Recognising Actions At Our McDowall Campus

Recognising our people at Only About Children (OAC) positively contributes towards our team members enjoying coming to work each day and is vital in helping team members be their best. Here at OAC, creating an engaging work environment is vital and that includes recognising our awesome people.

Early childhood educators and teachers invest in years of training and formal education to gain their qualifications. Knowing our team dedicate themselves to upskilling and improving their knowledge to provide the best possible education and care for children and their families – we believe our people are worth more here at OAC. We have a range of initiatives both at campus level and organisationally that promote and recognise team members and the amazing work that they do every day.

In this edition Nisha who has been at the McDowall campus and with OAC for 11 years speaks with us about the importance of recognition in day-to-day work and how it makes her feel.

“When I reflect on what initially attracted me to the early childhood education sector, believe it or not, it was my own experience in kindergarten. I distinctly remember how much support both my family and I received from the teachers and in turn this has encouraged me to pursue a career in the sector.

I came to OAC before it was OAC and initially I was attracted to the philosophy and passion I could see in the centre. From the minute I walked in everyone said ‘hello’ to me and that friendly culture has continued on for the whole time I have been here. This centre has a real family focus and supportive feel. At the McDowell campus we are a family and everyone – whether they are staff or families feels like they are part of the family, this is a great culture to have.

For me personally when I think about recognition, I feel it plays such an important role. We are an industry that as a whole can be underpaid and undervalued. As soon as one negative thing happens the whole industry is looked down upon and we are all put into the same category. In general in our industry I feel that there needs to be more recognition to keep our good workers in the sector and I feel that OAC genuinely invests in this.

I definitely don’t do what I do for the recognition but it is nice when I do receive it as it makes me feel valued by others and my peers. It just feels uplifting! Recognition shines through in a lot of ways at OAC including through our excellence awards and the receiving of Prezzee cards and loyalty gifts to name a few. A time that I reflect back on where I was recognised was when I was nominated by my team for a leadership award at the excellence awards. This nomination was from parents and the team and that meant so much to me.

I mentioned that we have a great culture at our McDowall campus and it feels truly like family. With this in mind I would like to shout out my Campus Director Michelle [insert surname]. She has created this beautiful culture in the centre of honesty, integrity and a supportive environment.

Our purpose and HEART principles
We have a strong purpose here at OAC, that I feel really does underpin everything that we do, along with our HEART principles.

• We Believe – The First 5 Years Of A Child’s Life Matters In Their Development
• We Exist To – Empower Every Child To Reach Their Full Potential
• We Do This – By Offering More Than Childcare Through The OAC Way 

When I have a think about what the purpose means to me, I feel that OAC recognises the individual child and their individual learning and development journeys and in my view this is really important. When I reflect on our HEART principles, if I had to pick a favourite it would be teamwork. Whilst all of the HEART principles are important to me, we work so well because of our element of teamwork, we are each other’s biggest fans!”

If you’re keen to learn a little more about OAC life and what benefits we offer, then check out our careers website where we share the range of benefits on offer and other stories from our team member career journeys and experiences.