It was the extra things the centre did that put them over the top, she said.
That included taking the children to swimming lessons and three month-long projects based on the children's' interests including bees, doctors and camping.
The report found children were "highly engaged" in their learning.
Manager Vikki Tanner said the projects helped children think in bigger ways, while expanding their knowledge and curiosity.
When asked what could be done to improve the sector, Ms Costello said more attention should be payed to the development of under twos.
Similarly, when a child turned two the government only required a 1:10 ratio of student to teacher, up from 1:5.
Green MP Catherine Delahunty said she had concerns about the quality of early childhood education for the past two years.
"The Government must drop its targets and stop aggressively recruiting more children for ECE until the quality problems have been sorted out."
In 2012 the government set a target of 98 per cent of children starting school with an early childhood education by 2016.
While most regions in the country were closing in on that target, as of March Northland was trailing at 91.9 per cent.
