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.