Alison had always been fascinated with how children learn and how they process information.

“I love seeing the joy on their faces and seeing how children look through life. I just love the way they interact with each other. They don't see colour, they don't see race they're just happy to play. You can never be sad around children.”

Alison went through a separation and decided to then focus on doing something for herself. She chose to start her career in early childhood education and dived right in and loved it.

“The course was amazing and was actually a really good distraction too. School became a bit like a family, and we helped each other.”

Juggling personal life and studying was very challenging. With the support of family and the amazing teachers at Chisholm, she was able to balance them both.

“The play centres on Wednesdays really, really helped me. They've given us the freedom to make mistakes here with the children and learn from here and then use that in our workplaces.”

“I love the placement. I was able to put in everything that I learned from the classroom into practice. It was great to be amongst the workers there that helped me just to be myself and let my creativity flow.”

“Studying early childhood has helped me with my own children. I have a two-year-old and a five-year-old and I think it's given me more insight into the fact that they are just little people and it's given me more patience in learning about them.”

“My children inspired me so much while I was doing this course. Yes, they're very proud of me and they are always saying my mum is a teacher”.

“Looking back on what I’ve gone through, I think I'm a lot stronger and have surprised myself a lot especially with my marks. So yes, I'm very proud.”