Celebrating the selfless work of early childhood educators has never been more important.
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Each day these women and men are at the frontline risking possible COVID-19 infection to teach the early learning necessary for children's lifelong successes.
And according to Louise Windisch, the Kids' Uni North 1 Wollongong Campus director, educators are doing this with a smile on their face, despite little help from the government during these "trying times".
"We've been really disappointed with the government," she said "The level of communication to our sector often is not great. The government will be talking to the press at their 11am conference and say something but then no official information comes through to us.
"So we have a lot of concerned staff and families calling wanting to know more information but often we don't know much more than what has been announced at the press conference.
"And often they give a lot of mixed messages. It is all quite disrespectful to the work that we do."
Mrs Windisch's comments come ahead of Early Childhood Educators' Day, being celebrated tomorrow.
The September 1 event recognises and celebrates the work of Australia's educators in early learning services for their wonderful contribution to the wellbeing and healthy development of the young children in their care.
"At Kids' Uni, we are taking the opportunity to let our educators know that we are grateful for their dedication, passion, knowledge and unwavering commitment to children's education. Particularly in this challenging COVID climate," she said.
"Early Childhood Educator's Day is a wonderful opportunity to stop and appreciate everything they have done over the last 18 months.
"Each educator at Kids' Uni works hard to prepare intentional play-based experiences and social interactions within our service to help children develop the learning dispositions and cognitive, social and emotional skills necessary for success in school, career and adult life.
"We thank our entire team for all that they do for the kids and their families.
"We encourage children, families and the broader community to recognise and celebrate the work of early childhood educators across Australia."
Mrs Windisch said there had been a small drop in attendance during the latest lockdown, with about 80 per cent of children still attending the Kids' Uni.
"It is a bit of a two-edged sword in that we're so happy to have children here in this time when their world has so severely been impacted by COVID-19. Having them here in our space is a sense of consistency and predictability for them and we can really support their holistic development," she said.
"But this also brings a lot of worry for our staff about their level of exposure to the virus.
"It would help if the government introduced clearer guidelines around who is eligible to send their children to care. We also require better funding.
"The families that are keeping their children at home are waiving the parent gap fee, which we then have to pay. If more families were to stay at home it will put us in a difficult financial position."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
