Bunyip Preschool is on the look out for more early childhood educators in the new year and the reason behind the push, makes for interesting reading.

Director Sarah James said, “We have a workforce which is female dominated and from time to time when pregnant, our staff give birth and start their families. It’s something that occurs naturally, we have a high turnover of staff who go on maternity leave at any one time. We need to continue to educate and hire people within the sector so that we can maintain a strong workforce and provide the best quality education and care we can for our families.”

The childcare sector recently received a 5.75% increase in their award and this should make the role attractive to school leavers and other potential staff who may be older and want to work within the sector.

 

 

She said, “Our board implemented a travel subsidy for those who live outside our local area. It’s a sign of the times and it has already attracted a number of new staff to our centre.”

Bunyip continues to receive ‘Exceeding’ when it comes to their Assessment and Rating, which highlights that the centre is operating at a very high level. There are only 20% of centres in NSW who are rated Exceeding.

Bunyip is so popular with local families, that there can be a small waiting list at times and the size of the current site and the internal and external areas are restricted by the size of the lot.

 

 

Sarah said, “We are open to looking at another site in the future which could open the centre up to providing more services and more places for children. The committee and I will certainly look at options to provide our local children with the best avenue to learn and grow in some of their most important years.”

Bunyip has been on the current site for more than 58 years and in that time has witnessed close to 3 generations go through the facility, which has evolved over the years to accomodate different spikes in demographics, while preparing children for their entry into Kindergarten.

Sarah said, “Our next class of Billabong students will graduate in their ceremony at the Harden Racecourse on Friday and we look forward to having them and their families come along and celebrate their time with us. Some families will be finishing their Bunyip journey and other families will have more children coming through Bunyip as the years progress.”

Bunyip will be holding their annual Newson Park Christmas Party at 6:30pm on Tuesday December 12.