Swings + Roundabouts Spring 2020

Valuniu Fitu Ah-Young, mostly called Fitu, has been involved for over 20 years working in educational leadership including: Principalship, Senior Management, Consulting, Board and Advisory roles. Valuniu Fitu holds a Bachelor of Education Adult Education from Massey University and a Master in Education in Leadership from Auckland University of Technology (AUT). WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT ROLE IN ECE? I am a Director, of Solve Education Ltd, trading as Pasifika Early Learning and a Director of Empower Management Ltd trading as Solve Consult. Both Directorships, are engaged in operating licensed ECE services delivering learning and teaching children from multicultural backgrounds every day and busy working in a specialised ECE consultancy offering personalised support and guidance for many small to medium Pasifika and mainstream ECE services. My role is mainly focused in governance and providing professional learning and development and mentoring of senior leadership and head teachers of Pasifika Early Learning. I have enjoyed a successful history of more than 20 years working in educational leadership, senior management, consulting advisory and management role(s). HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING IN ECE? I, started out as a husband and wife team in 2002, when our eldest girl had just turned 1 years old, it was at this time, we were looking around for a ECE service to take her to enrol, and we started to take more interest in quality Early Childhood learning. We began our journey, with one (1) purpose built ECE service at Taita Central Primary School grounds, funded by the Discretionary MEET ONE OF THE NEW ECC EXECUTIVE MEMBERS: VALUNIU FITU AH-YOUNG Grant Scheme (DGS) in 2002, licensed for only 32 children, which we have grown to a 50 children licensed service. All our children went through our ECE services to prepare them for school. Our philosophy has shaped our unique Pasifika Early Learning brand to empower Pasifika and multicultural communities in Aotearoa. Over a 20 year journey, we have worked with several Mama’s to retain their legacies of establishing ECE services and handing them over to a new generation of Pasifika leadership. We now operate five (5) licensed ECE services meeting all early childhood education regulations 2008 in Wellington and Auckland. WHAT YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT WORKING IN ECE? I love the challenge of working with all children in our ECE services. After 20 years, we are grateful to be part of the ECE space. Children, for us, will always be the heart of the matter – as for us personally, it has evolved into a passionate commitment to ECE, to the children and their learning, from the moment they arrive to the time they leave to return home! Our story began many generations ago. It evolved over time. When our parents sailed from our home of Samoa in search of better lives. We learned to be creative, resourceful, and work with what little we had to play and work with. We developed further the gifts of storytelling, and we reminded ourselves, that learning was limited only by our imaginations. We experienced many of the challenges together with our parents as they built new lives from the ground up. In a foreign land, they found jobs, built homes and churches. Their love of children, found its way into the vision, of many mama’s, who decided, to make a learning pathway for their children’s futures, to preserve our language and culture, in a new country. September 2020 { 12 }