Goodstart stories
Goodstart recognises excellence and impact at 2025 National Goodies awards
Goodstarters from across the nation gathered to celebrate best practice at the 2025 National Goodies awards this week.
We’re a community-focused centre with experienced educators who value connection, care, and confidence-building from day one.
With a strong focus on nature play, flexible learning, and nurturing relationships, we support children to thrive socially, emotionally, and cognitively from nursery to kindergarten.
Families love the warmth and stability of our long-term team, our inclusive programs, and our approach of keeping everyone involved in the journey.
You’ll find us in a convenient location near Brighton State and St Kieran’s Primary schools. Come and take a tour – we’d love to show you what makes us different.
We believe every child deserves to feel safe, known, and supported – and that’s precisely what you’ll find here.
Our flexible hours and inclusive approach ensure that your family’s needs come first, while your child receives a high-quality early learning experience every day.
From the first steps to school readiness, our educators walk alongside each child and family to help them grow with confidence.
We’re more than just a care provider – we’re a consistent and caring part of your child’s development.
Ready to take the next step? Book a tour to meet our dedicated team, explore our natural play spaces, and discover how we can support your child’s wellbeing, learning, and belonging.
At Goodstart Brighton – North Road, our philosophy centres around the belief that every child is a unique individual with their own interests and strengths. We embrace a play-based learning approach that nurtures curiosity and creativity, allowing children to explore their world in meaningful ways.
We prioritise:
Through our philosophy, we aim to create a safe, nurturing environment where children can thrive and become confident, capable learners.
Children need to feel safe and supported to learn and grow, so we promote key educator relationships between our educators and children. Your child will have at least one educator (their key educator) who takes them under their wing and really gets to know them.
Our Key Educator relationships help children form secure attachments. Educators work closely with smaller groups and individual children to better understand each child. These relationships lead to improved outcomes for children as we foster more communication between families and educators.
We inform families regularly about their child's progress and welcome family involvement in our centre events and activities.
At our Brighton – North Road centre, we're proud to inspire your child's love of learning with the support of our passionate and qualified early childhood experts. Teachers with bachelor's degrees run our kindergarten program, so children can be well on their way to excellent learning outcomes by the time they start school.
At Goodstart, we believe all children deserve the best possible start in life, which includes access to high-quality early childhood education and care. We offer:
We work closely with parents to ensure the individual needs, interests and strengths of children are considered, and our learning goals reflect them. Using Storypark, a wonderful communication platform, we stay in close touch with families and ensure you're well informed about your child's development and achievements.
Click here to book your tour or call our Family Services team to find out more on 1800 222 543.
Centre Director Karen is super approachable, enthusiastic and is incredibly knowledgeable about children’s development and wellbeing. Staff in the toddler room are welcoming and kind and are happy to work with parents to develop plans to aid in successful transitions for children. The Kindy program is also great.


I am originally from Aotearoa New Zealand, where I was fully immersed in Māori culture throughout my studies and daily teaching practice. This experience has deeply shaped my values and approach to early childhood education.
Over the past 12 years, I have been incredibly fortunate to work with a wide range of children, families, cultures, and teaching teams. I spent many years as a Head Teacher, leading large teams to meaningful success, and since moving to Australia I have continued to grow professionally through my induction into the ECT role. This journey has included developing a deeper understanding of child psychology, ACEs, and trauma-informed practice.
My passion for teaching began when I was just seven years old, and growing up with younger siblings certainly helped nurture that calling. At the heart of my work is a strong commitment to ensuring not only that children feel safe, supported, and valued—but that families do too.
Building relationships with families is one of the greatest joys of my role. I love learning about your work, your traditions, your stories, and sharing plenty of laughs along the way. If you ever need someone to talk to about your child’s learning, have concerns to discuss, or simply feel like a good old chinwag, please know my door is always open.
Thank you for trusting me to help lead this centre. I am so excited for what we can achieve together and look forward to the journey ahead.
Warm regards,
Lauren Smith
Centre Director
Goodstart Brighton North Road

At Brighton - North Road, you and your child can enjoy the best of both worlds. Our centre offers a kindergarten program and long day care under the one roof. Our kindergarten teachers are University qualified and provide a play-based learning program that will support your child in learning the skills for school and life.

At Brighton - North Road, you and your child can enjoy the best of both worlds. Our centre offers a kindergarten program and long day care under the one roof. Our kindergarten teachers are University qualified and provide a play-based learning program that will support your child in learning the skills for school and life.

6:30am to 6:30pm, Monday to Friday

6:00am to 6:00pm, Monday to Friday

6:30am to 6:30pm, Monday to Friday