Reflecting on 2025: Growth, innovation and community for Xplor Education childcare software

As we wrap up 2025, we’re taking a moment to reflect on a year filled with progress, collaboration and meaningful impact across the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector. From product enhancements to community events, it’s been a year shaped by the voices of educators, families and service leaders, and we’re so grateful to be on this journey with you as one of Australia’s top childcare software providers.

Here’s a look back at some of our highlights and learnings, and a peek at what’s coming next. 

Growing together 

More than 8,700 services across Australia and New Zealand have chosen Xplor Education as their childcare software to help simplify operations and strengthen connections with families. Our team has also grown, now comprising 161 passionate Xplorers across Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Auckland and beyond, all working to make childcare management easier, safer and more meaningful. 

‘It’s been incredible to see our community grow, not just in numbers, but in depth of connection. Every new service we support is another opportunity to make a difference in children’s lives.’ – Richard North, Chief Commercial Officer

Our childcare software offers more innovative tools and better support 

We’ve continued to evolve our childcare software platforms to meet the real needs of ECEC services, helping administrators, educators and families spend less time on processes and more time on people.

• Office (for admins) saw significant enhancements in 2025. Alongside smoother enrolments, attendance tracking and subsidy submissions, we introduced the new Finance Reconciliation Report, a powerful, centralised report that provides clear monthly financial insights. This update replaces multiple manual downloads with a single automated process, ensuring accuracy, transparency and audit readiness.
• • The report consolidates all key data points, including opening balances, fees, CCS, revenue adjustments and closing balances, into a single locked reporting period each month, thereby protecting data integrity and streamlining compliance.
  • We also improved the Locked Period Transaction Summary Report, now itemising CCS payments into debits and credits for greater clarity. 
  • Together, these updates provide services with faster access to financial insights and fewer reconciliation headaches, transforming a previously time-consuming task into an efficient and transparent process. 
• We also refined tools to support state-based kindergarten and preschool funding (NSW, VIC, ACT, QLD), enabling services to remain agile as policies shift and funding models evolve. 
• Playground (for educators) and Home (for families) have undergone major updates, enhancing how services capture, share and collaborate on the everyday moments that matter. 
  • The launch of Digital Signature Requests for Incident Records in the Home app enables families to securely sign incident reports in real-time, directly from their phones. 
  • This enhancement removes the delays and paperwork traditionally associated with incident acknowledgements, supporting faster compliance, stronger parent communication and smoother audits. 
  • Educators can still choose in-person signatures at pickup if preferred, maintaining flexibility for meaningful conversations with families. 

• Later this year, we’ll launch Advanced Sleep Checks, aligning with ACECQA best practices and Red Nose guidelines, to capture richer data points, such as sleep position, room temperature and child preferences, all to help services keep families informed and confidently compliant. 
• And coming soon, Playground AI, an innovative, time-saving feature that will assist educators in documenting and sharing children’s learning stories more efficiently. 

‘Playground AI is a game-changer. It’s designed to help educators save time while capturing the richness of children’s learning experiences.’ – Will Athanasakis, Director of Product Management 

Learning, leading & listening 

In September, we hosted Xplor Horizons 2025, our first national conference, in Melbourne. It was an opportunity to bring together service owners, directors, educational leaders, and administrators to share ideas, challenges, and inspiration. From pedagogy to wellbeing, the conversations were rich and energising. 

This year, we also launched ECEC Conversations, a new initiative designed to spotlight the voices of educators, educational leaders and sector experts. Through interviews, insights and shared stories, we’re creating a space for meaningful dialogue about the challenges and opportunities in early learning. 

‘ECEC Conversations has become a platform for real stories and real impact. It’s about listening, learning and lifting up the voices that shape our sector. I’ve loved being involved and look forward to another great program in 2026.’ – Tracy Kilpady, Manager of Education

Training 

Our childcare software training team has been exceptionally busy this year, just the way they like it!

• Training Sessions: 742
• Regular Webinar Subscribers: 1,172
• Unique Learning Path Views: 6,207
• Certification Attempts: 432

We have even more training updates and improvements planned for 2026 to further support you and help you utilise our platforms to their full potential.

Home app 

In 2025, the Xplor Home app remains a highly valued tool for families, maintaining strong ratings. In the iOS App Store, the app holds a 4.8-star rating from 16K+ reviews, while on Google Play, it has 4.7 stars from over 9,700 reviews. These numbers reflect steady user satisfaction and highlight the app’s reliability in helping families track their child’s daily activities, health, wellbeing and communication with educators.

Looking ahead to 2026 for our childcare software

 We’re excited about what’s next:

• More innovative, faster platforms—expect enhanced automation, improved reporting, and a smoother user experience.
• Wellbeing and sustainability—supporting educators and children holistically, from mental health to meaningful pedagogy.
• More community and content—events, road shows, learning management system and resources that will help educators focus on learning, safety and relationships.
• Enhanced family engagement—tools that make learning visible, health updates seamless and everyday moments more connected.

‘2026 is about deepening impact. We’re focused on building tools and partnerships that help educators do what they do best: nurture, teach and inspire.’ – Richard North, Chief Commercial Officer 

Thank you for being part of the Xplor Education community. Here’s to a bright, connected and inspiring 2026. If you’re considering joining the Xplor Education family, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about our childcare software.