The Brisbane Lady Gowrie Child Centre was established in 1940 as a demonstration centre for excellence in early childhood education and care, by Lady Gowrie, the wife of the Governor General at the time.
Since then Lady Gowrie’s early childhood education and care (ECEC) services have grown to provide universal programs for families with children aged 6 weeks to 12 years. Currently we provide services to more than 3000 families and children through 98 services statewide; either owned, operated or affiliated with Lady Gowrie.
Lady Gowrie is committed to delivering client-focused early childhood and parent support services in Queensland, and driving excellence and innovation in early years service delivery.
The Lady Gowrie name in Queensland is synonymous with high quality and affordable early childhood services that promote a sense of emotional well being and social and cultural awareness for children, while supporting parents and enabling greater workforce participation.
Our services include:
We promote the best possible outcomes for children and families by:
We believe that childhood is a unique time of life, to be valued and enjoyed in its own right. This is the time where foundations are laid for future health, learning and wellbeing.
We value children growing up with the understandings, skills and dispositions to be caring people and effective learners, able to contribute to their world and to enjoy rich and successful relationships with others. This journey starts at babyhood.
In our work with children we:
In our partnership with families we:
In our role as a community of learners we:
In our relationship with the community we:
Lady Gowrie enjoys a strong heritage in early childhood education in Queensland and celebrated 75 years of operation in 2015.
In that time our organisation has evolved to where we are today which helps over 3000 families and their children all over Queensland in a variety of services and programs.
In a similar way we have evolved our identity to better reflect Lady Gowrie in the Queensland context.
Our new logo is founded on our philosophy and passion for education, while it also reflects our proud history and bright future in all aspects of early childhood education.
At its core is a clever evolution of our beginnings here in Queensland, and incorporates the colour jacaranda, as was Lady Gowrie’s wishes when she opened Love Street.
We prepare children for life, and feel our new identity better prepares us for who we are as an organisation helping the next generations of Queensland families.
Lady Gowrie not only contributes significantly to early childhood in Queensland, but also influences the national debate as a member of the Gowrie Australia coalition.
Gowrie Australia is a coalition of not for profit early childhood organisations which were established over 75 years ago by the Commonwealth Government as a best practice demonstration model.
The Gowrie Centres were named after the then Governor Generals wife, Lady Zara Gowrie. While each state based organisation is a separate entity governed by voluntary Board of Directors, they come together as Gowrie Australia to collaborate, share best practice and undertake research.
The Gowrie organisations remain committed to the model of high quality early childhood education and care and aims to:
Gowrie Australia informs the COAG agenda for early childhood reforms through its membership on the National Stakeholder Reference Group facilitated by the federal Department for Education, Employment and Workforce Relations.
From 2016 Reflections, produced by Gowrie Australia, has a new refreshed and revised format. Once a hard-copy quarterly early education and care magazine, Reflections now produce articles digitally every month. It is believed that this new look and feel is better suited to the opportunities for more spontaneous reading as well as discussion starters for professional reflection.
Reflections can be viewed on Professional Learning, Consultancy and Resources Page or downloaded for free on each Gowrie website listed below:
Beyond the publication, the Gowrie connection has resulted in continued professional dialogue and sharing between each Chief Executive Officer, Managers and Educators, throughout the year. With relationships firmly established, the sharing of knowledge and experience is a regular occurrence. There have been meetings and regular visits to Lady Gowrie Qld, to view and experience new ideas, pedagogy and business systems and processes.