This weekend, Lismore marked International Women's Day — and the community found its own quiet ways to celebrate. Lismore Library hosted its first IWD event since the 2022 floods: a reminder that this city keeps finding ways to honour the women who hold it together.
At Explorers, we marked the occasion with flowers and cupcakes for our team. A small gesture for the people who do enormous work.
We'd also like to take a moment to shine a light on a group that doesn't often make the headlines: the early childhood educators who quietly, consistently, and with extraordinary skill, show up every single day for Lismore's youngest learners.
They deserve more than a single day of recognition. But it's a good place to start.
A small thank-you for the team at Explorers on International Women's Day 2026.
A Sector Built on Women's Work
Early childhood education in Australia is one of the most female-dominated professions in the country. Nationally, women make up around 96% of the early childhood workforce — and yet the sector remains one of the lowest-paid in the country, despite requiring formal qualifications, ongoing professional development, and skills that span education, psychology, nutrition, first aid, child protection, and family support.
This is not a coincidence. It reflects a long history of undervaluing care work — particularly work done by women, with children, in settings outside schools and hospitals. It's a conversation that's slowly changing, but not fast enough.
What hasn't changed? The quality of the people doing the work.
What Early Childhood Educators Actually Do
Let's be honest about something: early childhood educators are not babysitters.
On any given day at a nature-based centre like Explorers, an educator might:
- Observe a two-year-old's block-stacking and quietly note what it reveals about their spatial reasoning and persistence
- Help a child navigate a big feeling — frustration, grief, jealousy — with language they don't yet have
- Set up a loose parts provocation in the outdoor environment that invites curious, open-ended exploration
- Notice that a child hasn't eaten much this week and gently check in with their family
- Support a child who cried at drop-off to feel safe and settled — often within minutes — so that their whole day can unfold with confidence
- Document a child's learning in a way that parents can see and treasure
These aren't separate tasks. They happen simultaneously, in real time, with groups of children, across multiple age groups, every hour of every day. It requires a rare combination of knowledge, intuition, warmth and professional discipline. And most of the people doing it are women.
Lismore's Educators: A Story of Extraordinary Resilience
Here in the Northern Rivers, the educators who work in childcare and preschool settings have shown something beyond professional skill — they've shown what can only be described as community love.
When the February 2022 floods devastated Lismore, many educators lost their own homes while continuing to show up for the children and families in their care. Some were displaced themselves. Some were managing their own trauma while supporting children who were frightened and unsettled. Some centres had to temporarily close — and when they reopened, their teams worked to create environments of calm, safety and routine for children who had experienced profound disruption.
The psychological research on early childhood trauma is unambiguous: when everything else feels chaotic, a trusted, warm, consistent educator is one of the most stabilising forces in a young child's world. That's what Lismore's early childhood educators provided — even when the world around them was anything but stable.
Four years on, that resilience hasn't faded. It's become part of who they are.
At Explorers: The Team Behind the Learning
At Explorers School of Early Learning in South Lismore, our team embodies everything we're describing. These are educators who chose to work in a nature-based setting because they believe in what outdoor, child-led learning can do. They're qualified. They're curious. They love what they do.
You can see it in the way our Dreamers room team builds deep, trusting relationships with babies and their families from day one. In the way our Adventurers educators follow a two-year-old's obsession with beetles for three weeks, turning it into a rich inquiry across art, science and language. In the way our Voyagers and Leaders teams hold space for big feelings while also creating the conditions for genuine school readiness — the kind that's about confidence and curiosity, not flashcards.
This is skilled, thoughtful, purposeful work. And it happens because of the people who choose to do it.
How Parents Can Mark International Women's Day
If you have a child in early childhood care — at Explorers or anywhere else — here are a few small ways to mark this day with genuine impact:
Say thank you, specifically. Not just "thanks!" at pick-up, but something like: "I noticed how settled Jamie was when I arrived today — what did you do?" Specific appreciation lands differently than generic praise.
Advocate for pay equity in the sector. If you care about your child's educator, care about their pay. The Early Childhood Australia advocacy team works on this; following and sharing their work helps.
Share posts and content that celebrate ECE. Visibility matters. The more the community sees early childhood educators as the skilled professionals they are, the more the conversation about their value — and their wages — shifts.
And if you have children old enough to understand: tell them. Tell them who their educators are, what they do, and why they matter. It's a small act that plants something lasting.
Come Meet Our Team
At Explorers, we're proud of the educators who make our centre what it is. If you're looking for childcare in Lismore and want to see our team and environment in action, we'd love to welcome you for a tour.
Come for the mud kitchen and the native garden. Stay because of the people.
📞 Call us on (02) 6621 5037 or send us an email to book a visit.
