A local woman, who has adapted the well established family day care model to provide before and after school care, has won the Family Day Care Australia Regional Educator of the Year Award for the second year in a row.

Sabrina Kelly’s Family OOSH (Kiama Family Before and After School Care) was selected out of more than 5,000 nominations.

“I am so proud because last year was the first time the award had ever gone to a before and after school care and often that part of the childcare sector is a little bit overlooked,” she says.

“To be recognised for achieving that again feels great and I am so lucky that I am one of the few people that is able to make a living out of doing what they genuinely love.”

Sabrina, who has a teaching background in primary school, early childhood and special education, received the award for providing an inclusive and innovative before and after school care and vacation care program that caters for children of all abilities.

“My goal is to have a service that all children can access regardless of their ability and I have a number of children with significant additional needs such as complex medical issues and severe disabilities,” says Sabrina.

“I realised I needed an extra pair of hands to take on these children safely so I started a couple of fundraisers which the community jumped on and I raised enough money so that when I have these children with significantly high support needs, I can have a support worker alongside me.

“Through these fundraisers, we have raised enough money and it’s actually the first time that local children with high support needs have attended a mainstream service.”

Fundraising for support workers

Sabrina established Family OOSH to meet her own childcare needs, and now has around 70 children attending.

“When we moved to Kiama, I couldn’t get childcare anywhere so I had the idea of using the family day care model to create a before and after school care,” says Sabrina.

“I thought ‘this would be good for 6 months until I can find childcare’ but now I have been doing it for two and a half years and it has just exploded.

“I think word spread that I love working with children who have different abilities and needs, so I’ve always had at least two fifths of enrolments being children with a diagnosed disability. It was only from there that I extended it to the more severe end of the spectrum.

“It has been amazing so far working with so many different children who all have very different abilities, skills and personalities.

“They really all have so much to contribute and there is never a dull moment.”

Sabrina is now one of five in the running for the Australian Educator of the Year Award, to be announced in December.