It ain't all that great- September 7th Shut Down

As you may have seen on the news recently that Early Childhood Educators are staging a walk-out in early September. Rainbow educators have discussed this at length but have decided we will remain open that day. BUT we want to be honest with our families- it ain't all that great!

We are one of the lowest paid professions, with one of the highest responsibilities in our society- keeping your children safe and engaged in learning. While conditions at Rainbow are exceptional, thanks in large part to our amazing admin Rhonda and previous director Jodie, we know we are one of the lucky ones. We have friends working in other centers, some for huge companies, who receive less pay for looking after more children; who don't know the shifts they will be working that week until they turn up Monday morning; who then have to stay back 1 - 2 hours after their shift because there aren't enough educators to cover ratios; who receive no off the floor programming time and have employers that expect them to do it all at home, unpaid; Who haven't had a lunch break in weeks. Who spend their own money to resource their rooms. I personally once spent almost $3000 in 6 months because my room had no furniture! And sadly, there are educators having children and realising that the cost of childcare is actually more than their weekly paycheck, so choose to leave the profession forever. We are facing a shortage of epic proportions- there are hundreds of new positions advertised daily across the country. And whilst the cost of living continues to rise, our pay has been stagnating for years.

We are professionals in early childhood learning and development. Our university trained teachers do about 2 years' worth of primary education subjects before specialising in Early Childhood, and yet when starting out, there is a $15000 difference in our annual income. I myself hold 2 university degrees, have been in education for 15 years, am a Director of this service, and still make less that a Primary teacher 2 years out of university. And I am on the higher end of the Teachers Award. We all deserve better.

And the main 2 reasons we decided not to participate? We didn't want to put our families out of a day of work given how expensive just existing is recently. And, tragically, our educators cannot afford either the monthly union fess, or to take a day without pay, or use an annual leave day now, when we need every single one to get us through the 6 week summer holidays... That's correct, we use our 4 weeks annual leave to cover the 6 weeks. Yes, that's 2 weeks unpaid leave every year.

Now, we feel strongly about this, so we are in the process of drafting a letter that we hope to send to local and larger government bodies, specifically to the people who are supposed to be working towards the betterment of the education system.

So what can you so to help us?

Feel free to write your own letters! Or, when ours is complete, you can show your support by signing it.

Work with us when we make attempts to suggest ways to support your child- we only want them to thrive!

Call out anyone who refers to us as babysitters - on average, we complete more paperwork in a week than a GP! We have more specialised knowledge of early development than any primary and secondary teacher.

And finally, this Septermber 7th, which is also Educators Day, show support. Whether its publicly through social media, or just a private word to one of our educators. More often than not, our brains are full of all the things we think we can be doing better- let us know what you think we do well! Sometimes a simple Thank You can turn our whole day around! This job is HARD. Yes we love it, and of course we love your children, but the mental load we carry every day can be debilitating, and our brains don't stop at 4pm when preschool closes, so this Educators Day, September 7th, Thank an educator for everything they give.

-Bec Goosens