The lovely Sara Saliba is the other half of the dynamic duo that will be running our Austral service. If you spend more than 5 minutes chatting with Sara you will quickly see that she has some pretty firm and well-informed views about the important work of being an early childhood Educator. While she’s a self-professed compliance nerd, she’s no box-ticker either.
To learn more about her passion for the sector, read on!
Practice informed by perspective
From playing ‘teacher’ with her younger brother, to starting her career in the sector whilst still finishing her formal schooling, Sara’s passion for early childhood education and care was evident at a time when most of wouldn’t have even turned our minds to our professional calling.
Starting her career in the sector at such a young age means that Sara has experience working under the ‘old’ and ‘new’ systems. [Explainer: The National Quality Framework (NQF) was introduced in 2012. Before its introduction, regulation of the sector was pretty lax. Introduction of the NQF and its associated regulations changed the sector dramatically].
Now, Sara’s a big fan of the regulations (always handy in a Centre Manager!), however she concedes that there were some positive aspects to the ‘old’ regime. Whilst it was less prescriptive, resulting in greater variability between services, it also provided quality services with more flexibility with respect to programming and planning for children’s interests.
Flexibility within a framework
Sara’s experience has shown her the value of providing flexibility within a framework. It’s impossible to proscribe what best practice looks like for different cohorts of children, at different times and in different places. Sara believes that quality comes from being responsive to children and families, rather than ‘ticking the boxes’.
This approach is particularly important when it comes to school readiness. Sara has observed a significant shift in children following the Covid Pandemic. The large number of children isolating at home during the Pandemic has exacerbated what can already be a challenging transition to formal schooling for most children. Sara feels that the sector has a significant responsibility towards children and families to help bridge the gap between early childhood education and formal schooling.
It takes a village
Like Michelle, Sara feels that her experience of motherhood helps her relate to parents in the centre. The key is to have open, honest and regular communication. Sara notes ‘everyone struggles with different things as a parent – but there are other people within the community, including the centre community, that you can draw on for support’.
For Sara, the overall key to success is understanding. Understanding who your team members are, what motivates them and what they care about. It’s also about understanding the families enrolled at the centre because once you understand the families, you understand the children.
Sara’s thoughts on Michelle
Sara smiles as she recalls meeting Michelle in the playground in Year 3 and asking her to play. It wasn’t always smooth sailing though. In Year 5 their teacher told them that they weren’t allowed to play together anymore because they ‘always fight’! Today, there are still times where they don’t agree, but they also value having a friendship based on honest communication.
Keen to know more?
Reach out! You can get us at enquiries@futuro.nsw.edu.au or if you're interested in joining the waitlist, you can do so on our website at Enquire | Futuro
* Image credit: photo by Michael Fenton on Unsplash