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This week we are delighted to introduce you to Ms Bobbi Wheeler from Milly Molly Mandy's Early Education and Quality Care Centre in Brookton WA. Bobbi is the 2014 Child Care Director of the Year (Australian Family Early Childhood Education and Care Awards)
What is your name?
My name is Bobbi Jane Wheeler and I am 29 years old.
Which centre do you work in? How many staff and children are in the centre?
I work at Milly Molly Mandy's Early Education and Quality Care Centre in Brookton, Western Australia. It is a 19 place not for profit centre that provides long day care, before school, after school and vacation care for children between 0 - 13 years. We currently have 6 members of staff, 5 educators and a cleaner.
What is your professional background and career experience?
I began volunteering at a community run city based child care centre in Portsmouth, UK when I was 17 years of age. The centre was integrated with children aged 0-5, within the centre was a range of needs, abilities, cultures and languages, it was busy, varied and diverse. I volunteered full time for 6 months before deciding to enrol into night school to study my NVQ 3 which is the equivalent of a diploma and apply for a paid position.
Throughout my career I have been very lucky to have worked in a number of early education settings, from early years centres, primary schools, pupil referral units, respite and in-home care.
In 2007-2009 I set up and ran my own business, Around the Clock Childcare which delivered home based education and care to families working irregular shifts; and became qualified in teaching English as a foreign language before spending some time tutoring in China back in 2010.
My positions have been varied allowing me to develop a broad perspective on the importance of early education, working with children with additional needs and behavioural difficulties from 3-15 years has given me the opportunity to observe how the early years can define children's future perspectives on education and learning.
What attracted you to a career in child care?
I had a number of jobs before starting my career in child care, and although I cannot remember the exact reasoning for starting my career I can remember very clearly that once I started volunteering that it was definitely the field that I wanted to excel in.
Working in the early years is challenging, evolving and unpredictable yet it is a career which allows us as educators to be outstanding, it offers unlimited potential, remarkable outcomes and the opportunity to develop in children a love of learning through enabling them to develop the skills they require to learn in their individual ways.
It is the diversity of the field that sustains my passion, the chance to work alongside children, to recognise their potential and to watch them become confident learners, through enabling their desire to learn and their abilities to do so through a range of media and experiences.
What does a 'normal' day look like for you?
There is no such thing as a normal day as a rural child care director. The roles are extremely complex and multi-faceted. Our centre is community run, with a volunteer management committee comprising of a chairperson, treasurer, secretary and a number of committee members which varies from year to year. As centre director, I undertake all aspects of the business management and financial management as well as running the programs up to five days a week and supporting and mentoring the other educators in the service and actively focusing on the needs of our families.
Our days start at 7:30am and finish at around 17:30pm it is only through working so closely as a team and supporting each other in all aspects of the centre that we are able to successfully get through each day.
What makes your centre unique?
I believe our centre is unique because we aim for innovative practice, I hope that my passion has led to each of our educators valuing the roles that they play in so many families lives and that this in turn is reflected in their dedication and spirit throughout the centre. Our educators each work towards an area of the Quality Improvement Plan for our service, through this they are able to reflect, evaluate and develop their understanding of the National Quality Framework and Early Years Learning Framework.
Our programs are designed to reflect the diversity of learning styles in the children that we work with, our programs are transformed into daily learning adventures, inspired by the needs and interests of the group and designed in ways that our educators can support each child's development with an emphasis on creating sound social and emotional skills.
Children are valued as creative and imaginative individuals, through drama, role play, communication technology and the arts we provide opportunities for children to learn how to confidently express themselves, through team times we support the children in becoming confident members of a group, to support each other and work alongside each other with respect and acceptance. We truly believe in establishing the foundations of learning before learning can occur.
What are some of the advantages of working in the child care sector?
Some of the advantages of working in the early childhood sector are that you are able to pursue your own personal skills and interests and implement them into the curriculum. You are able to be creative and innovative in your practice and observe how our practices contribute towards the healthy developments of each child that we work with.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing the child care sector?
Some of the biggest challenges we face specifically as a regional child care centre are the developments that the sector has been going through in the last few years, the expectations of regulatory units are high, yet the perceptions of communities are only slowly changing.
Children's numbers often fluctuate highly in centres in communities with low populations or that have seasonal trades such as farming, this in turn can limit permanent educator positions within small centres that are unable to commit financially to full time contracts based on unpredictable income.
The perception that child care offers little more than play and care is still strong and it is one of our goals to provide a service which nurtures the positive potential that a strong and professional early education service can bring to communities, families and the children that access them. We hope to work with other agencies and stakeholders throughout the Wheat Belt in order to become part of a Regional Early Years network in our area that reflects the professionalism of the field.
How has your centre changed to deal with these challenges?
Our centre has developed a strategic plan alongside our business plan and workforce development plan, we have adopted a team directorship model of staffing which allocates and distributes workloads across the team. This allows our small centre to have a number of staff with both educational and administrative skills and encourages communication, team work and reflective practice.
Most of our staff only work a four day maximum week, which allows us to have access to cover for staff absences or sudden increases in numbers. We have accessed a number of grants over the last couple of years which have allowed us to renovate our learning environment's which were poor, underutilised and run down, we now have a centre that we are proud of and that supports the children's programs.
How does the industry need to change to adapt to these challenges?
There needs to be much greater consideration given to the transitions that rural and regional centres are currently going through with the increased administrative workloads and the extra regulatory requirements. I do not believe that it would benefit the sector to reduce qualification requirements however more support should be given to the volunteer committees who are responsible for these centres to understand the changes in legislation and to develop plans so that there are procedures in place for people within local communities to train. Too often regional directors become the sole supervising officers of small centres and sacrifice, holidays, lunch breaks and workplace flexibility as without them the centres would close.
What advice would you offer someone thinking about a career or looking for a promotion in child care?
I would love to see more people entering the child care sector with the desire to achieve better outcomes for families and children alike. My advice would be to look for a position that provides you with the balance of workplace learning and the time required to commit fully to your study. I would advise educators already in the field to keep up the issues and discussions happening in the early years sector, familiarise yourself with the theorists and philosophy's that are at the core of our practice and contribute to forums and networks where you are able to reflect on your own practices and those of others. Having a range of knowledge about how children learn and the effects of various teaching methodology will highlight the impact of our practice on the children in our care. We need educators who inspire our children and leaders who inspire outstanding educators.
Winning the Australian Family Early Childhood Director of the Year 2014 was the greatest achievement of my career so far, it was a surreal experience and one that I would never have been able to be a part of, if it was not for believing in something bigger than what was physically in front of me.
We teach our children to be strong, confident, we show them how to succeed in their own ways but do we always challenge ourselves. Our centre was so close to closure, it had lost its direction and more worryingly it did not recognise its own potential. Through inspiring just a small team of people we have infused new light, energy and love into our small but valuable service. Sometimes we can forget how valuable we are because we are not always given the recognition that we feel we deserve, however we can recognise each other, we can recognise each new step a child makes and the actions that we chose, the activities we planned and the experiences that we created that formed a part of that development.
We are memory makers, families will remember us for the love and care we show to their children and the children will remember us throughout their schooling because we were lucky enough to show them the limitless possibilities of learning though play.
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