Faye
Cremorne Service Coordinator
I have been working in the Early Childhood profession for 20 years. I started my journey as a preschool assistant, working my way through to the toddlers and then finally into the nursery aged children as room leader. My career then projected me into the role of second in charge. This exposed me to the managerial side of Early Childhood which shortly had me progress into a Coordinator role. During this time, I had the opportunity to work across all age groups, work in different child care settings and engage with a diverse range of educators, families and children.
As my direction slowly changed from teaching children to managing and leading a team, I found myself longing for a new challenge. In 2014, I made the transition to Operations Manager for Active Kids Group. Along with the support of my management team, I overlook 7 services in the Inner West Region and my responsibilities include but are not limited to compliance audits, assisting management and the services with the quality assessment and rating process and supporting the Coordinators and their teams in the daily operations of their services.
I currently hold a diploma in child studies and have completed training in child protection, first aid, behaviour management, nutrition and food safety and primary caregiving to name a few.
I have previously worked in retail, waited in a café and for many years, assisted in the family businesses which consisted of an ironing service run and a home-based family day care. My passion to work with children stemmed from observing my mother who would teach and play with the children in our home daily. Throughout the years I would see the impact of my mother’s teachings and how this would help the children reach their developmental milestones. Families were thankful and ever so grateful that they had found a trusting and loving educator but a ‘second mum’ was always what she was referred to. Seeing the families’ reactions and the children advancing into their next stage of development is what inspired me to become an educator and furthermore assist other educators to do the same.
What I love about working in Active Kids Group is the support and knowledge I receive from the management team. This endless support enables me to achieve my role as Operations Manager whilst the wealth of knowledge continues to educate me, leading me to reflect and review my leadership style, my abilities to support and assist my team and elevate my attributes as an Operations Manager.
My personal mission is to achieve the best ‘me’ that I can be and support others to do the same. To believe and assert others that nothing is ‘impossible’…the word itself says ‘im-possible’.
My favourite pastime is to listen to old school 80s and 90s music, dancing and learning to dance hip hop and jazz, catching up with friends over a fabulous meal and dessert of course, watching movies, shopping, travelling and enjoying sunny days on the beach in summer.
If I had to choose one of my favourite childhood memories it would take me back to when I was in primary school and my brother was in high school. My love for Tom Cruise was larger than life… I would watch his movies over and over especially Cocktail…my all-time favourite movie! One day after school my brother came home after returning from the local shops down the road.
I still remember we were standing in the hallway with mum when he handed over a framed picture of Tom Cruise from the scene in Cocktail. I can still remember the feelings of love, shock and absolute thrill that I felt. Thrill that this poster was actually mine, shock that this was actually happening but mostly love because what meant the most was that this was the first gift my brother had ever bought me with his own money and that meant more to me than the picture in the frame…and yes I still have it!!