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This week we introduce you to Jade Ryan, Director of Tillys Play and Development Centre in Waratah NSW. Earlier this year, Jade won the 2014 Director of the Year award for NSW and ACT at the Australian Family Early Education and Care Awards.
What is your name?
My name is Jade Ryan, my Preschoolers like to call me Jadey. I am 28 years old.
Which centre do you work in? How many staff and children are in the centre?
I work for Tillys Play and Development Centre and have recently transferred from our Muswellbrook Centre to our brand new Centre in Waratah. Waratah is a 162 place, 10 room Long Day Care Centre with 43 permanent staff.
What is your professional background and career experience?
I began by completing my Certificate III in Children's Services at TAFE and then went straight into the Diploma. I started working as soon as I completed my Diploma at Kate's Kindy Muswellbrook when it first opened as the Toddler Room Leader. After I had worked full time for a year I enrolled in the Bachelor of Teaching (Birth to 5 Years) at Charles Sturt University via correspondence. I found working in the industry while completing my University studies incredibly beneficial and rewarding as I could physically see what I was learning about and put new information into practice straight away.
I took over as Director when I was 23 (and still studying at Uni!) and immediately felt comfortable in the role. I have completed my Cert IV in Training and Assessing and work casually for Hunter TAFE teaching in class and as a Workplace Assessor, as well as teaching for Tillys College of Child Care. I worked at the Centre in Muswellbrook for 7 and a half years (it changed hands from Kate's Kindy to Tillys Play and Development Centre) before transferring to Waratah in July this year to be the Nominated Supervisor at our new Centre.
What attracted you to a career in child care?
In all honesty, I am not someone who has always known they wanted to work with children, it wasn't until my sister had a baby and I was so intrigued by her that I thought I should pursue this further. As soon as I started the Certificate III, I thrived on learning about children's development and was so fascinated by what we could do as Educators to give children the best possible start in life. Since this first qualification I developed a thirst for information and cannot get enough!
I remember my very first practical placement and being so nervous to start with but by the end I didn't want to leave! I loved the smiles on the children's faces when I arrived and the joy of sharing experiences together, this first prac was when I realised that this is what I was meant to do! To me it genuinely is my career, not just a job and I am passionate about what we do and the importance of our Industry.
What does a 'normal' day look like for you?
There is no such thing as a normal day in LDC! Every single day is different and this is what adds to my love of the job, it is always exciting and interesting. Since moving to Waratah my days are based mostly in the office but interactions with children, families and Educators are still key.
At our Centre we are very lucky to have two Directors in the office full time, myself as Nominated Supervisor and Anna as Educational Leader. So Anna and I work together to ensure everything is running as smoothly as possible and we each spend time in the rooms each day. Having both of us available means we have real time to give to our Educators; answering their questions, guiding practice, offering suggestions, supporting project based learning, assisting them to engage with the NQF (QIP in particular) explaining learning links and overall ensuring we are providing the highest quality care.
When I am in the office some of the tasks that I complete are: Educator rosters, organising children's bookings, planning incursions/excursions, formulating Educator development plans, managing sustainability practices, planning staff meetings and Educator training, communicating with families via phone and email, researching online, working on our QIP and so forth, I could go on forever!
What makes your centre unique?
To answer this I sought information from my team of Educators as they are the ones who I have the pleasure to lead and thought this would be the most honest response. They tell me our Centre is unique because it is a place everyone wants to be. The vibe as soon as you walk in is calm, positive and welcoming, everyone is made to feel a part of the Tillys team. They tell me they are inspired to try new ideas and be the best they can be as they are supported and listened to.
Our ongoing commitment to providing real and meaningful programming, implementing a project based learning curriculum and utilising family input daily makes us stand out from the crowd. The relationships with our families and wider community is something else that makes us unique. We strive to make all of our families feel valued and have a personal but professional approach and are active members of our local community.
I also feel our ongoing commitment to sustainability is unique to us as this is something that has been embedded in our practices for many years, not just now it is a part of the NQS.
What are some of the advantages of working in the child care sector?
Working in the Early Childhood Industry means you have a genuine opportunity to make a difference in people's lives. You can be the person who is responsible for a child's love of learning and positive self-esteem. You can be the person who supports a family in their time of need and they will never forget the difference you made in their lives. We do a job that not many people can do and if you do it well you will experience nothing but professional and personal satisfaction. But most importantly we get to have fun each and every day; we get to dance, sing, run, build, read and create!
What are some of the biggest challenges facing the child care sector?
