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| Child care person in the spotlight
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Tara Colwell - Campus Director at Only About Children, Mosman NSW
What is your name?
Tara Colwell and I think "Tawa" is the most common name for me by the children.
Which centre do you work in? How many staff and children are in the centre?
I am very proud to be the Campus Director at Only About Children (OAC), Mosman Campus (NSW). We cater for 98 children aged between six weeks to six years each day across the campus. Across the week we cater for over 120 families. I lead a dedicated team of 23 passionate early childhood professionals.
What is your professional background and career experience?
I headed eagerly into full time studies in Early Childhood in Canberra upon completion of my HSC, as I knew that I always wanted to work with young children and families.
After completing my studies I moved to Sydney and worked in a Team Leader position at a service in Mosman for two years before being offered the Director position. This was quite a "young" age in terms of being a centre manager. However, the director who I had worked under had been a passionate and inspiring mentor and had instilled in me an honest perspective about how we engage children and families in learning that is truly meaningful and how this is made evident through the process of visible documentation of children's relationships and following processes of learning and investigation.
I have now been a part of the early childhood profession for more than 11 years, with nine of these as a centre director - a role that I absolutely love and feel inspired and challenged by on a daily basis.
What attracted you to a career in the early childhood sector?
Working with young children was always part of my life and just seemed like a natural progression to me. There was never anything else that I was going to do: coming from a family where my mum is a high school teacher and my dad a primary school teacher, it seemed only fitting that I would focus on the first five years and I have never looked back!
What does a 'normal' day look like for you?
I start the day by spending time with my team and the children on the floor. OAC Mosman consists of six beautiful, light filled rooms, with a core team in each. I spend time with each room team and children, with a focus on the relationship aspect of my role. This time is important for me to get a feel for how each team is feeling, their focuses, challenges, and plans ahead for the day, so that I can know where to best support them. I also love this time to say hello to each child and spend this time learning more about them.
Following on from here, I focus on all the admin tasks that are involved with managing a service. Everyday is different, however the main underlying goal is to work towards a common vision, and utilise the unique strengths and interests of each individual team member. It is also about building genuine relationships with each family within our "village" community to create a space that feels like an extension to home and reflects a true sense of belonging for each person who is part of this community we have created.
My vision when working alongside my team is to create a space where all children, families and team feel like our campus is a reflection of parts of themselves. I love spending time with families and usually finish my day greeting them as they enter the campus.
What makes your service unique?
I think our campus is unique in terms of the complexity of the relationships that are practiced on a daily basis on all levels. You feel in instant "warmth" from the moment you enter our campus, and it is a feeling that cannot be replicated; it needs to be genuine and only comes from the rich relationships that are woven in to the legacy we create with children and families at OAC Mosman. This is across all layers in terms of child-to-child, educator-to-child and educator and families.
Our organisation, and the model within OAC allows for specialised services in each department- Children's Services, People and Talent Development, Operations, Customer Relations and also emphasises the notion of holistic child care through working in partnerships with families, educators and alongside our OAC specialists within the Children's Services Team.
We have direct support with curriculum and practice, in addition to health specialists such as an internal Occupational Therapist, Speech Pathologist and specialists in hearing and vision screening. This approach of integrating the child's health and wellbeing with education and care supports the notion of looking at a child from a holistic perspective. Our access to specialist services within our children's services model such as speech pathology and occupational therapy allows our team the opportunity to engage in a full circle approach to provide rich scaffolding for each child.
What are some of the advantages of working in the early childhood sector?
The opportunity to play such a vital role in a child and family's life is the most rewarding part of working in this profession. To me, it is also the notion of working alongside like-minded professionals, who share the same passion about working with young children and families.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing the early childhood sector?
The new qualification requirements have placed immense pressure on the child care sector. Finding educators that are passionate about early childhood education that hold the correct qualification continues to be an ongoing issue. In stating this, I believe it is critical to raise the level of qualifications and the standard of professionalism in the sector to improve education and care for the families and children.
How has your centre changed to deal with these challenges?
Our company OAC has worked with our centre to ensure we have a workforce plan in place to meet all the qualification requirements. Through innovative and creative ideas, our company and the centre can fund and run programs such as our extensive traineeship program that lifts the level of qualifications and professionalism across the centre and companywide.
How does the industry need to change to adapt to these challenges? The industry needs to continue to work together to ensure the profile of early childhood is lifted at all levels of legislation and government. It is crucial that we continue to raise the bar for the children, families and the great individuals and teams that work in our profession.
What advice would you offer someone thinking about a career or looking for a promotion in the early childhood education and care sector?
Early childhood is a great opportunity to work in a profession where you can actually make a difference to the lives of children and families. The relationships that I see on a day-to-day basis between educators, children and families are at the heart of our village and the basis for education and care to flourish. For educators that are looking for a promotion, my expectations of them would be that they work extremely hard, are dedicated and professional. Educators looking for a promotion will also need to continue to challenge themselves through study, research and pedagogical leadership.
Please note that Tara has recently moved to OAC's new Cremorne Campus as Director.
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