Soula Tsigaras

Centre Manager - Great Beginnings Notting Hill

“I wake up every day wanting to know what our next learning adventure with the children will be.”

My career in the early childhood education and care began in 2002 and I have had the privilege of working at Great Beginnings Notting Hill before it opened its doors to the community in 2017. I hold my Diploma in Children’s Services, Diploma in Leadership & Management, Senior First Aid, Emergency Asthma Management, First Aid in Anaphylaxis and CPR Certificate, and Child Protection.

Growing up I always wanted to be a teacher. During high school, I came to the realisation that being an early childhood educator is exactly what I wanted as we can start from the very beginning and educate the children from the get-go!

A child must be taught how to think, not what to think. This has given me a great opportunity to be able to work with each child individually because children all learn in a different ways and just because they are the same age doesn’t mean they are learning in the same pace. Working at a child care and early education centre, every day is a completely different day. We never come into the centre thinking how things will be or go, new things always arise in this sector. I wake up every day wanting to know what our next adventure with the children will be.

Each room caters for children individually, the educators work with the families at the beginning of the year through meetings so we can see what the families would like for their children and what we think the child can benefit from. Then mid-year we re-evaluate and get together again in a meeting and we set more goals or continue to work on the previous goals.

The best thing about the Great Beginnings Notting Hill team is they are all extremely passionate and are very committed to the children and the centre. Every educator knows all the children regardless of which room the children are in. We work very well together, and we inspire one another. The educator’s support each other and they always lift each other up to better themselves for our child care and early education centre. They are committed to the children and want to see the children to thrive.

Our Great Beginnings child care and early education centres have extensive policy and procedures in place to assist our team in protecting children in our care. You can read more about our commitment to safety here.

During the process of starting new families to our child care and early education centre we are able to have a close orientation. We host a one hour session on two days where the parents and children spend time in the daycare centre and get comfortable with their new surroundings. The parents spend time in the room and then with the Centre Manager who discusses the ins and out of the centre. We have a parent room where the parents can sit down and relax whilst taking in the new surroundings. Any questions the parents have we are there to answer them.

We hold regular celebrations at our child care centre where all families are welcome to attend and get to meet one another. It brings the families together which brings a smile to our faces to see the connection parents and the children have.

During orientation we spend a lot of time with the families, this helps us build the relationship from day one. We find out things about the families that we would not if they were just dropping or picking up the children. This relationship then gets stronger as the years go by.

Our Great Beginnings Notting Hill team cannot wait to start this journey with your child and family!