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Spotlight from the sector: Eleanor Behrens

Dec 10, 2025

Eleanor attending Diploma Forum in March
We spoke with Eleanor Behrens, Director of Waite Campus Childrens Centre - a community-based, not-for-profit long day care centre - about why she got involved in the Centre of Excellence advisory groups. A passionate advocate for early childhood, Eleanor serves as Deputy Chair for Community Children’s Centres SA (CCCSA) and the Early Childhood Australia SA Committee, and volunteers on several Centre of Excellence panels. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, baking, and spending time with her family and three dogs.

What motivated you to join the Centre’s advisory group?

I was invited to join two advisory groups for the Centre of Excellence, and there were different motivators for my participation in each. For the mentoring group, I thought it would be a good thing for our service to be involved in. I’ve been in the sector for a long time - and having experienced both being mentored and offering structured mentoring within my service - I felt I could provide value from those experiences.

For the vocational degree group, it started after a chat during a diploma session where it was suggested my experience could add value.  I'm passionate about advocating early childhood education and making sure educators are supported to be the best they can be and stay in the profession. I also bring a practical perspective from working in a service: understanding staffing and rostering, budgets, and what apprenticeships mean in real life. And above all, I want to make sure the voice of what’s best for children is part of the conversation. 

How has being part of the Centre’s advisory mechanisms influenced your perspective or practice? 

Both groups have definitely broadened my perspective.

With the mentoring advisory group, listening to our mentor, Marta, share her reflections and what she was learning has been really positive for me. It made me feel uplifted and gave me insights that I could take back into my own practice.

 

With the vocational degree group, reviewing courses has been eye-opening. I naturally look at things through the lens of someone working in a service, but hearing feedback from people with different backgrounds and experiences has helped me see things differently. It’s given me a better understanding of AQF levels and what’s required for someone to progress through vocational pathways - something that’s outside my usual area. Since I studied at university a long time ago, this has been a great way to update my knowledge and appreciate the complexity of vocational education. 

What impact have you seen from the Centre’s work this year? 

The mentoring initiative has been really valuable for my service. Beyond that, most of the impact I’ve seen has been at a sector level through CCCSA meetings and updates. 

 

The work of the Centre is in the early stages, but I can see how the conversations it is facilitating and resources it’s creating will make a difference - for example the autism micro-credential. That’s something I think will be hugely valuable, not just for new educators but also for experienced staff who want to deepen their understanding of neurodivergent children.

It's also setting expectations for quality and inclusion, and that’s a positive step. The challenge is making sure initiatives are flexible enough to work across very different settings, and I think the Centre is starting to bridge that gap.

 

Why do you think it’s important for sector voices to be involved in shaping the initiatives of the Centre of Excellence? 

Sector voices bring real, hands-on experience - working in services, with children, and with teams. You don’t truly understand how an early childhood service runs until you’ve lived it. Particularly for services with strong philosophies that guide their work, those voices and values need to come through in any initiative.

It’s not just the big-picture things like relationships and values, it’s also the nitty-gritty of rostering, managing staff, and budgets. You can’t just send someone off for training without thinking about the logistics and costs. Having sector voices means initiatives are practical and can work in real settings.

Capturing diversity of the sector is critical, as it isn’t one-size-fits-all. I’m from a community-based service, but there are private school programs, government preschools, rural and remote centres - all funded and structured differently, serving different communities. What works for placements here might not work in the middle of Australia. You need flexibility, and that only happens when you’ve got the right mix of voices at the table.

What would you say to someone considering lending their experience and expertise to the work of the Centre of Excellence?

I’d say it’s definitely worth getting involved. It’s a great way to connect with others and have a voice - if you’ve got an opinion or ideas, this is the place to share them. The key is to keep it positive and be willing to put your biases aside. I know I have a strong bias toward community-based services, but through my involvement, I’ve learned to balance that with being open to other viewpoints.

 

It’s also important to bring the voices of educators from your centre, because their perspectives can be very different from leadership. That diversity of experience is what makes these groups so valuable.

Collaborate with the Centre

If you would like to collaborate with the Centre, click here to complete a brief form and let us know how you'd like to get involved. We look forward to connecting with you.

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