Mackay’s best childcare worker: Ayesha Billington’s secrets to success

When Covid-19’s peak struck down workers and children, Mackay’s best childcare worker forged ahead to keep the centre she considers family open. Read her motivation.

During Covid-19’s peak in January, many industry workers had the ability to protect themselves and work from home, but that was not the case for Mackay’s passionate childcare workers.

Ayesha Billington was one of the many childcare workers who battled through the pandemic’s peak with short staff, cut hours and the unnerving reality that she could be struck down with the virus at any moment.

She said it was a very uncertain time, with the daycare she worked at going free and many employees losing hours of work.

She said the roster was changed daily while they waited for the inevitable “I have Covid-19” call from employees.

“In January when Covid got bad in Mackay, we had educators going down with Covid, but we still had to meet ratios and stay open for the kids who did not have Covid,” Miss Billington said.

“We were working very short staffed because one person would get it then the someone else would get it.

“It was a very uncertain time for us to be working and knowing when to send children home when they were feeling ill.”

Miss Billington said it was also a game of chance, relying on parents to be honest and send their child to school knowing they were not sick.

“We had a couple of instances where it was spread through the kids because they touch everything,” she said.

“And then staff went down, it was just very certain times.

“No amount of cleaning was going to help it but we got through it.”

Miss Billington has been working at Kookaburra Community Child Care Centre in Andergrove since she was 14 and still in high school.

In February this year, she celebrated her ninth year at the centre and she said she loved the sense of community.

“We are all one big family,” she said.

“The community we have built between the staff and families is just so nice.

“We host discos and hundreds of people will come, the families are just so lovely.

“I think that is what makes us such a good centre and why people for stay 15 to 25 years, because of the community we have built.”

Miss Billington said she has always had a passion for caring for children, growing up looking after her younger siblings.

She said her favourite part of the job was watching the children grow and achieve key milestones from when they were nursery age to starting school age.

“Seeing them being able to crawl, and then they walk, then they start talking and then they know their colours, it is good to be a part of their journey,” she said.

“I have very good relationships with the families whose kids I do look after.

“Their children are their pride and joy, so I do whatever I can to make sure those kids have the best day at daycare.”

She said it was rewarding to observe the children’s development throughout the years at the centre, and the connections she formed with them along the way.

“A lot of kids come five days a week and you see them sometimes more than their family does and what we do is basically bring them up and teach them what they need to know,” Miss Billington said.

“Being with the babies you underestimate how clever they are.

“Seeing their little personalities come out and the little funny things they find hilarious and then you start laughing.”

Miss Billington was voted Mackay’s best childcare worker in the Daily Mercury‘s ‘Best of’ series.

“I did not think I would actually win it but I am so grateful and thankful to be a part of so many kids lives, and to watch them grow and be able to go to school,” Miss Billington said.