Kool Kids Early Learning Ashmore’s lead educator Bec Whiting has been named as the Gold Coast’s favourite early learning professional by Gold Coast Bulletin readers.

The Labrador resident has lived in the Gold Coast her whole life and has worked in childcare for almost 40 years. From school she wanted to pursue the passion for teaching young children she discovered when helping with the creche at her local church.

Now a valued lead educator at Kool Kids Early Learning Ashmore, Ms Whiting said that Kool Kids was her home away from home.

“I’ve worked at Kool Kids for almost 12 years, it’s small and homely and I love it. Even on my holidays I still pop in to see my children and the team. They ask me why I’m there and I simply reply that I just love it.

“I work in the nursery room and I’m very passionate about giving the babies all the comfort and affection they need to feel settled as well as reassuring the parents because it’s often the first time they are leaving their child.

“I like to build relationships with the families, get to know them and send them lots of photos of their babies so they can see they’re enjoying socialising with other children and exploring their world,” she said.

“Sometimes families will arrive with the children still in pyjamas and juggling a million things at once and they apologise so I like to be that support who can say to them, ‘it’s ok, don’t worry, I can do this for you’.”

Ms Whiting used to run a playgroup for single mums 13 years ago. There, she was able to support mothers who were often quite nervous on their parenting journeys.

“I loved talking to the mums and helping them where I could. It was so rewarding to see them come back and feel more comfortable with motherhood. I’m still in contact with them and some of their children are now adults with their own children. I love forming those relationships.

“I don’t expect to receive things in this job, I do it for the children and the families, but receiving the recognition that I’ve helped means the world.”
It was through nurturing these family relationships that Ms Whiting learnt she had been named as the Gold Coast’s favourite early learning professional.

“One of the parents messaged me privately and said congratulations. I didn’t know what she was talking about until she forwarded me the link and I just burst into tears. I cried all day because I felt so loved.

“My colleague Kim and I were just screaming and jumping up and down with excitement. I even got emails from current and former parents saying that they couldn’t vote but wanted to and were so happy I won.

“I really can’t explain how it all made me feel, it’s just a beautiful feeling knowing that families that used to come here still think of me. I feel privileged and loved and it’s so special.”

Ms Whiting sums up her average day at Kool Kids with the word “sweaty”.

Her day starts at 6:30am to set up and organise the Zen Garden next to the baby’s room. Then the children arrive, have breakfast and the day does not stop until 2:30pm when Ms Whiting goes home.

“We try to follow the baby’s routine as much as possible and the parents tell me what they would like. So, when there are four babies in a room and potentially four different routines, you’re never sitting down.”

Ms Whiting said that her experiences in the sector have definitely changed over the years.

“When I was an assistant educator, I didn’t see the paperwork side because I was too busy playing! Once I became a lead, I got to be a lot more involved with the children and helping them grow.

“The sector is just going to keep getting better. I love mentoring the younger educators here. We make this bond and I want to see them grow, explain things to them and give them encouragement that they can do anything they want to. A lot of people I’ve mentored are lead educators now and I’m so proud of them.”

Kool Kids is part of G8 Education and is one of more than 430 early learning centres around the country offering quality early learning education and care.

G8 Education Regional Manager Kylie Van Der Stok said that they were so proud of Ms Whiting for the award .

“It’s wonderful to see Bec’s ongoing dedication to early learning recognised in this way.

“At a time when we are wanting to attract more educators to the sector, it’s great to emphasise what really makes this work so special – making connections with children and families that create the foundations for learning for life.”

This is Juliet Davis’ second time winning the Sustainability award for the environmentally friendly practices she has embedded at Great Beginnings Secret Harbour.

“I am thrilled to once again be recognized for the work that I do in the area of sustainability – my greatest passion in life,” said Ms Davis.

“It is so incredibly rewarding to educate these young minds and teach them the importance of caring for our planet and all of the fascinating creatures that live alongside us.”

Sustainability underpins everything we do at G8 Education because we care about protecting childhoods for today and tomorrow.

This comes to life in our corporate approach but also on microlevels in our centres and community leadership.

“I have created a lengthy Sustainability Management plan for our service, with short, medium and long term sustainability goals, with the aim to reduce energy waste, water waste, food waste and focus on incorporating these into our program,” she said.

“We make upcycled gifts for families, we have recycling monsters for the children to feed plastic, paper, and cardboard, a resource centre filled with recycled items to be used for art and crafts as well as a worm farm and composting centre, just to name a few.

