OUR STAFF

TOM CRANKSHAW BBus Marketing, B Arts Japanese, Diploma Multimedia
(Chief Executive Officer)

Tom Crankshaw (BB Marketing, BA Japanese, Dip Multimedia) oversees all operations of the College. As an ex-Senior Educator for Swinburne University of Technology TAFE, he possess the necessary qualifactions and experience in developing course curriculum, maintaining high industry and governmental accreditation standards and ultimately rewarding and enjoyable academic futures for new and exisitng students.

KAREN WILLIAMS
(Director and Teacher)

Karen Williams is Licensee and owner of Smarter Kids Kindergarten and Preschools. Karen is highly qualified with university degrees in Early Childhood Education, Psychology, Business, Japanese, Economics, Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment and fully trained in Montessori Education. She has well over 15 years experience working with children in early childhood settings. For the past 6 months she has been completing her Masters of Early Childhood Education, making her one of the most the most qualified early childhood teachers in Australia.

It is unusual to find a Licensee who is qualified, as most Licensees own centres because of the profit motive and run the centres as a money making exercise. Karen however, understanding herself how important a child’s development is, invests every possible cent back into the centre to enhance the programme and equipment at the centre at all times.

Karen has been involved in consulting to both the Director General of Family Services and the Attorney Generals Office, in specific cases, relating to the advocacy, welfare and development of children, as well as being retained by the Department of Family Services, to help devise and implement the Strategic plan for Childcare Centres from 2001 – 2010.  She was involved in the curriculum planning for Education Queensland’s Prep Year. She has also been principal lecturer at Gold Coast Institute of TAFE for the past 5 years, in Early Childhood Education, training the teachers of the future. She has won awards as Teacher of the Year and the Queensland State Government Award for Innovation in teaching (2005). Karen brings her professional training experience to enhance the knowledge and understanding of all her staff to ensure they are at the forefront of child development teaching techniques.

Karen is highly regarded in this industry and it was under Karen’s guidance that all her centres have achieved the highest possible rating for all areas in Accreditation, which is the assessment process monitored by the Federal Government that childcare centres must undergo to gauge the quality of care that they provide.