About Us

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:

• Long Day Care
• Lady Gowrie Community Kindergartens – Affiliated Community Kindergartens.
• Parent Toddlers Group and The Gowrie Threes program
• Sessional and Long Hours Kindergarten programs
• The Caboolture Early Years Place
• Integrated Early Services in Barcaldine and Blackall
• Outside School Hours Care
• Professional Learning and Consultancy

Vision

• Exceptional, Engaging and Enriching

Purpose

We promote the best possible outcomes for children and families by:

• Providing high quality, affordable, early childhood education and care, school age care and family support services
• Supporting families in their parenting role, and enabling workforce participation and other choices
• Sharing knowledge and promoting the value of high quality early childhood services for children and families of all cultures and backgrounds
• Promoting a sense of emotional wellbeing, secure attachments, and social and cultural awareness in children

The Gowrie (QLD) Values

• Excellence: We have a commitment to exceptional standards of service and performance.
• Innovation: We strive to continually improve professional practice and the relevance and responsiveness of our programs and services.
• Inclusion: We provide early childhood services, which provide and support high expectations for all children.
• Engagement: We build positive and enduring relationships with children and families, partnering organisations, the community, and with one another based on honesty, trust and respect.
• Diversity: We embrace the diversity of our community and workplace, and social and cultural acceptance and competence.
• Integrity: We act with utmost integrity at all times, are accountable for our actions, and ensure effective and efficient use of resources.

Our Philosophy

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:

• Acknowledge children from birth are active and competent learners.
• Encourage children’s learning through play by providing for their interests and expanding their knowledge and skills.
• Create a safe, welcoming and stimulating learning environment to encourage thoughtful play, early literacy, numeracy development, science and the arts.
• Promote resilience, a sense of belonging, self worth, secure attachments and warm trusting relationships and interactions.
• Seek to strengthen critical thinking, intellectual curiosity and informed risk-taking.
• Promote communication and problem solving skills, together with social and cultural learning and awareness, and the capacity to express and acknowledge feelings.

In our partnership with families we:

• Recognise parents as their child’s first and most influential teachers.
• Share knowledge and promote confident parenting.
• Seek to develop and maintain positive relationships based on honesty, trust and respect, two way communication and participation in service decision-making.
• Respect and value the individual backgrounds and unique culture and customs of families.
• Build genuine reciprocal relationships with families that are strengthened and sustained over time.

In our role as a community of learners we:

• Create positive environments that foster reciprocal learning between children, families and staff.
• Advocate for children and families, and promote sharing of information and expertise.
• Reflect on our practice, commit to continuous quality improvement, and support each other’s ongoing professional and personal development.

In our relationship with the community we:

• Connect children and families with each other and local child and family support services.
• Share our knowledge and expertise with others.
• Inform and influence government decision-making.
• Promote the value and contribution of our services within the broader community.

Our Identity

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.

Gowrie Australia

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:

• Provide national leadership in the high-quality provision of education and care services for young families
• Conduct research into new and innovative service models
• Offer a range of diverse early childhood services across Australia in local contexts
• Provide training and professional development for thousands of early childhood educators annually
• Engage in national networking and advocacy across the early childhood profession.
• The education and care of our youngest Australians is complex, demanding, and highly responsible work. Gowrie Australia and the thousands of stakeholders across our networks take this work seriously.

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:

Lady Gowrie Qld

Gowrie NSW

Gowrie Victoria

Gowrie SA

The Gowrie (WA) Inc.

Lady Gowrie Tasmania

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.