Explore & Develop is a unique organisation in the early childhood and care sector in Australia.
We are a group of individually owned and operated early childhood education and care services located across NSW and ACT.
Our services are owned and operated by early childhood passionate professionals who are passionate about giving children the best start in life.
As a franchise organisation, families and employees enjoy the benefit of a locally-run service and a direct relationship with the Owner/Approved Provider – as well as the support of many decades of early childhood experience, professional training and resources from the group.
We only welcome new owners to the group who demonstrate a sincere passion for the early childhood sector. All of our service owners work onsite in their services.
At Explore & Develop, we celebrate every child being an individual. We help all children reach their full potential by providing enriching and meaningful opportunities for development through our best practice approaches.
Our educators develop ’emergent educational programs’ to deliver the national curriculum for early childhood education programs, called the Early Years Learning Framework.
Emergent education focuses on the individual child, through the development of programs that are based on the children’s individual interests, challenges and understandings.
We believe that young children develop at their own rate and in their own time. This is why we offer daily programs that reflect a calm, relaxed and unrushed environment for growing and learning.
We believe that children learn best as they explore, discover, make, create and imagine. We value constructive play as a tool for learning through our natural environments.
Explore & Develop recognises that families are their child’s first and most influential teachers. Embedded in our culture is the notion that families are a core part of our services.
We are committed to building genuine partnerships with all families, where relationships are respectful, reciprocal, and central to ensuring continuity of care and the development of each child as an individual.
We celebrate our differences through acknowledgement and acceptance of diversity within our community. Within each of our services, we value the insights and traditions that can be shared, respected and appreciated.
We believe it is important to encourage children to become lifelong learners. That’s why our transition to school program begins from birth.
Explore & Develop also offers specialised preschool programs to support the children with their developing confidence, life skills and abilities.
We are proud to be a charity partner with Tresillian, a not-for-profit organisation that assists close to 60,000 Australian families in the early years of their child’s life.
Tresillian helps parents gain confidence in their new roles as mums and dads and teach new parents about routines in breastfeeding, sleep, settling and nutrition.
To learn more about Tresillian, visit their website www.tresillian.org.au
We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for every member of our community – children, families, employees and partners.
We strive for a culture in which everyone feels a sense of belonging, and we welcome the varied perspectives, knowledge and experience of our diverse community.
Our Owner-Operators share the following commitment to child safety:
Jenny Mays has more than two decades of experience in early childhood education and care and is passionate about giving young children the best possible start in life.
As Co-Founders of the Explore & Develop organisation, Jenny and her husband Stephen established the first Explore & Develop service in Frenchs Forest in 2005.
Jenny’s early childhood journey began in 2000, when she and Stephen purchased an established preschool in the Sydney suburb of Manly.
Before discovering her passion for the early childhood sector, Jenny enjoyed a 15-year career in human resources and people management.
Jenny founded Explore & Develop in 2004 with co-founder Alan Grant, with the goal to establish and support a group of high-quality, individually owned and operated early childhood education and care services in NSW. Launched originally as Lollipop’s Childcare, it was the first time in Australia that the franchise business model had been applied to the Early Childhood Education sector.
Jenny and Alan built sound operating principles for the group, based on their shared beliefs and passion regarding the development and nurturing of children and how the franchised owner-operator model can deliver them best. In 2008, through collaboration with the community, the organisation was rebranded to Explore & Develop to better reflect the group’s values and the excellence in Early Childhood Education and Care that was everyone’s objective.
Belinda Ludlow leads the Explore & Develop Support Office, a small team of early childhood sector professionals with specialist expertise ranging from Operations and Policy through to Marketing and Business Management.
We support our network of owners to operate their early education and care services to an outstanding level of excellence, supported by the latest resources, best practice policies and sector-leading training programs.
