From ‘working towards’ to ‘meeting’ in four months

When Child's Play acquired Dandenong South, the centre was rated "working towards" - a designation that brings Department of Education monitoring and urgent pressure to improve. The challenges were visible from the first site visit: disorganised equipment, inadequate learning environments, and documentation that couldn't demonstrate quality educational practice.

Four months later, they achieved a "meeting" rating in every area.

The transformation wasn't just about new equipment or fresh paint. Child's Play invested heavily in educator training and introduced Mana's AI coaching to build capability in a way that assessment and rating could actually see.

The compliance challenge: Making quality visible

"It was like walking into an op shop with disarray equipment - dinosaurs with doll heads on them, equipment that wasn't conducive to the education and care of children," Lucy, Group Compliance Officer, recalls.

But the physical environment was only part of the problem. The real challenge? Documentation that couldn't show the learning that was happening - or should have been happening. And when assessment and rating day comes, what you can't show doesn't count.

"We were able to navigate through it clearly," Lucy recalls of showing their documentation to the authorised officer during assessment. But getting to that point required more than just implementing a new platform.

Building capability under pressure

The centre needed educators who could write professional observations, demonstrate understanding of child development, and connect their practice to the Early Years Learning Framework. They needed this quickly.

"We invested a lot of time in training educators," Rebecca, Assistant Director, explains. But training takes time most centres don't have when they're under department monitoring.

This is where Mana's AI coach, Coach Sue, became essential. Rather than sending educators to external professional development or waiting for leadership to provide one-on-one coaching, the learning happened in the moment of writing.

"Even when I complete a learning story with Coach Sue, she's giving me different perspectives about where I could take that learning and development - probably in places that I hadn't considered."‍

Caitlin, Group Operations Manager

For educators whose English wasn't their first language, this continuous coaching was transformative. "She was able to support the educators whose English was not their first language," Lucy observes. "From a compliance perspective, we found that extremely helpful on rating and assessment day."

What the authorised officer saw

When the assessment and rating day arrived, the authorised officer wanted evidence: observations, learning stories, summative assessments that demonstrated quality practice.

"We were able to provide this to the authorised officer through Mana," Lucy explains. The platform made it easy to navigate through documentation, showing clear evidence of the learning cycle in action.

But what impressed the officer most was something unexpected: the coaching itself.

"The department when they came and gave us feedback about the integration of Mana, they were really impressed. The lady who came and saw us, she had never seen anything like it before."‍

Rebecca, Assistant Director

The team actually demonstrated Coach Sue during the assessment, showing how educators received real-time support and guidance. "It was something that we actually did a demonstration together," Caitlin explains, "to look at how to use Coach Sue and how that learning actually looked for our educators."

For an authorised officer evaluating whether educators understand child development and can document effectively, seeing the professional development happening in real-time made the difference.

The mission behind the metrics

"Our philosophy is every child matters," Lucy says simply. "That's what we wanted to do for this community and these children – they deserved it."

Behind every compliance requirement is a child's learning experience. Behind every quality rating is an educator's professional confidence. Behind every documentation standard is the question: Are we actually supporting children's development?

The rating changed from "working towards" to "meeting" because the educators changed. They gained the capability to see learning more deeply, document it more professionally, and plan for it more intentionally.

The authorised officer could see that capability through the documentation. But more importantly, the children and families at Dandenong South could feel it every day.

Key takeaways for centres facing assessment and rating

If your centre is preparing for assessment with documentation concerns or multilingual educators, the Dandenong South story shows that quality ratings improve when you build educator capability systematically.

Four months is enough time to transform. Child's Play moved from "working towards" to "meeting" in every area because they combined equipment investment, training, and AI coaching to build capability quickly.

Real-time coaching beats traditional PD under pressure. When you're under department monitoring, educators need to improve their practice now. Coach Sue provided guidance in the moment of writing, accelerating development that would take months through external courses.

Multilingual teams need continuous support. The authorised officer was specifically impressed by how Coach Sue supported educators whose English wasn't their first language, helping them demonstrate their pedagogical knowledge professionally.

Documentation demonstrates capability, not just compliance. The team showed the authorised officer how their educators learned through Coach Sue, proving they understood child development and could plan intentionally.

When educators have the right support, they can demonstrate the quality practice they're already doing. That's what assessment and rating should recognise.

Every child matters. The rating proves you can deliver on that promise.