About Us
Our Philosophy
At Kentish Community Services, we believe that quality child care options are an integral right of all families.
Our staff support and encourage the interest and involvement of families, Northern Territory educators and staff. We embrace the diversity of the community and respect the individual needs of families.
Consultation and information sharing is of vital importance to us, and we encourage all stakeholders to contribute to, and feel part of, the organisation.
We believe that each family, educator and staff member comes to the organisation with knowledge and life experience, and that these experiences and differences should be embraced and developed. We work together to build on this knowledge and experience through opportunities for training, professional development and ongoing support.
At Kentish, we believe each child should have the opportunity and guidance to develop self-discipline, self-expression and confidence in their own abilities. Children should be encouraged to make choices, take responsibility and build independence within a loving and accepting care environment.
Our NT learning environments incorporate opportunities for problem solving, creative expression, tolerance, fun and laughter. At our safe, healthy and developmentally appropriate child care settings, your child will learn literacy, language and numeracy skills.
We aim to embrace the global community and to provide a service that reflects diversity and tolerance.
Our Vision
Positive outcomes for children, young people, and communities
Our Mission
Creating a community where everyone has the right to education, identity, culture, belonging and to feel safe, respected, and nurtured
Our Values
At Kentish we will strive for excellence for each child and young person sharing with joy their nurturing and care which is defined by our motto “Valuing Families, Communities and Each Other” and the belief that each child is an able and capable human being. We will ensure that we deliver high quality learning experiences and care which meets the physical, social, emotional, spiritual, cognitive, and language developmental needs of all the children, young people, families and Kentish members and/or families. Best practice is aspired to in all activities and endeavours.
Professional Development & Training
At Kentish we are committed to helping children achieve the best learning outcomes possible.
We stay up to date with the latest research to help instill integral literacy, numeracy, creativity and social skills for the children in our care. We believe learning should be fun and that children should develop confidence and creativity from an early age.
We hold regular professional development training in Palmerston, Katherine and Alice Springs, for our Family Day Care, In Home Care and Out of Home Care educators and parents. In addition, staff, educators and board members attend a variety of national and international conferences; where they are exposed to cutting edge information in our sector.
Our History
Kentish Community Services is named after Rupert Kentish, an Australian politician who represented Arnhem in the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly in the 1940s. A proud Territorian, Mr. Kentish advocated for families, women, children and primary industries during his time in parliament.
In 1994, Kentish Child Care was incorporated in the Northern Territory. As the organisation grew from strength to strength, providing early education, as well as other broad community services, the name was changed to Kentish Lifelong Learning & Care Incorporated in 2013. In 2024, Kentish became a company limited by guarantee and now our name is Kentish Community Services Limited.
Today, Kentish Community Services (Kentish) operates three service programs:
- Kentish Family Day Care
- Kentish Out of Home Care
- Kentish Long Day Care
We also run ongoing projects to value add and further empower our workforce, as well as enrich the lives of the children and families in our care and the greater community. Throughout the years, the high benchmarks set by Kentish have brought us recognition locally and nationally. To this day our Northern Territory early education organisation continues to thrive.
This artwork was painted by local artist Tradara Amy Katie Napurula Briscoe in December, 2014.
This painting represents:
- the partnership that Kentish has within the community
- leadership with Kentish
- the future growth for Kentish
This painting includes many symbolic elements highlighting the different aspects of Kentish Community Services.
The witchetty grubs represent growth and development between the community and all those involved with Kentish . including the Board of Management through to the children.
The small dotted circles signify young children who are being guided by educators to take the right path in life.
The larger green and yellow dots exemplify young people who have acquired the required life skills to be confident in anything they wish to achieve, and set a good example for the younger children.
The outer line of six people illustrates the educators who pass on their knowledge and wisdom to each and every child who comes within their care as well as Kentish’s care.
The next line of four people show the workers in the office who keep the program organised by keeping Kentish connected to the community and skilling, supporting and mentoring the educators.
The circle of people in the centre indicates the Board of Management and the staff, who make vital decisions. These help to keep the program running by continuously improving, growing and adapting new programs.
The centre circle and small intricate flowers represent “the tree of life” or command centre of Kentish. This keeps the loop of development flowing from young children through to the young people to enable them to be confident and responsible adults, to respect others, gain an education and continually support all those in need of help.
The colours have been selected to suit the Kentish logo, also with bright colours added to give viewers the feeling of happiness, encouragement and comfort.