Jillian has been involved in the childcare industry for as long as she can remember. Her mother was an Early Childhood Educator and so there were always young children around her home.

​Jillian has always been passionate about her role as an advocate for the education and care provided to the children in any care facility she has been involved in.

​Jillian gained her first Child Care Qualification in Scotland where she worked as a nanny.  She believes this has given her some insight into the complexities of family life and a greater understanding of the stress and challenges as both parents work and try to juggle family time too. It was during a nanny placement that she was introduced into the area of palliative care.  Not only did she nanny the children during that placement, but also cared for and nursed their mother (who had terminal cancer) at home so she could spend as much time with her children as possible. This was a very difficult situation and it raised Jillian’s awareness that she needed/wanted more training to understand the psychological makeup of people to better support them through the storms that face each person as we journey through life.

​Jillian subsequently studied psychotherapy and counselling with the view to change professions, but decided that she could better use her new knowledge to assist and support educators and families within the childcare industry.

​You can also read more about Jillian in this interview

Sabina is a Diploma qualified Early Childhood Educator and also holds an Advanced Diploma in Community Sector Management. She has been working in the childcare industry for the past 11 years and absolutely loves her job!

Through those years she has worked in all of the different age groups from babies through to school age children and she also has 5 years’ experience in a management role within the childcare industry.

Sabina has a son of her own who is now in primary school and she also have 3 fur babies including 2 rescue cats and a dog.

She finds working with children, watching them grow and develop their own unique personalities so rewarding and grateful to be a positive role model in each child’s life and be involved in their learning and development.

Sabina loves having a chat and is approachable at any time for any reason!

Rebecca works closely with Sabina as 2IC, and is also Educational Leader at Beacon Street. Rebecca has two children of who own, who both attend the service. She has worked at Beacon Street for over 10 years.

​Rebecca’s  energy and enthusiasm will be of great value to help teach and support our educators to become the best they can be. She also inspires some of the more mature staff to continue to learn and confront their ways of teaching, encouraging them to explore new ways of setting the learning environments for the children to promote the children’s curiosity.

​Rebecca has a firm but fair approach with the children, she allows them to explore and challenge the boundaries, discussing with them regularly those boundaries and why we have them. She encourages the children to try new and exciting things every day.

Rebecca is also working closely with organisations in our community to determine ways to include and connect them more with families at the centre.

Eli has a Masters degree in Early Childhood Education and is registered with the Victorian Institute of Teaching.  He is very passionate in his job, caring for each single child and teaching them a wide range of life skills and academic skills. He is fluent in both Mandarin and English.

Eli has been working at Beacon Street for more than two years and has undergone numerous professional development training. He designs and delivers age-appropriate activities based on children’s interests, which significantly boosts children’s physical and emotional development, as well as their academic learning. The teaching happening in the room has been highly valued by many parents. Singing and dancing is one of the remarkable highlights happening every single day in the room. Eli believes singing can build up children’s confidence and speech development, and that dancing benefits children’s social skills and a sense of belonging to the group.

Eli is also a great team leader, leading the Bilby room (4yo kinder) educators with respect and trying his best to help develop his co-workers professional skills.   His caring personality lends him to be not just a leader to his colleagues, but also a friend.