This post is not about vaccination – I support wholeheartedly protecting those that cannot protect themselves. I also support valued based choice for all those that are old enough to make their own decision and I support community and the collective good of well minded kind people.
However – in my experience, our profession has officially run out of the nine lives we have been using in the past two years. I feel like we have been failed and we are failing.
Our people are stressed, our people are frantic and our people feel devalued. Aside from the drama of this decision in the time frames affecting the very core of our services and our team culture – this has a very negative affect on the children and families in our circle.
At a time when we should be celebrating with our little people and with each other, we are instead, fighting within ourselves, the bureaucracy, and with each other for team members to stay with us and in the sector. We can no longer call our sister centres and ask for help of any kind – it honesty feels like The Hunger Games. Our people are feeling this and they are regretfully leaving our treasured profession – never ever to return.
I’m embarrassed to say that our profession, my profession has lost its purpose. The purpose of people first – big and little.But this has not been our choice!
No, its been a decision made for us. Some might say, but you saw it in other States – didn’t you predict this and plan for it! The answer is yes, we did. But with borders closed and a burnt out workforce, recruitment feels impossible & applicants are scarce, people do not want to work in a profession that is undervalued and has been the whipping boy throughout Covid.
I’m a problem-solver and a really really good problem solver at that. Here at Astute we know we can do hard things. It’s embedded our DNA. But this – this mandate and the timeframes handed down to us 13 business days ago – is unfair. It’s cruel and it’s hurting people we love.
I just hope and pray our families forgive us when their cherished educators are no longer with us, when their children’s care & education slips and slides into perfunctory tasks with strangers looking after their children.
Today is a very hard day – but like we always say, we can do hard things, and tomorrow we do it all again, because many of us still love this noble, wonderful profession that has been good and kind to us for a career that spans a lifetime.
Contact us today and let our team of early years specialists work their magic.
