Affinity profiles broadened Quality Team as focus on improvement steps up

Affinity Education Group has profiled their dedicated Quality Team post a spate of new joiners in early 2021 and amid a continuing focus on quality improvement going forward. 

The team is now made up of nine early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals with a collective experience of 180 years across a range of disciplines including education, training, assessing, teaching and regulatory authority experience.

Jodie McClelland heads up the national team of state based Quality Advisors, supports the overall vision and execution of Affinity’s internal quality process and also sits on the Assessment & Rating committee which coordinates in-centre support, drawing resources from our management, education and centralised office teams to address priorities. 

Ms McLelland is joined at support office by Tracey Ling who recently moved into the role of Quality Coordinator and whose role is to liaise with centre teams, advisors and management to provide an additional layer of support. She is also the Affinity quality data expert and conducts regular analysis to identify areas of opportunity for further improvement and growth.

And in the field a team of quality advisors located across the Affinity network and who work alongside centres to help support quality improvement is made up of seven ECEC professionals namely; Angie Beness, Anna Razak, Karen Turnbull, Kerri Stevenson, Meghan Webb-Wagg, Melanie Nour and Melanie Teunis.

The high level focus of the quality team is to drive ongoing improvements in National Quality Standard (NQS) ratings across the Affinity Network which as at 31 December 2020 consisted of around 74 per cent of all centres rated at meeting or exceeding the NQS. 

The areas of specific emphasis for the team are as follows:: 

• Apply industry knowledge and experience to integrate best-practices in centres and achieve high-quality outcomes for children.  
• Guide centres as they prepare for their ACECQA Assessment & Rating. 
• Support centres as they continually work to improve their ACECQA Assessment & Rating. 
• Coordinate resources and support in areas of management and education. 
• Identify areas of opportunity for further improvement and growth. 

To learn more about Affinity Education please click here.