting through my first Canberra hay fever, and in spite of the continued terrifying news stories that are released weekly, our focus remains on our purpose and vision: coming together, for children to inspire them for a lifetime of learning beyond their time with us.

Understanding Australia's Early Development Census Data - 2024

I had the pleasure of attending the ACT Early Childhood and Care Sector Meeting held at the Hedley Beare Centre for Teaching and Learning by CECA with Natasha Bunter, Sarah Fogarty, and Taryn Downes. In addition to having the opportunity to come together as a sector, I enjoyed a detailed presentation from Anna Perry, the ACT Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) Coordinator where she provided insights from the sixth release of the AEDC which offers a national snapshot of children’s developments as they begin school. We reviewed data* from the 2024 census and compared it with previous years going back to 2009. It was fascinating to understand how children are developing in both the ACT, and nationally, and understanding how the data reflects the challenges and opportunities we are experiencing in our centres. It was pleasing to see the initiatives that are in place and learn what will be implemented to support improved outcomes in the years ahead. I encourage you to explore this data using the AEDC’s Community Data Explorer found on https://www.aedc.gov.au/ 

*Data captured in this census is captured from teachers for all children in their first year at full time education (Kinder). 

Anna Perry presenting data findings at Hedley Beare Centre for Teaching and Learning, 04 November 2025.

Our New Sub-Committees

As you will have seen in our recent Communique, we are setting up two sub-committees to support further strengthened governance. I’m excited to see the Finance, Audit and Investment Sub-Committee (FAIC) and the Quality and Risk Sub-Committee (QARC) set up, and work has commenced to ensure each subcommittee has a running start into 2026.

Join Now: Members external to our Management Committee are very welcome to contribute to either committee so if you are interested, or have lived experience that you feel could be of value, we encourage you to volunteer your time.

Email admin@nbca.org.au to express interest.

Strategic-Living  

Implementation against our Strategic Plan continues at a great pace. We're making some changes to our website over the coming weeks so that each pillar is represented. This will support in providing progress updates against our three pillars: Excel, Engage and Elevate.

Our Professional Development Taskforce is currently hard at work to announce the next Professional Development Day for all staff in early 2025.

Partnership with Karinya House:

We’re excited to share more about the next phase of our partnership with Karinya House. We have supported Karinya House over the past few years and are excited to share more to demonstrate our commitment over the years to come as part of our commitment to “Engage” as detailed in our Strategic Plan. Stay tuned for more.

Coming Up:

Look for our end of year community events happening at each of our centres – Information to come from Cooinda and Flynn respectively.

Preparations are well underway for our Annual General Meeting with notice expected to come out this Friday along with our draft Annual Report for members to approve. We hope to see you there!