Marie Hilliam

• 3rd October 2023 - present
• Managing day-to-day running of all babies' rooms within the centre and teaching on the floor with the children. This includes ensuring individual care plans are being correctly followed by all staff in the room, ensuring planning and paperwork are filled out correctly, and ensuring Te Whāriki is being followed and visible in daily practice. Best practices is being used at all with the children, including but not limited to respectful practice, codes and standards are being used and visible, children and seen and treated as individuals. Building trusting relationships with parents/whanau, weaving the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi are included and visible in our daily practice. Reporting to and working closely with my supervisor and centre manager.

3rdOctober 2022 – 29th September 2023

Managing the day to day running of the centre. Managing staff rosters and all aspect of staffing the centre from hiring teachers to mentoring and working with staff through their personal growth cycles for registration purposes. Working with perspective new parents to grow the role. This is a brand new centre, we have grown rapidly so managing and hiring new staff as we grow. I am responsible for all the budgets including the wages, consumables, and day to day expenses. Dealing with parent feedback and customer service part of this is also selling our centre to new parents. There are many aspects of in this role however with my experience and management skills this has been a very rewarding position and I have been successful in this role. The centre has been open six and a half months are we are 51% full, most centres at this point are 25 to 30% full. This is due to my experience and skill sets within the industry coupled with my business experience and the ability to sell my vision and then deliver on this vision as we grow and move forward.

• Ensured compliance with company policies and procedures as well as local regulations regarding safety, health, security and labor laws.

7rd February 2022– 27th October 2022

Managing 5 centres across the Auckland area. I visit the centres on a weekly basis and observe practise, check regulations are being followed and that health and safety processes are being followed. I have been training new mangers into their role and support them on a daily basis with any issues they need assistance with. I also assist with staff management and assist managers with any staffing issues they are experiencing, I am involved in interviewing and hiring new staff. I work with the marketing team and centre managers to retain and lift occupancy in the centres, deal with parent complaints, management of dept in each centre and work with centre managers to run the centres in a business like manner and all areas of running the centres from a business perspective and ECE regulation requirements. I audit all areas of individual centres and mentor managers and staff. My role is one of support and advisor to the centre managers.

Scholars Preschool

March 2020 - November 2022

Owner/Manager

Managing day to day running of the centre. Manage the governance of the center, dealing with all finances, strategic plan, and budgets. I ensure that best practise is use at all times within the centre and this includes meeting with outside agencies for best out comes for all our children.

My role here is to hire, and manage staff, whanau, enrol new children and deal with new enquiries. I have a license for 30 children and 4 staff members. I manage dept control, billing, marketing, monthly staff meeting and one to one meeting, mentor staff, I lead curriculum and planning, staff rosters, sign in sheets, funding, ensuring all Ministry regulations are being met including paper work, health and safety and all other aspects of governance of the centre. I have used Infocare as the system to manage the administration of staff, enrolments, and funding.

July 2019 – December 2019

My duties were to manage 10 staff, a large number of relievers which I would book according to the role and absent staff, over 3 rooms and with a license of 85 children and their whanau.

I managed day to day running including administration. I dealt with new clients coming into look at the centre, answering questions, taking enrolments and managing all areas of the enrolment process. My other duties included: one to one meetings, all areas of planning and curriculum, mentoring and encouraging best practise for staff to use, weekly sign in sheets for children and staff hours, all areas of administration tasks. Managing staff performance and recognising areas of development and planning professional development for these area’s for staff. I was responsible for occupancy and the marketing of the centre. Ministry regulations and health and safety requirements were being met and documented and total day to day running of the centre including over seeing the running of the kitchen and menus. Producing and presenting weekly management reports to the owners of the company and discussion around how we could improve standards, lower dept, any staffing issues. Dealing with parent complaints and managing plans to rectify and issues that had arisen.

July 2018 – July 2019

My responsibilities are to Manage 12 staff member over 3 rooms with a licence for 100 re Manager

children and their whanau this includes:

Monthly one on one meetings, weekly head teacher’s meetings, fortnightly room staff meetings and termly full staff meetings, yearly appraisals and overseeing the parent teacher meetings. I recruit staff through personal contacts and traditional methods. I also do administration duties so I have an extensive knowledge of running a centre, I oversee the invoicing and any dept. the accumulates and it is my responsibility to speak with families and work out a plan in cases of hardship. I am responsible for all new enquiries to the centre and showing perspective parent through the centre. I manage the day to day running of the centre including maintenance of the building and equipment and ensuring all regulations are met in all areas. I am responsible for mentoring and encouraging towards best practice. I have built the role and I am continuing to do so, I do this through building strong and trusting relationships with parents and children. I ensure that I and my staff are in constant contact with parents to enable best learning outcomes and care for all children and whanau.

