Kindy Patch Clarinda

Pavi De Alwis

I started working in early learning in 2012. Throughout my journey with G8 education, I have taken a few centre manager roles in various G8 centres. From June 2021, I have been appointed as a centre manager at Kindy Patch Clarinda.

I have been in early childhood education for almost 10 years. During my career, I have worked in newly start-up centres and established large centres in various capacities. My early childhood career started as a lead educator, assistant centre manager, and centre manager roles in other G8 centres in Victoria. I am pleased to become a leader of my team in Kindy Patch Clarinda and look forward to meeting new families. I am currently undertaking a Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood at Swinburne University.

After serving many years in the early childhood industry,, I have gained lots of experience and knowledge about children’s development. I am dedicated to supporting every child’s growth in a safe and supportive environment. I do this by allowing children to make their own choices whilst guiding positive behaviour and respecting their individuality. For me working in the early childhood industry is a rewarding job. I love the opportunity to teach future leaders of our world, showing them their worth, potential, and the ability to form their own opinions. I love to witness this special moment of every individual child’s achievement and celebrating these events with our families and communities.

Understanding children’s individuality and respecting their culture is important for me. Informed by this, I strive to implement an inclusive curriculum for all the children in our care. Our program consists of play-based learning. It is inclusive, promotes competence and the child’s sense of agency. Our environment works as a ‘third teacher’, allowing the children to freely explore and learn.

I love Regio Amelia’s approach to helping children on their learning and life journey, which values that children are competent and capable citizens who are full of wonder and have the curiosity to learn. I will connect this approach with our play-based learning giving the children more opportunities to investigate and experiment with a wide range of resources and materials to develop concepts and skills that are important for their 21st-century learning.

I believe children who attend early childhood education have greater benefits such as social, emotional and physical development alongside building a foundation for lifelong learning and wellbeing. They perform better in primary schools with numeracy and literacy levels and settle into a school environment with a positive attitude. We understand how important this milestone is for the children and the parents when transitioning children to primary school.

The Kindy Patch Clarinda team is passionate about the quality of our service. We uplift and celebrate each other and are proud of the community we have created. We exceed in everything we do and consistently ensure high standards in all aspects of our service. Our team is made of up long-serving, multicultural team members who reflect our local community. During the year, we look forward to celebrating our diversity through events, languages and stories. Many team members have been with the service for more than nine years. All our team members have completed the child protection training and have extensive knowledge and experience in maintaining a child-safe environment for every child in our care.

I do meet and greet in the mornings and welcome all the families and children. I am always available to support and answer any inquires and questions that parents have. I respect every family and their culture, giving me the opportunities to connect with every family in our care. I value all the families’ cultures, festivals and events and work together with my team to celebrate them together. During children’s birthdays, we welcome the parents to join with children in their classroom to celebrate. Parents will visit for a short time to sing happy birthday and share the cake with the children. We share our news, articles and special calendar of events with the parents so that families could contribute to those events. We love getting connected with our community! Our team at Kindy Patch Clarinda are so excited to get to know you and cannot wait to support your families to start the journey with us.

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