The Future Starts With Us: Meet Our Display Winners
On Early Childhood Educators’ Day, centres across our network unveiled something special. Children, educators and families had spent weeks working together on displays inspired by this year’s national theme, The Future Starts With Us!
25 years, generations of children: Miss Veronica’s full-circle story at Aussie Kindies Gilgandra
Veronica Sutherland started as “the office lady” in 2000. Twenty-five years on, the children she once cared for are bringing their own children to her centre.
Support, Learn, Recover: How Affinity Education Is Marking Safe Work Month 2026
October is National Safe Work Month, led each year by Safe Work Australia. The 2026 theme is “Safe work is for life.” It is a reminder that safety is not a single event or a box to tick. It is something that matters to every person, in every role, every day.
Why Your Child Won’t Sleep, and What It’s Doing to You
It’s 2am. You’ve done the bottle, the dummy, the third “I need water,” the “one more song.” You’re not just tired anymore, you’re starting to wonder if something’s wrong with you, or them, or both.
Positive Food Experiences This Spring: What Families Should Know
For years, “finish your plate” has been treated as the gold standard of good eating. Emerging evidence, and long-standing early childhood practice, suggests otherwise.
The Future Starts With Us: Celebrating Early Childhood Educators’ Day 2026
On Wednesday 2 September, Australia’s early learning sector marks Early Childhood Educators’ Day, a national day of recognition for the more than 200,000 educators who care for and educate our youngest children. This year’s theme, The Future Starts With Us, speaks directly to the responsibility our educators carry: what happens in a classroom today shapes who a child becomes tomorrow. It’s been a big year for early education in Australia, and today is about the people who’ve kept showing up for children and families through all of it.
Affinity Education Group Reaccredited by the Australian Breastfeeding Association
Affinity Education Group is proud to confirm we’ve once again been accredited by the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA), for the period August 2026 to August 2027.
Book Week 2026: The Practice Behind the Stories
It’s 7:45pm, the same picture book has been requested for the fourth night running, and you’re doing the funny voice for the dog character again, badly, and your child doesn’t care. That scene plays out in loungerooms and reading corners across the country every night of the year, but during Book Week (22-28 August 2026, theme “Symphony of Stories,” marking 80 years of the CBCA Book of the Year Awards) it gets a bit of extra shine: dress-ups, decorated reading nooks, a room full of characters brought to life. What’s worth noticing, underneath the costumes, is what that fourth re-read is actually doing for your child, and it’s more than you’d think.
Understanding NQS Ratings: What Assessors Actually Look For (and What to Ask on a Tour)
Every approved childcare centre in Australia carries a National Quality Standard (NQS) rating. You’ve likely seen the badge – Working Towards, Meeting, or Exceeding – on a centre’s website or noticeboard, or checked one yourself on the ACECQA national register. But what actually happens to produce that rating, and what does it tell you about the day-to-day experience your child will have?
Posted, Relocated, Deployed: How Affinity Supports Defence Force Families
Defence life does not follow a school-term calendar. A posting can mean relocating to a new town and enrolling in a new centre with only a few months’ notice. A deployment can mean months where one parent attends bedtime by video call, and the other manages everything else alone. Affinity supports Defence families across our national network of centres, and several aspects of our service are shaped around these realities, from how we support a family moving states to how we help a deployed parent stay connected.