It’s a Team Effort at Kids Club Torquay

Kids Club Torquay is a happy and friendly early learning centre with a team of well established and dedicated educators. Centre Manger, Shayne Cronin leads a long standing team with herself being at the centre for ten years. Having been within the Early Childhood sector for 25 years, Shayne is a highly experienced professional with a true passion for early learning.

Alongside Shayne, the team at Kids Club Torquay are a tight knit group with many educators being at the centre for five or more years. Shayne says, “My 2IC started at the centre when she was 17 as a student and 10 years later moved from assistant, group leader and now a fabulous 2IC. We have the best Educational Leader ever Amy Hyland who transferred from East Ivanhoe six months ago. Lisa Harper has been working at the centre for 11 years and Jayne Thomas for nine years. My team is amazing – everyone supports each other and enjoys caring for and educating all children who attend Kids Club Torquay.”

What’s been happening at Kids Club Torquay

There’s lots happening at this early learning centre! Every Monday, educator Yessy McKenna holds Indonesian lessons with all children. This is a great chance for children to experience another language and is something that is looked forward to at the service.

The regular excursions are a source of excitement with children going on regular outings to Torquay Library, YMCA Anglesea Recreational Camp and other local sites. Recently, the centre has a visit from Narana who talked about indigenous culture which was insightful and interesting both for the children and the educators. They’ll soon be introducing “Bush Kinder” into their program, so watch this space!

Right now they are working on gardening and sustainability projects as well as their much loved “Happy Feet” program on Mondays and Wednesdays. Through this program they hope it will promote holistically healthy children and instil health, joy, learning and confidence. By offering a range of physical activities and musically themed adventure classes, children are learning about health in a fun and supportive way and is linked to the Early Years Learning Framework.

Happy Feet Fitness is the award-winning brainchild of husband and wife team, Donna and Cam McColl. Donna is an accredited and well respected fitness leader and Cam is a professional children’s entertainer, magician and musician. Both Donna and Cam share a passion for helping those around them reach their full potential. Their joint appreciation of health, fitness and general wellbeing spurred the desire to educate and inspire young children to make healthy choices; it was the catalyst for creating the hugely popular Happy Feet Fitness program.

Kids Club Torquay prides itself on their cook who not only creates delicious and nutritious meals but also provides cooking classes for all the children. Shayne says, “All families every morning state how lovely the centre smells and how good the food is.”

Family testimonials

“Both my children thoroughly enjoy their time at Kids Club Torquay the Centre is amazing with long lasting, dedicated educators and the Centre Manager goes above and beyond her job. They certainly have the best reputation within the community. Thank you, Meagan Patterson.”

“Many thanks Shayne,
These additional updates as well as a daily Storypark addition are such lovely little additions to your care. We are thoroughly enjoying our experience at Kids Club so far.
Fiona and Jesse”

Kids Club Torquay’s point of difference

At Kids Club Torquay families are respected and acknowledged as the key educators in their child’s life. Shayne states that, “Kids Club Torquay welcomes families being able to collaborate with them via shared information and the provision of opportunities to connect with our programs.”

Shayne is a believes that Kids Club point of difference is two key things:

#1 Staff/Educator retention

“Our centre is 11 years old and two educators have been at the centre since it opened. I am reaching 10 years this year, another educator 10 years in 2018 and the rest have been with us for more than five years. It is definitely a selling point as we don’t have a high turnover of staff/educators. My team work together and I deal with any issues there and then. My motto is happy team, happy families, happy children. You have to get staffing RIGHT as they are your business and if you don’t have great educators caring for children you cannot run a highly successful business. Our reputation is the best in the community and I make a point of keeping this up as we would have no business if we did not have a great reputation and word of mouth is also the key to being successful.”

#2 Customer service is everything to our business

“I have to say this is my biggest strength and I role model to all my staff and educators daily. I have dropped off cards and art work in families’ letter boxes, dropped off comfort toys left at the centre so families don’t have to come back out again, picked up medication, dropped off flowers for sick families and big bunches of balloons for sick children. I have applied automatically for two families SCCB when their spouses passed away to help the families out and the parents could not deal with anything to take the pressure off while going through a terrible ordeal.

We all go out of our way for all families and good customer service is the heart of our business and what makes us so successful. It is so important to provide good customer service; to all types of customers, including potential, new and existing families. Our customer service leads to customer satisfaction which generates positive word-of-mouth which keeps Kids Club reputation as the best service within the community. I make sure I keep my customers happy at all times. We all exceed customers’ expectations at all times.”

Book a tour at Kids Club Torquay

Kids Club Torquay is an Exceeding NQS centre that provides high quality care to every child in their service. To meet Shayne and the team and see the centre in action, book a tour here!