aus2be

Hi All

I am just wondering if anyone has been working in Private day cares in the UK and has come to Australia and applied for jobs in Day cares here....................I have worked in day care for 9 years in Northern Ireland before moving out to Perth in Oct I worked as a registered childminder.

I have had two job interviews in 2 different day cares both offering me the job as Qualified Childcare worker........... I did take one of them but took a day in the day care before I was to start and I was not happy with the way things were managed and kids cared for, (nothing bad though) Just the general feel for the day care and I decided that I wouldnt take the job........... Back home in Northern Ireland the day cares are very professionaly managed and the senior staff have great responsibilities as in Care for kids, Planning , observations etc but these are all of equal importance........ I find here in Aus that alot of day cares nearly concentrate to much on accredation I know this is very important and a huge achievement to get but isnt it just as important to care for the kids.....

I think I am just wondering if anyone else has experienced such a huge difference in day cares.

I think I have decided that I am ready for a career change and going to enroll in Uni to do my nursing degree........... I have worked with kids for a long time but I think working in a day care here in Aus isnt for me


N

timmins family

did you get a chance to take a look at day care setting 2 ?
i currently am in childcare in uk and noticed that each setting has very different standards,maybe you should take a look at another nursery ,it would be a shame to end a very rewarding career on the basis of 1 place
good luck

Pomster

My daughter's day care is very well run. Owned by 3 big oil companies and run by KU Children's services (who run a number of day cares)

The do lots of structured play, and have 'challenges' for the kids to meet- improve sharing/language etc.

They are looking for a staff member too- but we are in Melbourne!

aus2be

Hi Timmins
I will PM you as well..... but yeah I did take a look around both the day cares so I did the first day care I was offered the job in seemed ok but ended up calling me the day before I was due to start to say that due to them having their accredition soon they wanted someone who was Australia qualified but my qualifications were not a problem when they offered me the job at the beginning.............. I am qualified to a high standard in the UK....... so that was the first one out the window..



Hi Pomster.

This particular day care sounds fab so it des although it is a shame that it is in Melbourne

They seem to do the things that I would carry out in day care.............. I am not saying that all day cares are like this but I am just not impressed by the 2 so far and I just feel that some day cares concentrate too much on the ACCREDITION rather than the care of the kids........ At home observations, reports,planning etc were all very important in the day to day running but these were always managed in a way that were not taking over the care of the kids and the kids had 100% attention from staff.

hunt66

Hi,
Just to say I am also a highly qualified worker and have just started work in a kindy (independent), I did a few temp days with other settings before taking this job and found plenty i was not sure about, this kindy is very different. Child care is different here and i have found the lack of a curriculum surprising, in my kindy each group leader has control of their own group to arrange curriculum planning and observations so i am organising the room in the way i am used to which will also fit with the culture of kindy's in Australia. The main concern i have is with the staff - child ratio is much higher than the UK.
Accreditation here is the equivalent to OFSTED and it would appear this is very important to child care centres as it was in the UK.
It may be a good idea to try a few more first, though a job change may be just as exciting,
Good Luck with what you choose
Claire Hunt

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aus2be

Hi Claire

I totally agree with you here and I was so shocked when I heard what the ratio of staff to children was.......... it is indeed alot larger here than back home.

The Kindy that you are now working for sounds great and I am glad that you are able to do your own planning in the room.......I think that I have just been shocked by the day cares that I have seen so far as they are indeed very different to what I am used to at home....
Thanks for the good luck wished I def want to go to uni but in the mean time I have no idea what to do

Nadine

The Bloke

The reason for so much attention to accreditation and qualifications, is that they now have to cover themselves from a legal standpoint, especially in the area of child protection, ie criminal history checks/blue cards many government regulations and restrictions placed on them by owners, read banks and large institutions, who have don't really care in the day to day running, but bottom-line PROFIT, especially after the collapse of the ABC group.

jillandsi

Hi Nadine,

I have owned 2 day nurseries in the U.K. and having looked at the regulations for WA the ratios aren't a lot more than here i.e. U.K. - 0-2yrs is 1:3, 2-3yrs is 1:4 and 3-5yrs is 1:8, W.A. - 0-2yrs is 1:4, 2-3yrs is 1:5 and 3+ is 1:10.
I would be interested to know whether the ratios at the nursery were different to these as there is not that big a difference between the two countries.

I am currently in the process of having my qualifications assessed by the overseas qualifications assessment people in W.A., I am presuming that you hadn't done that because the nursery said that they needed somebody with Oz qualifications for their accreditation. If that is the case then I can't see them being the type of nursery that does the best by their children anyway because as far as I can gather it would be against the regs to employ somebody without Oz qualifications.

Sadly, as in the U.K. there are some nurseries that pass their relevant inspections with flying colours because their paperwork is excellent and they perform for the day and then there are some that may only pass adequately because they spend more time focusing on what the children want and what is best for their development rather than filling in forms and having a full range of multi-cultural clothes/dolls/home corner food or disabled dolls or posters and books of gay families.

