Child care professionals share a commitment to improving society by creating dynamic and nurturing care environments for Australia's youngest learners.
This month's Child Care People in the spotlight Bev Book and Karen Broomfield
Co-Directors Bulimba Child Care Centre QLD
The Bulimba Child Care Centre in Brisbane recently won an award for work place innovation and best practice in the Workforce Innovation Awards, an initiative of the Queensland Health and Community Services Workforce Council.
Bev Book and Karen Broomfield
Co-Directors Bulimba Child Care Centre QLD
The Bulimba Child Care Centre in Brisbane recently won an award for work place innovation and best practice in the Workforce Innovation Awards, an initiative of the Queensland Health and Community Services Workforce Council.
This month we are proud to present an interview with the centre's inspirational co-directors Bev and Karen.
C4K: What are your names?
BB&KB: We are Bev Book and Karen Broomfield and we are both 41 yrs young!
C4K: What is your professional background and career experience?
BB&KB: Bev qualified as a primary school teacher in South Africa and immediately left for England in 1992 where she taught a range of age groups in primary schools across London. She was fortunate to enjoy extensive international travel between teaching roles and this formed a large part of her education!
It was during this time of relieving in schools and kindergartens that Bev realised she would rather be an early childhood teacher and after moving to New Zealand in 2001 studied towards her bachelor's degree in this new field.
Bev worked in both a privately owned and a community based preschool where the focus was very different as were the challenges. After working with teams of teachers and children in New Zealand for eight years, Bev moved to Australia and began work with the team at Bulimba Child Care Centre in 2008.
Karen completed a Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood) degree in 1991 after more than three unfulfilled but fun years as a bank teller! Her first job was as a preschool teacher in a council owned, not for profit child care centre. This in turn led to an assistant director's position where the gaps in her managerial knowledge started to show.
During 2003 Karen undertook a Graduate Diploma in Education (Education Management) part time while working with the preschoolers full time. After an extended period of relieving in the director's position she decided to seek a permanent position in that role. From 1994 until 1999 she was director in a private centre in one of Brisbane's more challenging suburbs!
Late in 1999 her first daughter was born and Karen decided that full time motherhood was something she wanted for her children. During seven years in the unpaid workforce Karen undertook many voluntary roles such as playgroup co-ordinator, president of her daughter's kindergarten and vice president of the school's P and C. early in 2007 Karen returned to the early childhood field and joined the team at Bulimba Child Care Centre.
C4K: What attracted you to a career in child care?
BB&KB: For Bev, as a primary teacher the constant behaviour management required meant that many teaching opportunities were lost. The more open and child centred approach to learning in the early years meant that children and adults could collaborate more and the learning was much more fun for all!
Bev has always enjoyed the creative arts and this was also an outlet for her to share her passion for art and all things creative.
Karen always knew she wanted to be an educator of very young children – it just took a while to get there!! She loves the freedom of the early childhood years where the journey is different every day – it is never boring!!!
C4K: What does a 'normal' day look like for you?
BB&KB: At the beginning of the day, we move around the centre consulting with staff about the day. We also always make sure that we are available to all parents through the day and this means greeting each and every child, their siblings and their parent/carer and addressing any needs they may have.
Building relationships and making strategic decisions make up a large part of the day, as well as keeping up with the paperwork that is required of a standalone centre. We also fit in phone calls, newsletter writing, lunch time staff relief, emails and compliance in all its many and varied forms!
We feel that management needs to be a step ahead of the team, and so while we work in the present, our focus is on the direction of the centre and how we will get there. Being ahead of the game is especially relevant to us as the not-for-profit sector is relatively unsupported and our aging centre always keeps us guessing!
C4K: What are some of the advantages of working in the child care sector?
BB&KB: It is very much a "people" driven industry, working with the very young and the not so young. Being a not-for-profit community centre, we enjoy working alongside the community in the form of the parent management committee as well as our local community in Bulimba who are both supportive and generous.
C4K: What are some of the biggest challenges facing the child care sector?
BB&KB: Recruitment of well qualified staff and the retention of them. With the vast majority of educators being women, it is quite normal to have pregnancy on the cards. While this is exciting for people individually it is always a challenge from a human resources point of view.
Child Care and Early Childhood Education has long been considered 'baby-sitting.' Implementation of the Early Years Learning Framework and the required higher level of education needed for Early Childhood Teachers means that this image will change with time. It is up to everybody who works in this field to be professional and work to high standards to change this idea. Professional recognition will come when all educators behave professionally, like you would expect of any other teacher.
Improved Pay rates would help retain well qualified staff. The industry is over regulated and there is not enough government funding and support for professional development
C4K: How has your place of work changed to deal with these challenges?
BB&KB: At staff meetings we make a special effort to reflect on our practice in a constructive manner. We workshop strategies for trying out, and collaborate on ideas for intentional teaching and learning through play.
We work on being innovative in ways to make the staff happy and want to stay with us. We budget carefully to allow us to provide above award conditions and we try to give some little things like funded staff social functions, RDOs, paid professional development, study support and our staff 'secret fairy' initiative.
Quality staff needs to be appreciated in a job where there are high turnover rates and generally poor remuneration – and there are no perks in child care unless you count birthday cake most weeks!
C4K: How does the industry need to change to adapt to these challenges?
BB&KB: The mindset of child care as babysitting needs to shift amongst the general community, among the families who use it and among the educators who work in it.
Firstly we need to see ourselves as 'educators' and portray this image – it's all in the attitude. Pay rates and recognition should follow. The over regulation is a problem as we all struggle to please each sector, and in fact they often are on opposite sides of the fence.
We recently attended some professional development detailing the environment as the third teacher and while the environments offered would present children with many opportunities we would be howled down by the regulations and the need to risk manage the children having access to a real china teacup!
C4K: What advice would you offer someone thinking about a career or looking for a promotion in child care?
BB&KB: Don't think about child care as a career if you 'just love kids' – that's only enough to get you through the first week. First make sure you are suited to the role of Early Childhood Educator. Volunteering in a centre for a week or two usually does the trick! Then when you have decided to take that journey, go for the highest and most reputable qualification you can find and do the best you can every day.
In regards to promotion, study hard! We also believe that staff should be rewarded when they prove themselves in their job –just as other professionals are and centre owners and management committees will need to be innovative in the package that they offer staff to in order to attract and retain the best people.
C4K: Is there anything else you would like to add?
BB&KB: It is not centres, but the people in them that innovate. Each member of the team has the opportunity to enhance their practice and find new and better ways of doing things. With good leadership, a clear vision and management support the sky is the limit!
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