Get to Know Your New ACA Qld CEO Kate Tully > CEO, ACA Qld
Please tell us a little bit about you and your history? I first trained as a journalist and professional writer, and worked for many years writing some major publications in the social sector, which I greatly enjoyed. I later moved into management, specifically in the nonprofit sector, where I have worked for more than a decade. I love working in this sector, especially the ability to influence policy and enhance practice. On the personal front, I‘ve survived four times early childhood, school and teenagerdom to now have four children in their 20s – phew! I moved to Brisbane from Toowoomba three years ago, but still have a lot of heart for regional Queensland. I’ve always enjoyed having roles beyond my immediate job responsibilities and currently sit on the Community Services Reform Council and Queensland Plan Ambassadors Council. These help me stay connected to the wider world and bring new perspectives to my work. How did you first become involved in ECEC sector? When my own first-born was not yet one, I had the privilege of working with Quentin Bryce at the then brand new National Childcare Accreditation Council. My first career was as a professional writer, and I produced all the documentation for the Quality Improvement and Accreditation System. Not the content of course – that came from sector experts – but the editing and production and the accompanying workbooks. I’m sure some of our members will remember those blue books with the images of children running across the bottom! That was in the ‘90s. Then in the early 2000s I had moved with my family from Sydney to beautiful Toowoomba, and an opportunity arose to establish and run an early childhood centre there.
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EARLY EDITION > AUTUMN 2021
It was a lovely little 29-place centre and I based it somewhat on the Reggio Emilia philosophy that I’d first come across when my children attended Mia Mia at Macquarie University in Sydney. It was the right idea in the right place at the right time – the centre thrived and is still going strong today, many years after I sold it. I love this sector and the critical nature of the work we do in early learning. I’ll never forget reading in the QIAS documentation that we learn more in our first five years than in any other 5-year period of our lives. To me that sums up why what we do is so important. What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the sector? I think the sector’s biggest challenge, hands down, is to elevate the status of early learning. Certainly the sector appeared to make progress during the height of COVID when there was a fresh appreciation for early childhood educators and teachers. However, the ongoing perception of early learning as ‘just childcare’ will continue to constrain the sector. The increasingly alarming workforce shortages are the most striking symptom of this problem: people are not attracted to work in a sector that they perceive – rightly or not – to be characterised by low pay, relatively poor conditions, a lack of career path and low status. Sooner or later – preferably sooner! – these shortages will force a shift in thinking and in policy. We have no time to lose. My hope is that ACA Qld can encourage some innovative thinking to finally shift early learning onto a new plane. To contact Kate, call the ACA Qld office on 07 3808 2366.
