What you pay
One daily fee, published in January and held for the year.
Any change gets eight weeks' written notice. The table below is the daily fee before subsidy; your gap fee, what actually leaves your account, depends on your Child Care Subsidy percentage, which Services Australia sets from your family income and activity.
Daily fee by room
Five day rate to casual, before subsidy.
| Room | Ages | Permanent 5 day rate | Casual or single day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nursery room | 6 weeks to 2 years | $148 per day | $158 per day |
| Toddler room | 2 to 3 years | $142 per day | $152 per day |
| Junior kindy room | 3 to 4 years | $136 per day | $146 per day |
| Kindergarten program | 4 to 5 years, the year before Prep | $132 per day | $142 per day |
Three and four day permanent bookings sit between the two figures shown. Ring us and we will quote your exact combination of days rather than make you interpolate it yourself.
What is in the fee
Everything below is already in the number.
- Breakfast, morning tea, a hot lunch and afternoon tea
- Nappies, wipes and sunscreen
- Cot linen and bed sheets
- Your first wide brim sun hat and a labelled peg
- The creative studio, the garden program and every incursion
- The approved kindergarten program in the kindy room
What is not
One fee, stated once.
- A one off fifty dollar enrolment fee per family, charged on your first invoice
- Replacement sun hats at eighteen dollars, if the first one goes missing
- Nothing else. There is no bond, no waitlist fee, no materials levy and no resource levy
Public holidays are charged at the normal daily fee and the centre is closed. Permanent days are charged whether or not your child attends, which is standard across the sector because the place is held for you.
The two things with their own name
Enrolment and the kindergarten year.
Orientation and enrolment, $50 once
- Forty five minute tour of the rooms your child would be in
- Waitlist with your preferred days and start date, at no charge
- Enrolment forms, health record and immunisation check
- Help confirming the enrolment in myGov so Child Care Subsidy can be paid
- Two orientation visits and a primary educator assigned before day one
- First sun hat and a labelled peg
Families starting care for the first time. This is the only administration fee we charge, there is no bond and no waitlist fee.
Kindergarten year, included, per year
- Approved kindergarten program under the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline
- Fifteen hours a week over forty weeks, taught by a registered teacher
- Queensland kindergarten funding applied where your child is eligible
- Transition to school statement written and sent to your school with consent
- School visits and Prep readiness sessions in term four
- Learning portfolio you keep
Children in the year before Prep. The program sits inside the long day at no separate charge on top of your daily fee.
Child Care Subsidy
The subsidy is paid to us. You pay the gap.
We do not print a rate or a worked dollar figure here, because the percentage is set by Services Australia from your family income and your recognised activity, and a childcare website quoting a number is how a parent ends up budgeting on a figure that moved in July. What we can show you honestly is the mechanism.
You claim, before your first day
The claim is yours to make through your Centrelink online account in myGov. We cannot lodge it for you and no centre can. Do it early, because it is assessed on your family income estimate and your activity, and that assessment takes time.
We send your enrolment, you confirm it
Once you accept a place we submit a Complying Written Arrangement, which is the enrolment record Services Australia sees. It then sits in your myGov account waiting for you to confirm it. Until you confirm, no subsidy can be paid on any session.
The subsidy is paid to us, not to you
When it starts, Services Australia pays your subsidy straight to Sunbird against the sessions your child was booked into. It never lands in your bank account, so nothing about it appears in your own transactions.
You pay the gap
Your invoice shows the full daily fee, the subsidy paid on your behalf, and the difference, which is the gap fee. That gap is what actually comes out of your account each fortnight, and it is the number worth comparing between centres.
Absences are counted, not free
Subsidy is payable on a limited number of absence days each financial year, and a booked day you do not attend still uses one. Beyond that allowance the day is charged at the full fee. We show your absence count on every invoice so it is never a surprise in June.
Rates, income thresholds and the activity test are set by Services Australia and change, so we do not print them here. Renae will sit down with your own figures and the current rates before you enrol, and we will show you the arithmetic rather than a brochure.
What we guarantee in writing
Five things that are not left to good intentions.
- One educator above the required ratio in every room from mid morning to mid afternoon, and the day's roster posted at each room door.
- One make up day per term for a planned absence, booked into a spare place at no extra fee.
- Fees, closure dates and the term menu published each January and held for the calendar year. Any change gets eight weeks' written notice.
- Two orientation visits before your child's first day at no charge, and you can book more if the settling is slow.
- A message within twenty minutes of a distressed drop off, every time, including the times the news is not good.