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Guardian gears up for Aspires Awards as part of awards program refresh
Freya Lucas
Aug 09, 2022
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The Guardian Childcare and Education network is preparing for a “night of nights” in the inaugural Aspires Awards, which are part of the company’s “refreshed and reinvigorated” awards program which was put on hold throughout the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Promising to “set a new benchmark” for early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector celebrations, the Awards feature a peer nomination and voting system, empowering team members across the 130-plus centres in the network to determine who they think should be acknowledged for their contributions.Split into two divisions of North (for those in Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT) and South (covering those in South Australia and Victoria), team members were able to put nominations forward in two main categories, a ‘people’ category that covers centre-based roles, and a ‘stars’ category, to recognise contributions that make Guardian centres a place where children, families, and teams love to be.
In the people category awards will be given to the:
- Assistant Centre Manager of the Year
- Centre Manager of the Year
- Cook/Chef of the Year
- Educational Leader of the Year
- Educator of the Year
- Student of the Year
- Teacher of the Year.
In the star category, awards will be given to the:
- Aspiring Mate of the Year
- Aspire Star of the Year
- Innovation Award
- Team of the Year
- Support Office Star of the Year (non-Centre award).
The awards program has been enthusiastically received across the network with more than 1,200 nominations made.
Nominations are based on Guardian’s mindsets – a collective approach to the privilege of supporting young children to be bold, creative, and curious in their learning and have the best start to life. The mindsets are based on actions, how team members act in a brave, positive, professional, and thoughtful manner.
To nominate, teams described how they saw those mindsets in action, highlighting how a colleague or a team was making an impact on those around them.
The sheer volume of nominations, Chief Network Officer Sharon Whiteman said, reflected the passion Guardian educators have for their work.
“The intent of The Aspires Guardian Awards was to create a recognition program that was led by our Centre teams and Centre Support teams. We wanted our teams to nominate the amazing and unique contributions they see every day, across every role in our Centres,” she said.
“The quality of their work and the way they embody our mindsets is nothing short of inspiring.”
To follow the progress of the Awards, please visit the Guardian Childcare and Education website.
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