OWNA app — how to stay connected with your child's day at My Stars

One of the most common concerns parents have when their child starts childcare — whether in Berwick, Essendon, Narre Warren South, Moonee Ponds or anywhere else — is the feeling of not knowing what their child is doing all day. That concern is completely understandable. My Stars uses the OWNA parent communication app at both our Berwick and Essendon centres to make sure you're genuinely connected to your child's day, not just updated at pickup with a 30-second summary.

What is OWNA?

OWNA is an Australian-built early childhood management platform used by thousands of childcare services across the country. For parents, it works as a mobile app (iOS and Android) that gives you a real-time window into your child's day at the centre. It is secure, private, and only accessible to enrolled families.

What you receive through OWNA each day

• Photos: candid moments from your child's day — at play, at meals, in group activities
• Learning observations: written notes from your child's educator linked to EYLF outcomes, describing what they observed and why it matters
• Meal records: what your child ate at morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, and roughly how much
• Sleep records (for younger children): sleep start and end times, and notes on how they settled
• Nappy records: for infants and toddlers, a log of nappy changes throughout the day
• Incident and injury notifications: if anything happens requiring first aid, you are notified immediately through the app
• Daily notes: general updates from the room about what the group was doing and the theme or provocation for the day

Two-way messaging

OWNA is not a one-way broadcast — it's a communication channel. Through the app, you can send a message directly to your child's room and receive a response from their educator. This is particularly useful for families where one or both parents are at work and can't make a phone call: you can check in, ask a question, or share something relevant to your child's day (for example, that they had a difficult night, or they're not eating well at home) without disrupting the room.

Why daily observations matter beyond the photos

The photos are the part parents look forward to most — but the learning observations are arguably more valuable. When your child's educator writes a detailed observation of your 2-year-old's block play and links it to EYLF Outcome 4 (confident and involved learner), they are not just filling a compliance requirement. They are documenting your child's individual development in a way that builds, over time, into a rich learning portfolio. You can look back across a term or a year and see exactly how your child has grown — in language, in problem-solving, in social skills, in confidence.

These observations also inform what educators plan for your child next — they are not retrospective notes but active tools for extending learning. When you read them regularly, you start to see the patterns in your child's interests and strengths that the educators are responding to.