This centre also had a playgroup license and I was given the responsibility of re-starting that and it is now up and running again. This gives me the opportunity to be involved with the local community which is a valuable asset for the business and I personally enjoy the contact and it enables me to build the business.

This was a one year contract and I didn’t re-new as Montessori was not the right fit for me. It was a great experience and I took the opportunity to learn lots and take with me the things that I liked and integrated this learning into my daily practice.

Centre Manager (July 2017- July 2018)

My responsibilities here were to manage 10 staff over 2 rooms, with a license for 74 children and whanau.

Managing and resourcing the centre, including managing budgets.

Recruiting new families, and marketing plans

Customer service for families

Health and safety issues and monthly meetings

Recruitment of staff

Ensuring day to day running and regulations are met.

This was a 12 month maternity leave cover.

Barnardo’s NZ (2015-2017)

Barnardo’s is a charitable trust for children aimed at improving the quality of education and learning and living. My primary role is Manager for the Manurewa East centre comprising of 7 staff and with a license for 100 children and their whanau. The key to my success in this role is the ongoing building of relationships throughout the Manurewa community often involving iwi based organisations and individual families and their needs. Trust takes time however I have an ability to draw the necessary information from the families concerned and consistently meet their expectations and needs.

Key responsibilities:

Customer service for both children and parents. Dealing with complaints, any issues that arise on a daily basis and resolving concerns promptly and effectively.

Dealing with enquiries and enrolments.

Establishing an annual sales and marketing plan for the centre to recruit new families.

Run tight financial budgets for the entire facility.

Meet annual KPI’s.

Organise and present at public meetings

Working closely with Te Korowai, and identifying family’s needs and connecting them with the Te Korowai worker to enhance children’s and whanau living situation in the south Auckland area.

Ministry regulations and ratios are met at all times.

Managing health and safety regulations and ensuring all the standards are met throughout the centre. Budgets and day to day running, I gained much HR knowledge and experience in this role.

Head Teacher (July2013- July 2015)

I worked closely with the manager to enhance the planning and community involvement in the centre. I was responsible for introducing a new planning method and implementing that. I re-wrote the rosters to co-inside with the new planning structure. I managed the floor when the manager was doing administration duties or out of the centre. I taught on the floor and managed ratio’s and daily running. A long side my teaching responsibilities, producing portfolio’s for children, meeting and working with parents, caregivers and whanau. Building respectful relationships with children and their families and other staff members in the centre.

I moved into a Manager role which is the direction I choose to move my career too

The Gardens Early Childhood Centre (2007-2013)

Head Teacher

My position here is head teacher over the Toddler room. I work on the floor and lead the team with planning, trouble shooting, and dealing with parents. I have planned and presented professional development programs for the staff within our centre. I mentor students from outside the centre in the form of being an associate tutor, I mentor staff within the centre through their studies or primary teachers that are working in the early childhood setting. I hold keys to the centre and open the centre on a daily basis ensuring all safety checks are done.

Kidicorp (January 2006- July 2007)

Head Teacher

My responsibilities include managing the staff in the room, leading the team with programme planning. Overseeing that regulations are being met, and quality care and education is delivered at all times for the children. Producing portfolios for each child, meeting and working with parent, caregivers, and whanau. Building respectful relationships with children and their families, and other staff members in the centre.

My manager moved to the Gardens early childhood centre and took me with her.

Real Estate Sales (2003-2006)

Owner and running real estate company, all aspect of marketing and selling real estate.

Kindercare Learning Centre (1999-2003)

Early childhood Teacher my responsibilities include program planning for individual children and for the whole group of children in my room, using Te Whaariki and DOP’s. Planning and implementing an age appropriate and educational programme. Building positive relationships with parents, whanau, and caregivers. Taking opportunities for professional development. This would include my studies to gain my early childhood diploma and administration of medicines and the appropriate paperwork that goes with this responsibility.