My Story
Mum first then Educator and Business Owner
Working in a local school environment I would see children who had been at school all day, getting picked up by a local after school care agency. These kids would line up waiting with the carers to go to the programme.
Not just as an educator but as a mother of four, I was concerned at the demeanour of the staff picking up these children and felt I would not want my kids being picked up by these people.
I approached the principal about starting up an after school programme onsite with two motivations:
1] to resolve my concerns around the standard of care I was seeing by providing a high standard of care and professionalism and
2] offering access to new technology as that was my field of expertise in primary aged education.
To be honest it was going to be an extra arm of work to my existing role. I had no idea at the time of the demand and need in our community for after school care and holiday programmes. Parents are working longer hours with less holidays it would seem. We now live in an economic climate where two incomes are almost a necessity. Such was the demand that two other schools approached me about bringing our programme onto their school.
? The reason I haven’t implemented uniforms for staff is because I want our children to feel like they are coming to an extension of home after school, not an organisation. I want the children to feel like they are surrounded by “mum” type figures, older brothers and sisters. I want the children to feel like this but all staff, including our teenage staff, are trained in childcare – child behaviour management, health and safety and safety drills and induction training.?
I now have a passion to develop after school programmes that are constantly at the leading edge of professional care combined with a nurturing environment.
We want to see your child flourish and have opportunities put before them that develop their creativity or stretches their development.
I endeavour to find staff who carry the same vision and heart for your child that I do.
We would love to see your child join us after school and we can guarantee a happy child at the end of the day.
Our children are our greatest investment
Tania.
At Marahau (local beach) with husband Brett and our four children.