22 questions worth asking on a childcare tour.

A childcare website tells you what a centre wants you to know. A tour tells you the rest: how the rooms smell, whether the educators look up when a child calls out, what the director does when a toddler hands her a worm. Tours at our centres run about 30 minutes, and you are welcome to bring your child.

What most parents do not bring is questions. Not because they have none, but because it is hard to think past "it seems nice" while carrying a nappy bag through an unfamiliar building. So here is the list we would take, twenty-two questions, grouped the way a tour naturally flows.

The people

1. How long has the director been here? Centres take on the character of whoever runs them, and tenure tells you whether that character is stable. Ask us: Jacque has led Normanhurst since 2006, Anna has led Roseville since 2009, Tina has directed St Ives Chase since 2017, and Corinne has been at West Ryde since it opened in 2007.

2. How long do educators stay? Follow up with: who is the newest person here, and who has been here longest? The shape of that answer matters more than the average.

3. Where do your casual staff come from? When someone is sick, does a familiar face step in, or a stranger from a staffing app? Agency casuals are screened by the agency, not the centre, and children notice unfamiliar adults. We stopped using external staffing agencies and apps; when our centres need cover, familiar educators step across from our sister centres, so children keep seeing faces they know.

4. Who is the Educational Leader and what do they actually do? Every service must have one. A good answer talks about the program, not just the title.

5. What are the ratios in each room? In NSW: 1 educator to 4 children under 2, 1 to 5 for 2 to 3, 1 to 10 for 3 and over. Ask whether the centre runs at the minimum or better.

Safety

6. How do you check Working with Children Checks? The answer should cover everyone who works with children, including casuals and contractors, and how expiry is tracked.

7. How do you supervise transitions? Moving between the room and the yard is where supervision is tested. Listen for counting at every transition.

8. What is your policy on photos of children? Who takes them, where they end up, and what stays off social media.

9. What is your NQS rating, and when was it assessed? Every service is rated against the National Quality Standard. You can verify the answer yourself afterwards; our guide to checking a centre's record on Starting Blocks shows you where to look.

10. Can I see your compliance record? Ratings are one thing; the history behind them is another. A centre's compliance record is public, and a director who answers this comfortably, or simply shows you, is telling you something. A centre that bristles is telling you something too.

The day itself

11. Walk me through a typical day. You are listening for a rhythm, not a timetable recited from a wall.

12. How will I know how the day went? Our centres log meals, sleeps, nappies and photos through the OWNA app during the day. Whatever the system, ask to see what a parent actually receives.

13. How do children move up between rooms? The better answer is gradual and individual, when the child is ready, rather than everyone on one date.

14. What happens at rest time for children who do not sleep? There should be a real answer: quiet activities, not enforced stillness.

Food

15. Who prepares the food, and where? Cooked on site, catered in, or packed at home; each is workable, but the answer changes your mornings. Here is what the food question looks like at our four centres.

16. How do you handle my child's allergy? Ask exactly who knows about it, and how the kitchen or lunchbox checks work on an ordinary Tuesday.

Settling in

17. How do orientation visits work? Children should be able to visit with a parent before their first real day.

18. What do you do when a child cries at drop-off? Every centre has seen a thousand hard goodbyes. You want to hear a practised, warm answer, and ideally what they do for the parent too.

Money and admin

19. What exactly is in the daily fee? Meals, nappies, sunscreen, hats, incursions. Two similar fees can cover very different things; our guide to daily fees shows how to compare.

20. What is the deposit, and the notice period? At our centres: a $500 holding deposit that comes off your final invoice, and four weeks' written notice to change days or leave.

21. How do I work out what I will actually pay after the subsidy? Centrelink gives you the definitive answer once you claim, but you should not need to enrol to get an estimate. We built a gap-fee calculator with each centre's real fees and the 2026-27 rules loaded, so you can arrive at a tour already knowing your likely number.

22. Which weeks of the year are you closed, and do I pay for them? Normanhurst, St Ives Chase and West Ryde run 50 weeks a year, and none of our centres charges fees during its Christmas closure. Whatever the centre, get this one in writing.

After the tour

Trust the small things you saw over the brochure you were handed. Did children approach the educators freely? Did the director know names? Was the yard being used?

Then come and test the list on us: Normanhurst, Roseville, St Ives Chase or West Ryde. Question 18 gets our best answers.