Booking the tour is the easy part.
Once you get to the room and meet the director, what do you ask? Parents freeze at this point. The director smiles, the shelves are organized, there’s a toddler waving at you from the sand table… and every question you thought of in the car is gone.
Here’s the problem:
Selecting a childcare centre is one of the most important decisions a family will make and your 30-minute tour is your best opportunity to make the right choice.
The good news?
Only a few carefully crafted questions will tell you more than any slick brochure ever could. Ask them right and you’ll walk out knowing how that centre operates on an average Tuesday.
What you’ll walk away with:
- Why the tour beats the brochure
- The 7 questions worth asking on the day
- What a strong answer sounds like
- The details most parents walk straight past
Why The Tour Beats The Brochure
All centres look amazing on a website. That is what websites are for.
What it can’t tell you is what teachers say to kids when no one is looking, or what the room smells like at 4pm when everyone is exhausted and starving.
On paper the sector looks okay. There are over 18,000 approved services across the country and 92% of services meet or exceed the National Quality Standard. That is a good start. But “meets the standard” and “right for your child” are two vastly different things.
That’s why families who select a childcare centre almost invariably visit three or four services prior to making their choice. Comparing your shortlist favourite, such as Oak Park childcare, with the others is the only way to understand differences that will be important to you — student ratios, educator friendliness, outdoor environment, routine and meal times, openness to communication. A visit turns your shortlist from names on paper into an informed decision.
So walk in with questions ready. Here are seven that do the heavy lifting.
The 7 Questions Worth Asking
1. “What are your educator-to-child ratios in this room today?”
Ratios are legislated, so every centre will happily quote you the legislated minimum. That’s not where the interest lies though.
The interesting bit is the word today.
Ask them how the room is staffed when someone calls in sick. Ask how many casual educators have worked in that room this month. A centre that makes up gaps with known faces operates very differently to one that employs strangers.
2. “How long have the educators in this room been here?”
This might be the most revealing question on the list.
Staff churn is high in early learning. One national study estimated annual turnover between 20% and 37% compared to around 9.5% across the Australian workforce as a whole. Children develop attachments to the adults who care for them. Staff churn tears those attachments repeatedly.
Centres who care about their staff have educators who have been there for years. Caring for your team ends up going directly to the kids.
An ambiguous response merits clarification: how many teachers have departed from this room over the last year?
3. “What is your current rating, and what are you working on?”
All services that have been approved are rated on seven areas of quality. Ratings are published for everyone to see. Check them out online before you arrive, then double check by asking when you get there anyway.
Less important than the rating itself is how the director answers questions about it. A confident answer sounds like: this is where we sit, this is what we are working on, this is what we changed this year. You learn a lot when someone answers defensively.
Also worth asking:
- When was the last assessment visit?
- What did the report say about your child’s room?
- What is in the current Quality Improvement Plan?
Good centres are proud of this conversation.
4. “Can you walk me through a normal day?”
Ask for the whole day. Drop-off to pick-up.
You are listening for balance – indoor and outdoor time, active play and quiet time, learning that is teacher-guided and learning that is child-directed. An hour-by-hour schedule is just as much a red flag as no schedule whatsoever.
Don’t forget meals and sleep. Are kids required to sleep through tiredness, or given space if they don’t want to? Is food eaten together or shovelled fast in shifts?
A strong answer sounds specific. A weak one sounds like a pamphlet read aloud.
5. “How will you keep us updated?”
Communication is where good centres separate themselves from average ones.
Apps are used now for most services. Photos, sleep times, nappy changes and meals go into it. Handy, but not the full picture. Ask what happens when it all goes wrong – a bump, bad day, fight over a truck.
Specifically, ask:
- Who calls you, and how quickly
- How incidents are recorded and shared
- Whether you get updates on learning and development
- How you raise a concern, and who handles it
A centre that welcomes complaints is a centre that fixes problems.
6. “What happens when a child is upset, hurt or unwell?”
Watch the room while you ask this one.
Settling in is difficult for almost all families. Ask how they support a child who cries at drop-off, and how long they wait before contacting you. Find out who is trained in First Aid. Ask about medication and their illness policy.
Then follow up by asking about the kid who is just having a bad day.
There is no phoniness you can put into that answer. You will know it immediately.
7. “How do you work with families?”
Care works best when the centre and the family point the same direction.
Ask how the centre finds out about your child- routines, words, fears, culture at home, ask if parents can visit/help out and what if you do things differently to them.
Centres that see families as partners inspire raised, confident children. Centres that see families as customers don’t.
Read The Room While You Ask
Questions are only half the tour. The other half is noticing.
Do teachers sit on the floor with kids or hover around the perimeter? Are kids engaged in what they are doing? Is there anything to climb on, dig, or build outside?
Have a quick look at:
- Noise level — busy is good, chaotic is not
- Whether educators crouch to a child’s height when speaking
- How children respond to staff walking past
- Whether displayed work belongs to the children or the adults
Go with your gut instinct. Most parents can tell within 10 minutes if a room feels like the right fit.
Making The Final Call
Touring isn’t about getting someone out. It’s seeing how your service really works.
To recap, the seven questions cover:
- Ratios and absence cover
- Educator turnover in your child’s room
- Quality ratings and improvement plans
- The shape of a normal day
- Communication, good news and bad
- Care during illness, injury and hard mornings
- How families are included
Book at least two tours so you have something to compare against. Go late in the day when things aren’t quite so slick. Ask identical questions at each and the differences become obvious.
Pick the spot where the kids seem rooted, the teachers smile and it flows in for you.
