Jan Bennett 

Head of Early Years

For me, as a female who has worked in education for more than 30 years, I think that I always saw this as a career, not a job. This is something that I had a belief in and a true passion for. And it's also the route that I saw for me as a leader and as a researcher, as someone who investigated things that I felt needed more work or things that needed to develop within the school I worked in.

When I worked in London, I used to have a dreadful work-life balance. I think what's important is that you create a balance. As with all of the staff in the Nest, I spend a lot of hours caring for other people's children, a lot of hours prioritizing the learning for other people's children and making sure that other people's children are making progress. It's really important therefore that, even when we get home at the end of a long day and we are a little bit tired, we need to take the time to be able to have conversations with our own children. It can be challenging but I learned that it's important to prioritize my mental health and have time for my family.

Speaking as a global citizen, on a more global scale, rather than just what's happening in the Nest, I would like to see a reflection of the number of women who work in the Early Years or primary school also reflected in the percentage of women who are in leadership roles, particularly senior leadership within a school. I think society still needs to wake up to just how amazing women are and the fact that they are strong leaders, they are multi-taskers. They are the people who can be caring and passionate, just the same as men in the industry. Happily, things are changing, and now there is a better balance.

Lisa Li

Deputy Head of Early Years

I have so many happy moments. Recently I was teaching the Nest children Chinese idioms as an ASA class to introduce more traditional Chinese culture to our curriculum. I felt so happy when the children told me that they were looking forward to Thursdays because that was when we were having the class. I would plan my class carefully to make sure that every child was engaged and having fun in my class. A boy said to me as seriously as an adult, “Ms Lisa, you are a good teacher. I think your class is very interesting. You are very responsible.” I was so happy to hear that. The feedback from the children motivates me further.

To be honest, I don’t have many tips to share with you on this because I don’t think I have a perfect work-life balance. My passion for early years education is driving my dedication to my work. I’m very grateful to my family who are always there to support me. That’s why I don’t think I have a good work-life balance, but this job brings me a lot of benefits as well. I have learned so much more about how to treat others and how to be a good role model for the children. I can bring the knowledge and experience that I obtain from work and think about how to get along with my family. This job provides me with opportunities to reflect on what I did, how to positively communicate with my child, how to improve my relationship with my family members. I think this is a very important benefit.

For a woman who expects to realize more of her abilities and potential in the workplace and try to balance her work and life at the same time, can be challenging. But I think what’s the most important is to take good care of yourself. Only when you take good care of yourself can you improve your work.

Davina Edwards 

Reception Teacher

I cannot recall a single moment of happiness as there have been so many. The ‘light bulb’ moments whereby a child, having understood or made a new discovery, is always full of joy. However, I can comment on a particular year. This year, in particular, the class was made up of children from every corner of the globe. Their unique talents and personalities made the classroom a truly global and dynamic experience. This learning environment was project-based. I nurtured a learning environment in which each child was able to use their talents and gifts to contribute to solving a problem and or produce a product. However, the excitement came during the collaborative process. Children were able to support each other to acquire new skills and gain concepts. Presenting their findings to staff, parents and in some cases, on external international platforms. There was also great joy in sharing and celebrating each other’s cultures with food, dance and music. Teaching is truly a profession that spreads joy, happiness and hope.

After I gave birth to my child, I could understand children better and developed my philosophy of education as well. For example, children can be very persistent when they keep trying something and adults can give them more freedom and space to try. I would like to share something very impressive that happened in my class. The children were playing with water. A boy took some sand from the sandpit and put it in the water tank. It looked like he was being naughty and made a mess, but the teachers allowed him to keep doing what he wanted to do. It turned out that he was using pipes as a tool to drain the water out from the tank and only leave the sand in it. If the adults stopped him in this process, we would be stopping the child from exploring. Instead of doing so, the teachers observed him first. Perhaps the boy was also in the process of trying and he would slowly find out a purpose for his “experiments”. When he had his final results, it could be a big surprise both for him and the teachers. This boy was only four years old, but in the process of the game, he already saw the physical phenomenon that sand does not dissolve in water but settles at the bottom of the water.

In addition, I feel that now I can be more relaxed with the children and I am able to think out of the box. Sometimes children have their own ideas and wouldn’t do as the adults say, and the parents might be worried that the children will be spoiled if we let them be this way. But I think when the children have their own ideas or want to try something for themselves, adults should provide them with the opportunities to do so. My two-year-old girl wanted to wash her hands by herself when she saw me washing my hands. If I stopped her just because I was worried that she might get wet, she would lose this valuable chance to learn.

Yana Logvinova

Nursery Teacher

Working with children is very special for me because I love the way they look at the world. I love to see them grow and I love to see all the things they learn and how surprised they are at things. It is that innocence that makes them so unique. I like to see how genuine they are and at the same time, I love to learn from them. Even though they might be little, they are great teachers just because of the way they see life. That is why we, as teachers and parents, have to be careful what we are teaching the children because they are like sponges, absorbing everything that is happening around them, either good or bad.

Being an Early Years teacher does not mean you only have to get a qualification and you can forget about everything that you learned before. It’s nonstop learning. It’s the learning of your whole life while you are teaching the little ones because education is developing.

I feel very confident in being a female teacher. I think my own experience in motherhood played a very important role in becoming an Early Years teacher as I mentioned. It helps me to deeply understand the expectation of the parents who bring their children to Wellington and I can share my own experience with them if they need any guidance.

There is a really nice quote, “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” It means that you have to do something you really enjoy. Otherwise, whatever you do, no matter how you try to balance your life, it won't work. It has to be something that brings you joy in your life. For me, it's very important because before I also tried different kinds of jobs, but it was really hard to balance my work and life when the job didn’t bring you this much joy. But now, I love what I'm doing and it helps me to enjoy my life.

Wendy Chen

Nursery Teacher

Since I was a child, I have always felt that teaching is a noble career. My teachers gave me knowledge and made me who I am now. I feel that education is the foundation of a nation and the way to build a country. A good education cannot be achieved without a good teacher. I keep doing this noble job and let knowledge and love spread to the whole world. As an Early Years teacher, it is a great honour for me to be with the children on their learning journey and witness them growing up happily. I also feel honoured to do my part in the development of early childhood education.

I hope I can shine in the career I love. I hope that every child can be healthy, happy, confident and brave. I hope that they can have a happy childhood and be able to create a happy future.