Parents researching early education on the North Shore come across two labels: preschool and long day care. Here's what actually differs, and what doesn't.
The educational program is the same
Every approved service in NSW, whatever the sign says, operates under the National Quality Framework and teaches to the Early Years Learning Framework. The regulator and the curriculum are the same for both. What differs is the shape of the day, the weeks of the year, and the funding streams behind the fees.
The real differences
Hours. Preschool programs traditionally run school-style hours (ours are 9am to 3pm). Long day care runs the full working day (ours is 7am to 6pm). If both parents work full-time, a 9-to-3 program with no care before or after is hard to manage every day; this is the single biggest reason families end up in one model or the other.
Weeks. Sessional and community preschools usually close for school holidays, which means finding (and paying for) holiday care four times a year. We're open 50 weeks a year, either way.
Funding. Long day care fees attract the Child Care Subsidy; community preschools are supported by NSW Start Strong funding. The good news: at a CCS-approved service like ours, children aged 3 and over can attract Start Strong fee relief on top of CCS. Both models are subsidised; the mechanics just differ.
Where St Ives Chase sits
We're a kindergarten that offers both shapes of day on one enrolment: preschool hours (9am to 3pm, $135/day) or the full day (7am to 6pm, $155/day), 2 to 5 days a week, for children from two and a half to school age. Same educators, same Reggio-inspired program, same 40-child community under the gum trees; the only difference is what time you pick up.
That combination solves the most common North Shore dilemma we hear: "we love the feel of a small preschool, but we both work". You don't have to trade the small-kindergarten atmosphere for hours that fit your job, or vice versa. And if your circumstances change, going back to work, a new baby, a different roster, you switch session types instead of switching centres. For young children, keeping the same educators and friends matters.
What about "school readiness"?
Families sometimes worry that a long-day setting is "just childcare" while a preschool "prepares them for school". In practice, readiness comes from the program and the educators, not the label on the gate. Our program is built around project-based, child-led investigation in the Reggio tradition; the children who leave us for Kindergarten each January have spent years practising exactly what school asks of them: listening in a group, trying new things, and following their own ideas through.
How to decide
Three questions usually settle it. What hours does your family actually need in a normal working week? Does the centre feel small enough that every educator knows your child? And when you visit, are the children absorbed in something, or waiting to be told what's next?
Come and answer the third one in person. Book a tour at 120 Warrimoo Avenue, St Ives Chase, or call Tina on 02 9449 8829. New families: enrol by 31 December 2026 for 25% off your first 4 weeks.