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Canberra Today 25°/29° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Learning centres offer the best in care and safety

Service manager at Busy Bees at The Park, at the Brindabella Business Park, Katherine Hellwig with Mia, 2.

A “home away from home” for the young children in their care, Busy Bees Early Learning Centres are dedicated to providing care and education in a welcoming environment. This is a sponsored post.

A “HOME away from home” for the young children in their care, Busy Bees Early Learning Centres are dedicated to providing care and education in a welcoming environment, designed specifically for children to feel secure and happy, giving them a great start to lifelong learning, says quality education and compliance manager, Jennifer Dale.

With seven centres across the ACT, Jennifer says that the Busy Bees’ values underpin everything they do: “We are here to care for and serve our children, their families and the community. We strive to provide the best quality in education and maintain the highest standards in care and safety, as well as ensure that we give value so our centres are affordable for families.    

“As parents, we want our children to go to an environment where outstanding care is provided and they feel at home. That’s why relationships with our staff are so important,” she says.   

Jennifer says that the teams working at Busy Bees are highly trained, professional and are encouraged to continue their studies and qualifications in early childhood education.

Heading up the national quality team, Jennifer says that her team supports each of the centres to ensure they not only meet the national standards, but exceed them.

“Everything we do is linked to the national quality framework that tells us what quality looks like. We use this to guide all our plans and activities within our centres,” says Jennifer.

Jennifer says that there is a large body of research that tells us that children learn more in their first five years than any other time in their lives. “We want to make sure that we help set a strong foundation that builds them up to become lifelong learners,” says Jennifer.

Service manager at Busy Bees at The Park, located at the Brindabella Business Park, Katherine Hellwig brings 22 years of experience in the ACT early education and care sector. She says that early learning is important for young children to develop social and cognitive skills, co-operation with peers as well as have their first experiences with maths, science and literacy.

“We help put children on the right path and develop lifelong skills,” she says.

Through play-based learning, Katherine says that she and her team work with families to understand each child’s strengths and areas of interest.

“We support each child to reach their full potential,” she says.

Featuring beautifully designed, open-plan rooms, a dedicated art studio, dining hall and spacious outdoor settings tailored for each age group, Katherine says that all of the Busy Bees centres create excellent environments for children to learn.

An example of this is the “art pods” at The Park, which are separate spaces specially designed for art and creative work that the children can return to at later times to continue their creations. Katherine says the art pods provide great opportunities to scaffold their learning into other explorations.

“As an educator, we are always looking at how we can provide provocations and take a journey with the children to investigate and find answers together,” she says.

Busy Bees Early Learning Centres (call 1300 851331 or busybees.edu.au) in the ACT are at: Crace; Jenny Wren, Mawson; Oxley; Peter Pan, Curtin; Springbank Rise, Casey; The Park, Brindabella Business Park and Yerrabi Ponds, Gungahlin.

How about a career in shaping the future?

A CAREER in the early childhood sector provides many opportunities for people to make a contribution and help shape the education and care of young children, says human resources manager, Jocelyn King.

Jocelyn says that there are a number of rewarding career pathways available to those interested in commencing a career, or having a midlife career change into early childhood education.    

“People don’t realise the opportunities our sector provides because it is an understated career pathway,” she says.

“If you love to learn, and would love to contribute and help shape the future for our children, a career in early childhood gives you such a great reach into a community. It is a well-rounded profession with many opportunities to grow and learn.

“You don’t have to be a certain age to start a traineeship. There are a lot of structures and assistance that can kickstart a career that offers casual, part time or full time work, allows you to travel and build a lifelong career as an educator.”

Jocelyn says that a managerial pathway can see educators moving into leadership roles within the Busy Bees centres, or other educators might like to focus on their technical skills and continue their studies to become an early childhood teacher.

“There are also other functioning support roles within our network such as accounting, HR and marketing,” she says.

Jocelyn says that pathways to becoming a leader of the Busy Bees organisation is also an aspiration that can be achieved: “Our chief operating officer started as a Certificate III trainee and is now an executive of a global business – it truly is possible!” she says.

Busy Bees have roles on offer across the ACT and Queanbeyan, particularly for those interested in undertaking a traineeship or apprenticeship. Visit the careers section of busybees.edu.au for more information.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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