In the dynamic world of early childcare education, staying ahead while nurturing young minds demands a holistic approach. It requires incorporating innovation, efficiency and communication. At Next Generation Childcare, their journey took a transformative turn when they embraced Discover’s Playground platform—an all-encompassing solution. Playground redefined how they manage compliance, engage with families, and document important milestones while making sure they never miss a moment.
Snapshot
4
Services
34
Staff
130
Children
2022
Adopted Playground
Limitations and inefficiency: Tackling cumbersome methods
Next Generation Childcare’s four services had been using legacy SMS and compliance tools for many years. They proudly became early adopters of the Ministry of Education’s pilot program for ICT in the ECE sector. The initial excitement was rampant, and those solutions served their purposes. Yet, the administration team found the lack of mobility and the web-based functionality to be a challenge.
Without being able to easily use their tools, the staff faced obstacles. These led to laborious, manual tasks, such as managing their portfolios through paper-based means, filing systems and hand-written medicine charts. These tasks consumed valuable time and effort, diverting attention from the high-quality care they aspired to provide.
Transitioning from manual to modern
After outgrowing their existing solutions, Next Generation started the process of finding a new software platform. They searched for one that wouldn’t raise concerns over data ownership and privacy. Additionally, they wanted a fresh, modern solution to help streamline their operations into the future. Playground emerged as a top contender, catering to each of the four centre’s requirements and operating rhythms. The natural integration with Discover meant staff no longer needed to manage separate systems for each child, providing efficiency and time savings. Documenting critical information, managing portfolios and accessing incident reports and medical records became simpler. Playground presented a seamless and stress-free experience for Next Generation’s staff and administrators.
The combination of Discover and Playground breathed fresh air into their operations. The administration team found they were able to focus on enhancing children’s learning journeys.
Clarity regarding data ownership, alignment with regulations and streamlined processes drove Next Generation’s decision to adopt Playground at their centres. The migration was seamless, marking a pivotal juncture in their communication strategy. Additionally, the Home app facilitated real-time updates for families and fostered enriched family-teacher collaborations.
Playground covers absolutely everything. I really like that there’s just one platform…The way Discover has responded to working with the Ministry to make sure that everything’s done so that when we’re getting audited, it’s not going to be a problem. That has made me really confident that any changes or new features to Playground in the future will align with our MoE requirements and ERO reviews.
Jessica Dodd, Area Manager at Next Generation Childcare
It’s been really big for our families to be able to have that connection whilst being away from each other for a whole day. And the other thing it’s allowed us to do is plan in partnership with our families for the aspirations for their children. Playground has really offered us the opportunity to not let our parents down in that sense.
Jessica Dodd, Area Manager at Next Generation Childcare
Playground’s transformative impact
Adopting Playground has meant that Next Generation have been able to evolve the relationships with their families into partnerships for learning. The centres have seen a noticeable increase in engagement from families as a result of keeping them informed more frequently throughout the day.
Playground and Home have also been helpful solutions in reassuring parents/guardians, particularly when their children are attending an ECE service for the first time.
The synchrony between Discover, Playground and Home has highlighted the benefits of adopting a true ecosystem, revolutionising operations at Next Generation Childcare’s four centres. Since adopting Discover’s full suite, the administration team have been able to save time doing work that is the equivalent of a full-time position every week.
In addition, teachers are empowered to collaborate with families, and families are enabled to proactively participate in their child’s learning journey. In the ongoing journey of shaping young minds at Next Generation Childcare, the synergy of Discover and Playground stands as a testament to the impact of using purposeful technology to help children succeed.
