Sarah Sarah works as the head teacher at a relatively small urban ECE centre. She has been teaching for 16 years after having completed a Bachelor of Education in her early twenties. Like Lucy, Sarah comes from a large multicultural family in which she often took on a leadership role. This led to her discovering a love of working with children, and she remains particularly passionate about being a positive role model for tamariki and showing them that they can accomplish whatever they put their mind to. Sarah had been experiencing feelings of physical and mental exhaustion prior to suffering a break down approximately a year ago. The lack of a permanent kaiako meant that only two qualified kaiako had responsibility for a centre licenced for 30 children. This resulted in constant fatigue and expectations of bringing work home to complete, which progressively worsened over the course of five months. Alongside this, Sarah cited the ever-growing list of compliance and regulations as a major factor in her stress levels, stating that “there are forms for everything” which can lead to the magic of ECE teaching being lost. Following her break down, Sarah completed an 8-week wellness course which helped her to understand and deal with stress better. Over the last year, the employment of a third permanent kaiako has helped to reduce some of Sarah’s stress, however, there remain barriers to accessibility and affordability of relief teachers, and she still has days when she questions why she is in the profession. For now, Sarah is keeping her options open. She believes a proactive rather than reactive focus on staff wellbeing would have huge positive impacts on the sector and cannot understand why government support for mental health rarely extends beyond schools into ECE. She believes management can also support kaiako with their wellbeing through more professional development opportunities and teacher only days, which would boost staff morale and productivity, providing more benefits to children in the long term. Solutions Focus Results from recent ECC surveys and conversations with kaiako suggest that these situations are not isolated, so how do we try to resolve the teacher shortage issue and ensure that kaiako feel well supported so that they want to continue working in the sector? The ECC have grown increasingly interested in kaiako perspectives as we continue to navigate the complex nature of ECE and provide timely support to our members. We recognise the difficulties that many kaiako in the profession face, particularly considering the teacher shortage, and are a strong voice when it comes to matters like better pay and working conditions. Over the last year, ECC has advocated for kaiako on Pay Parity and have developed the Policy Manifesto to guide the new government in policy decisions. We also provide regular advice and up to date information through the fortnightly Teacher’s Chatterbox newsletter and offer a wide range of professional development opportunities that have been designed with a view of providing kaiako with a variety of strategies and emphasise the importance of teaching work. ECC feel that recognising kaiako and having a ‘space’ for ECE teachers to share their experiences is a step towards giving them the mana they so deserve. At ECC we are so committed to wellbeing in the sector that this has inspired our theme for the 2024 Conference: Success Through Wellbeing. ECC conferences are all about taking time out of the business so leaders, managers, owners, and their teaching teams can invest in themselves. There is something for everyone at our conferences and remaining motivated and ensuring you have the right people capabilities to meet new challenges is critical to success. There are also other support resources that ECE kaiako and management may not already be aware of. One key offering is the Workforce Wellbeing package, which is part of the government’s response to Covid-19 and provides an interactive online programme (Gold Star) and EAP counselling support. While the centrally funded EAP counselling is only available until December 2023, the online wellbeing programme has been extended and will remain open until June 2024. Search ‘Gold Star programme’ in your search engine to sign up to the course free. And do not forget about ECC’s Preferred Supplier partnership with Candidex, who put in the hard work to make international recruitment of ECE teachers easy for employers. ECC members receive special pricing on Candidex services, and their unique approach helps to mitigate many of the perceived risks of international recruitment. Despite the challenges and negative press, early childhood education remains a hugely rewarding sector to work in. Our valuable kaiako make a genuine difference in the lives of New Zealand’s tamariki and play a significant role in helping to shape the future of our society. In times like these, we need passionate and committed kaiako more than ever. With a plethora of tertiary institutes, the option to study both in person and via distance, and numerous scholarship opportunities, studying ECE has never been so easy. Visit the TeachNZ website to find out more about the support available to both new and existing kaiako. Do you know of other ways to help make working as an ECE teacher more attractive so that we can retain our best and recruit more to our sector? ECC are open to your ideas and would love to hear from you! Please contact ingrid.crispin@ecc.org.nz. December 2023 { 21 }
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