About Rainbow Children’s Centre Ballina

Our story

Established in 1986 on land provided by Ballina Shire Council, Rainbow’s main building was purpose-built by the NSW Government as a child care facility. Our long day care service operates from our centre at 4 John Sharpe Street, East Ballina, and our Out of School Hours Care programs run across four local primary schools.

Community-led management

Our Management Committee is made up of parents and community members. This means policies, fees, staffing, and service decisions are made by those who use the services themselves. This keeps us flexible, responsive, and family-focused.

Our environment

Tucked behind East Ballina’s main shopping area, Rainbow is surrounded by a natural reserve, large Eucalypt, Tuckeroo and Cadagi trees, and a beautiful outdoor play space. Our setting provides rich opportunities for children to explore, play, and learn.

We acknowledge the Nyangbul people of the Bundjalung Nation as traditional custodians of this land and pay our respects to their elders past, present, and future.

Our programs

We offer long day care for children from birth to 6 years and Out of School Hours Care for primary-aged children. Our programs are guided by both individual and group interests, giving children the freedom to make choices about their learning, their activities, and who they spend time with.

Children’s choices are supported by educators, fostering independence, confidence, and a sense of belonging.

Working with families

Strong relationships between families and educators are essential to children’s wellbeing. We encourage family involvement in programs and in our Management Committee. Open communication helps children and families feel supported, valued, and connected.

How we operate

• While we strive to provide high quality services we also recognise that not all families could afford to pay high fees and so we try to keep our fees at an affordable level.
• We welcome parents and other family members to be involved within our program and family members are welcome to visit and become involved if they wish.
• We do not do any fund raising. We set our fees each year to cover our operating expenses and ensure we can break even. Our staff spend their time working with children (not raising money).
• In acknowledging the value of the natural environment, we have put in place a number of sustainability initiatives including solar energy, stormwater recycling, and a natural shady playground. Children are involved in gardening, including herbs and vegetables and we utilise a worm farm and compost heap.
• We believe that well qualified and experienced staff are essential for good quality children’s services and have put in place staff wages levels and conditions to ensure we can attract and maintain a high quality workforce.
• Our staff are also a diverse group with staff of all ages and backgrounds – reflecting the diversity of our community. Please see the individual pages to see details of our two service types
• Rainbow has developed formal policies which set out how we plan to operate and meet all our external expectations. Full copies of those policies are available at the Rainbow main office and at each of the OOSHC services. Please ask staff to show you a copy of the policies if you wish to see  them. If you would like to see any of the policies reviewed, please attend the next Committee Meeting and you are welcome to raise your interest or concern in the meeting.

Our philosophy

At Rainbow, we foster a learning environment that balances warmth, home-like care, and rich educational experiences. Our values guide everything we do:

• We believe a learning environment that combines the warmth and nurturing of a home with the stimulus of an early childhood educational setting, supports the holistic development of each child; we are committed to offering services that recognise and honour the whole person: body, mind, heart and spirit.
• We recognise the traditional custodians of the land, the Nyangbul people of the Bundjalung Nation; we pay our respects to Aboriginal people past, present and future generations. Our services operate in ways that celebrate the diversity of Australian culture, demonstrating values of respect and mindfulness towards the many contexts of diversity for children and their families.
• We respect each child as an individual with personal rights; the programs provided by Rainbow create an environment which supports and encourages the potential of each child. We prioritise the best interests of children, but also recognise that we must look at the best interest of families, community and staff in determining the best interests of children.
• We respect families as the primary carers of their children; the centre and its staff support families in caring for and educating their children. Rainbow recognises the value of open and trusting communication between the centre and the child’s home and family.
• We hold the values of respect, care, justice, unity and service to be central to our culture; we believe in demonstrating them in creative responsiveness to the family needs of our community. We foster in each child the values of respect and consideration for others.
• We provide an environment for children to learn; as they discover, create and imagine through curiosity and learning, we seek to find a balance between child initiated and educator supported learning. We recognise and value the many learning opportunities for children when they engage within mixed aged peer groups, children have opportunities to spend time with same age peers, as well as younger and older peers throughout the day.
• We value the natural environment, both within the centre and in the wider community; we encourage children to respect and nurture the environment. We recognise the many opportunities for children to play, explore, discover and challenge themselves as they engage in outdoor play, our learning program fosters children’s engagement with the natural environment.
• We believe in responsible and sustainable stewardship of our resources; placing high value on our human resources, while promoting rigorous attention to the financial, structural and material.