Our Affinity Team Spirit is high with almost 60 Queensland and Northern New South Wales early education centres celebrating reopening after temporary closures related to ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.
Highly anticipated to be one of the most significant weather events in early 2025, Cyclone Alfred prompted watches, warnings and evacuations in South East Queensland, and Northern New South Wales, an area which has rarely seen direct impacts from tropical cyclones. It eventually affected the coast as a weaker system, becoming a tropical low shortly before making landfall on 8 March; nevertheless, its rainfall brought severe flooding to the region.1
"The safety and wellbeing of children and our teams is our number one priority, which is why we acted cautiously and closed centres temporarily as weather conditions worsened, and Government warnings became more urgent,” explained COO Nishad Alani.
“It is never ideal to close a centre but we’re thrilled to see them successfully reopening with relatively minimal damage and impact across the majority of centres,” he said.
Affinity's Crisis Response Team held daily briefings during the intense weather events between 7-12 March to confirm the status of each centre, keep teams and families updated and plan to reopen as quickly as possible.
During the temporary centre closures, employees were provided with wellbeing checks and access to Affinity’s EAP.
As soon as it was safe to return to the centres, our teams were on site supporting simple clean up works. Affinity has engaged contractors to assess and resolve major external clean ups and any internal repairs required.
“The major impact for our team were the power outages, which unfortunately resulted in food spoilage, along with general clean up works required from the heavy rain,” explained Centre Manager Sarah.
“My team smashed it and the centre is absolutely sparkling ready for families – go team Amity – I'm super proud of everyone!”
“My team were all safe and well, we had some serious fun while we cleaned up and unpacked new stock – and we’re really ready to welcome families and children back!” said Kylie, Centre Manager at Kids Academy Darra.
“At Milestones Early Learning Brookside, teams sorted, cleaned and laughed as they prepared to reopen,” said Centre Manager Wendy.
Up on the Sunshine Coast, the team at Milestones Early Learning Peregian kept their spirits high as they navigated heavy rains and road closures to ensure their centre was safe, operational and full of smiles for returning families.
“Affinity’s Crisis Response Team and especially our Area Manager and Operations Managers could not have been more supportive through these unexpected last few days, and as a new Centre Manager with Affinity, I could not be more grateful,” said Centre Manager Heather at Milestones Early Learning Sunshine Beach.
While we regret any inconvenience caused to our families, we are excited to be again open for fun and learning!