“I see no limit on what we can do as a sector to care for the environment and to reduce our impact on the planet.”

Our Educators and Teachers are shaping our future citizens, which is why community engagement and developing active members of society is so important.

Our Community Engagement winner for 2022, Jade Steley said providing opportunities for those connections has never been more important than in a post-Covid world.

“After spending way too much time at home, indoors and closed off from the world with my own children, I made it my mission when I returned to work to get children back outside, back in nature and back into the community.”

In the past 12 months, the children in the Kindy Room at Creative Garden Coombabah have enjoyed countless excursions including a barista masterclass at Zarrafas Coffee, shopping at Bunnings for their kitchen garden project, regular bush kinder explorations and donating items to local op shops.

“The varied interactions you can experience while out in the community is so critical in developing children’s social and communication skills.

“COVID-19 restrictions took that opportunity away from these children, so I feel I have a responsibility to give them as many opportunities as I can.”

Congratulations to all our award winners, and to all our Educators and Teachers across Australia who make an impact in children’s lives every day.

G8 Education’s Welly Road Early Learning Centre is at the centre of an Australian-first nappy recycling trial. In partnership with Kimberly-Clark, this trial could be Australia’s answer to preventing 1.5 billion disposable nappies ending up in landfill each year.

The first trial of its kind in Australia, The Nappy Loop has been underway in South Australia since July 2022 and uses anaerobic digestion to turn the organic materials in used Huggies nappies into nutrient-rich compost, as well as bioenergy that is captured and used to power the recycling process.

“G8 is one of Australia’s largest early learning providers with 440 centres across Australia, and one of our biggest contributors to landfill is nappies which is why we are proud to be partnering in this trial so we can be part of the solution rather than the problem,” said Ali Evans, G8 Education’s Head of Early Learning and Education.

The Nappy Loop team is led by Kimberly-Clark Australia, along with Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, one of South Australia’s largest composters Peats Soils and Garden Supplies, Solo Resource Recovery and one of G8 Education’s South Australian centres Welly Road Early Learning Centre. Together, the team has collected and recycled almost two tonnes of used Huggies nappies from the Welly Road centre, proving that anaerobic digestion is a viable option for the recycling process.

“Through this partnership the nappies changed every day at our Welly Road centre are recycled instead of going into landfill. As educators of our future generations, sustainability is a core focus in all our 440 centres across Australia and we’re excited to contribute to this partnership and the positive environmental impact it can make,” said Ms Evans.

“As Huggies is the most popular nappy brand in Australia, we not only set the standards in baby care, our goal is to set the standards for our industry in sustainability too. We believe we have a responsibility to lead by example and find better solutions for the community and our planet,” said Kimberly-Clark ANZ Managing Director, Belinda Driscoll.

The Nappy Loop trial has adopted a B2B model, with Solo collecting used Huggies nappies from G8 Education’s Welly Road Early Learning Centre in Mount Barker and delivering them to the Peats composting facility for processing.

“We are very passionate about changing things locally, to make a global impact at Welly Road, so we were privileged to have a chance to contribute to such a significant project like The Nappy Loop.” said Welly Road Early Learning Services Centre Manager Kristy Wheeler.

Utilising anaerobic digestion, the organic material in the used nappies is transformed into nutrient-rich compost whilst the plastic components are separated and evaluated for future recycled products. In addition, the anaerobic digestion process creates bioenergy which is captured and used to power the Peats composting facility.

“CSIRO is working with Kimberly-Clark Australia to provide scientific validation of The Nappy Loop pilot to help tackle waste. Our research for this Australian trial will help inform the team on the potential scaling of the program to help reduce the amount of nappies ending up in landfill,” said CSIRO’s Principal Research Scientist Dr Anu Kumar.

“Anaerobic digestion is a growing area of focus and possibility in Australia. The process has been used successfully in Toronto, Canada to recycle disposable nappies and we are excited to be introducing this innovative approach in the Southern Hemisphere as we work to solve the nappy waste issue,” said Managing Director of South Australia’s largest composter, Pete Wadewitz.

After five months of recycling used nappies, The Nappy Loop team is now exploring the opportunity to scale the program in South Australia and nationally. This includes partnering with APR Plastics to test the recycling of the recovered plastic from the nappies using pyrolysis, with the aim of having results available in early 2023.