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In episode #3 of the FDCA Online Engagement Series, FDCA Advocacy and Engagement Manager, Michael Farrell will be joined by Be You Consultant, Maria Heenan, Bright Sun Family Day Care Coordinator/Educational Leader and 2021 Coordinator of the Year National Finalist, Mariam Shahid and Adventure Patch Family Day Care Educator and 2022 Educator of the Year National Finalist Sue Higgs.
The panel will discuss wellbeing in family day care from a number of perspectives including wellbeing for educators, service staff, children and families.
FDCA members are invited to submit questions for the panel to answer during the live broadcast.
A live stream will be available on this page as well as FDCA's Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Please note, if you wish to submit a live question during the stream, you will need to log into your Facebook or YouTube account and submit your question via the comments section.
Maria Heenan
Be You
Consultant
Maria is a Be You Consultant with a background in child and educational psychology. Maria has worked in public policy and community development in both disability and early childhood.
Maria’s work focus is to ensure that systems, resources and knowledge ensure children and young people achieve their best possible outcomes.
Mariam Shahid
Bright Sun Family Day Care
Coordinator/Educational Leader and 2021 Coordinator of the Year Finalist
Mariam Shahid is Educational Leader/Coordinator at Bright Sun Family Day Care and has been working in the family day care sector for the past 5 years. She also had worked as a Trainer and Assessor for the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector.
Mariam has been selected as a National Finalist in the 2021 Excellence in Family Day Care Awards for VIC/TAS. She has also participated in a research project undertaken by Early Childhood Australia (ECA) on behalf of the Department of Education and Training in October 2021 to explore factors that support resilience and wellbeing for the Victorian ECEC workforce. She has been featured as one of the participants in the two videos highlighting the key research findings of that project.
Bright Sun Family Day Care Service has an ongoing commitment to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of educators, families, children and young people particularly from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Background. The service is actively engaged with Be You in the journey of promoting mentally healthy communities. Bright Sun Family Day Care Service has been featured as one of the Be You’s stories highlighting the service's journey to support mental health and wellbeing of educators, children and families.
Sue Higgs
Adventure Patch Family Day Care
Family Day Care Educator and 2022 Educator of the Year National Finalist
Sue Higgs is an Early Childhood Teacher trained educator with thirty-three years’ experience working with children. She brings a wealth of knowledge from long day care room leader, coordinator and family day care.
Sue was the VIC/TAS Educator National Finalist in the 2022 Excellence in Family Day Care Awards.
Her service, Growing Wild, operates from her 23-acre property in Tasmania, where the children enjoy a bush environment, muddy puddles, growing and picking fruit and veggies and feeding guinea pigs, chickens and alpacas. Sue is passionate about nature play and supporting children’s emotional regulation. She loves watching the learning involved in children’s everyday interactions with each other and with nature, and then sharing just how much they are learning with parents.
Sue has read the likes of Janet Lansbury, Stuart Shanker, Tina Payne Bryson, Daniel Siegel and Mona Delahooke to guide her in supporting children emotionally and navigating interactions with understanding and compassion.
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