I feel as a profession we are incredibly undervalued and misunderstood, Long Day Care in particular. Not a lot of people realise what we actually do every day and how much theoretical knowledge and understanding of children's development underpins our every day practices. We are constantly communicating about the learning links we utilise and are proud of how far we have come in this area!
The instability surrounding the NQF is a major issue for our profession at the moment. Our Centre (as most others do) has embraced the NQF (and NQS/EYLF with it) and feel it has made a positive change to our industry. The NQF allows each individual service to be able to express itself individually and meaningfully which is incredibly rewarding. Changing this structure now I feel would be incredibly detrimental and send everyone into a tailspin, obviously there are areas to improve (particularly in consistent assessor expectations of the different ratings) but overall it is working well.
Retaining quality Educators is a challenge within the Early Childhood field. The work we do is invaluable but unfortunately this is not reflected in our conditions. Essentially we are responsible for the future of our country and every family's most important people but sadly this is not echoed in our Award. Our Award needs to improve and in turn the Government needs to support families more to meet the costs of Child Care. This is not about us getting paid more, it's a systematic issue that needs attention at the highest level and then filtered down.
How has your centre changed to deal with these challenges?
We work incredibly hard to get the message across about the value in what we do. This means constantly sharing information with families and the wider community about what we do and why. Everything we display or share has detailed learning links (to a variety of sources - NQS, EYLF, QIP, theorists, philosophies, etc.) that are easily understandable and individual to each child and experience.
We are active members in our community and seek out different community groups we can engage with. Our community know who the Tillys children are and we get nothing but positive feedback when we are "out and about". We also have strong links with the local Primary Schools and work with them to create a 'School Readiness' program that is embedded in all of our rooms and reflective of a shared approach between Early Child Educators and Primary School Teachers.
The instability in the NQF has not affected us at the moment but our team is informed about what may be happening and we have supported different Early Childhood groups' efforts to express our thoughts about these changes to the Government. To us A+R and our QIP is a team approach and to us a team is Educators, children, families, the wider community and management. Everyone is involved in the development of our QIP and we constantly communicate about what we are doing and why (with learning links of course!).
In March we went through A+R and found it an incredibly positive and rewarding process, we weren't stressed and were comfortable in what we were doing - because each and every person could confidently express themselves relating to the NQS. We achieved an overall rating of 'Exceeding' which we were very proud of and immediately began planning what else we can achieve!
We strive to make our Centre a place Educators want to work in and do all we can to make sure they are happy in their roles! There are high but realistic expectations at our Centre of each and every Educator (myself included) and we work was a team, not Room Leader/Assistant/etc. We share ideas and skills, have fun together and communicate well to make our workplace a positive and happy space. We are lucky to work for a family run company who are incredibly supportive and appreciative of what we do so we know we are all valued members of the Tillys team.
How does the industry need to change to adapt to these challenges?
The Early Childhood Industry has come forward in leaps and bounds just in the time I have been a part of it. There is much more equality (although there is a long way to go) which is mainly due to the introduction of the NQF meaning all Children's Services are regulated and assessed equally. With any challenge I believe unity is important. By working together (particularly in regards to the NQF and Award) challenges can be tackled by combining ideas, supporting each other and just in general sharing the experience/load. By this I mean individual Centre's sharing these challenges throughout their teams as well as Centres in the same Community and connecting with external Early Childhood organisations if possible. If we as Industry professionals are informed about what is actually happening in our field then this will help immensely as knowledge is power! The more informed we are the more we can take positive action and steps to manage challenges/changes.
What advice would you offer someone thinking about a career or looking for a promotion in child care?
My advice for someone thinking about a career in Early Childhood is that you really have to want it. You have to have a passion for it, if you are just doing it for something to do then I guarantee you will not enjoy it! It is challenging but so rewarding. If you want to work in EC you need to be positive, approachable and have strong communication skills. You must be able to have fun and be silly but also be professional. Having strong underpinning knowledge and an interest to learn, as you will learn each and every day from the children, your coworkers and leaders. You must be flexible and able to meaningful reflect on your own predispositions and person experiences to ensure you are being the best Educator you can be.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Firstly I would like to take a moment to thank the amazing people in my life - my family, friends and work colleagues (a lot who I now count as friends) who have given me nothing but unconditional support. I am incredibly blessed to have each and every one of you in my life. I don't know what I would do without you all!
The following quote guides me each and every day… "If you love what you do you will never work a day in your life". In a million years I never expected I would be in the amazing position I am now but I would not be doing anything else for all the money in the world. I genuinely love coming to work every day and if I can make a difference for my Educators, children, families or in the Early Childhood Community then my work is done. For anyone reading this I would say, find your passion, run with it and you will never look back!
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