I know of plenty of nurseries in my area that I would not put my dog in, these are usually staffed by very young girls (to keep wages down) and with managers that spend most of their day in the office and so don't have any idea of what the staff are or are not doing. It becomes more like a social centre for staff than a daycare centre.

A change of career may be the right thing for you (I'm currently on a year -or 2- break) but please don't tar all nurseries with the same brush, there are some of us good owners out there (I might be one of them again soon).

Best wishes

Jillian

aus2be

I know that there are definately some good day cares here in Aus but just the 2 so far that I have been in havent filled me with confidence that they are managed to a high standaard.............. I do wish you all the very best in what you do and I hope that some day you will fulfill your dream of managing your own day care.

Nadine

jillandsi

Hi Nadine,

I'm sorry if that last comment sounded as if I was having a go at you, I didn't mean it that way, I meant it in a light hearted manner as I know how varied nurseries can be and what a hard and tiring job it can be especially when you have done it for many years.

It's really hard typing/texting etc because you can't use intonation or tone as you would when you're speaking to show how you mean the comment to be taken, so sorry again (maybe I need to use those little yellow faces on offer)

They do sound a bit rotten though, both to the children and to present and future staff

Jillian

aus2be

Hi Jillian

No hard feelings at all so dont worry........... It is hard indeed................. I feel that working with kids is such a challenging career and one that is very rewarding and I just was not getting a good impression from the day cares that I was in here........ I am sure that there are some brilliant day cares I just havent found that one yet............

Do you have a contact number for the company that is assessing your qualifications................... I am still waiting on the application form to be sent to me after a week and a bit............. I am qualified with the Advanced GNVQ in health and social care and also the CACHE:- Advanced Diploma in childcare and Education.......... and def would like to get them assesed here in Aus but I can not find the contact number.

You planning on opening a day care here in Perth???

Nadine

jillandsi

Thank you Nadine,

The phone number is (08) 6217 8316 and the contact name is Sallie West

But I downloaded mine from community.wa.gov.au, on the first page it shows two different departments, click on the word Childcare under the Department for Communities bit, on the next page click on the word Qualifications lower down on the left hand side it will then show a page where you can open the assessment pack on-line and print it off. I've used the NNEB one even though I have that plus the ADCE but I may end up being told to use the non-NNEB one for the ADCE.

From the info in the pack I'm hoping for an A or A* qualification because when we applied for the visa it kept saying that I needed to have a degree or diploma in childcare and education and the main qualification that they were bothered about was the ADCE as opposed to the NNEB.

I am thinking about opening a day care in Perth especially as it seems that there may be gaps in the market after ABC have shut down quite a few of theirs, but after running two for the past ten years I am a bit fed up. In fairness though I enjoyed running the nursery what I didn't enjoy was the constant interference from the council Early Years Team who always felt that they knew better than you even though hardly any of them had any childcare qualifications or experience, looked down on you as a private provider because they assume that you are only in it for the money and changed what they wanted from day to day (rant over, back to topic).

Good luck with your qualifications assesment and with finding a decent nursery to work in, it'd be great if you could let me know what Oz qualification they gave you and where you eventually end up. If I ever sell this blasted house and get over there I will let you know what I get up to also.

Jillian

tried a smily face to see if it worked.

aus2be

Hi Jillian (again)

Thanks for the link I have downloaded it already and will get OH to print it off for me so that I can get it filled out and see what they come back with............ I was the main applicant in the visa process and was passed by Trades Assessment as a child care co-ordinator so I really hope that my qualifications wont be a problem with the department.......... It is indeed a very long application form needs a lot of attention given to it................I like your way of thinking and can understand how annoyed you got with the early years teams

I will let you know when i get the form sorted and sent of and when I hear back from them........

Thanks a million

Nadine

Ps All the luck in the world for the house sale it is a complete nightmare and I know if we hadn't off knocked some money of ours that we would still be at home...............

Emmab13

Hi

Could you please give me some more info about getting my qualifications assessed and how far in advance i need to do this? I am working in a day nursery at the moment as a nursery nurse and have 4 years experience, I also have NVQ 2 and 3 in childcare and will have a foundation degree in early childhood studies when i apply. Not sure where we want to move to yet though do i need 2 apply different places depending on where i am moving to?
Any info on this would be great
Thanks
Emma

jillandsi

Hi Emma,

If you check one of my previous postings (Jan 29th 11:52am) the first bit of it will tell you how to get onto the correct page of the website for NNEB's and NVQ's. I also had the ADCE and just mentioned that in the letter that I sent accompanying the application, so it would be up to you as to whether you applied based on your NVQ now or waited until you got your foundation degree and did it then, if you're not coming over until after your degree I would probably wait because you will get a higher grade. Each state has it's own regulations etc so you would also be best to wait until you knew which state you were going to before applying (my info is for W.A.). As for how far in advance, don't worry about it ( for W.A. anyway), on the form you download it says they reply within ten days (not counting international posting times) and mine came back in less than that.

Hope this helps, good luck.

Jillian