(02) 9412 0044

Grace

Centre Manager

Helle everyone, I am Grace Haoning Mah and I am currently the Centre Manager of the centre. I was born and raised in Singapore and moved to Sydney, Australia. I completed my Master of Teaching (Birth to Five) from Macquarie University. I also hold a teacher’s qualification diploma and Advanced Diploma in Inclusionary Practices from Singapore. I have been working in the Early Childhood industry in both Sydney, Australia, and Singapore. Before I moved over, I was in the Early Childhood Industry for the past 10 years. I have been in various education and leadership roles in Singapore. 
 
I truly enjoy interacting with children and their families. I believe in engaging with families who are the child’s first and most influential teachers. 
 
In my spare time, I enjoy painting and singing. I do love spending a day at the beach basking in the sun. 

Jane

Educational Leader, 0-2 teacher

I am excited and honoured to share your child’s precious early learning journey with me. I have worked in varieties of early childhood education settings since 2017. I was trained to be a secondary school teacher in Australia since 2005. I studied engineering, nursing, and paramedics. I worked as a university lecture in China, a secondary school teacher in Adelaide, and a mathematics education researcher in Melbourne. I decided to go back to study early childhood education after I realised I didn’t have enough knowledge to support and nurture my baby girl. I was inspired and motivated to be a better mum. I pursued a Diploma of Early childhood education and a Master of Teaching (Birth of 5) at Macquarie University. I found fascinating and profound to work with birth to 5 years old children. I take early childhood education and care as my life-long career. I will continue learning and professional development to improve my knowledge, pedagogies, practices of working with young children. There’s so much I can do with the children at this age group. Working with young children keeps my heart young, my soul and spirit pure. They inspire me to slow down, to live life with joy, be curious, and be present with full attention. I can foster their habits of deep thinking, learning dispositions, instil their love of learning, reading, music, and becoming a life-long learner by engaging and interacting with them. They are so enthusiastic, curious, and ready to learn. They touch my heart and soul. They are so capable and competent. I am humbled and grateful to have the opportunity to be a co-learner, co-researcher of their interests, wonderings, and explorations. Their needs are my first priority. I am dedicated to notice their interest, respect their choice, actively listen to their voice, empower their decision making and self-autonomy.  I believe parents and carers have expert knowledge of their child. I am aiming to work collaboratively with families to enrich children’s learning, provide strength based and individualised curriculum experiences to create as much positive experiences as possible. At leisure, I enjoy reading, swimming, cooking, and playing musical instruments. I have a cat named Coco. I look forward to meeting you all. 

Leila Ilkhanipoor

Room leader

My name is Leila Ilkhanipoor. I am currently studying for my Bachelor of Early Childhood teaching at Charles Sturt University,
Teaching and working with children is my passion. For the last seven years, I have been teaching children of different age groups.
My philosophy is to respect the children’s agency and voice in planning the activities. I strive to create an environment for children to explore and learn according to their interests and then I will support and guide them to develop those interests. I strongly focus on children’s emotional well-being as I believe children’s success begins with making them comfortable in their environment by creating a strong bonding and trusting relationship. I also believe that these goals can not be achieved without partnership with families.

Who we are

Ai Kids Academy Hornsby has a small group of professional, dedicated, and passionate early childhood educators who have diverse cultural backgrounds. Our educational leader is a PhD qualified ECT (early childhood teacher). Among our educators, we have an ECT with Master of Teaching, an educator working towards Bachelor of Teaching and experienced educators with diploma and certificated III, which is above Education Department requirement. Our team is from across the world, they have Chinese, Singaporean, Portuguese, Australian, Indian and Napoleon background. We believe that providing quality care to children should be our top priority and strive to foster an environment that nurtures creativity, growth, and love. Our team has a collective experience of over 50 years in the field of early years education and have implemented a program that is based on the latest research and theories. We believe in providing individual attention to each child and building a strong bond of trust and communication with each of them.

Partnership with family

We are committed to providing a secure and loving atmosphere where children can learn, play, and develop the skills necessary to become successful adults. We understand that each child is unique and has different needs and interests. We strive to provide developmentally appropriate activities and experiences that focus on the individual needs of the children. We also believe in creating a positive and safe learning environment that provides opportunities for children to explore and discover their own interests, as well as to learn about the world around them. Our team also recognizes the importance of family involvement and works hard to create strong relationships with the parents of the children in our care. We are passionate about our work and take pride in the relationships we established with families and children

Inclusion support

Here at Ai Kids Academy Hornsby, we have a genuine commitment to inclusion for all children, and a passion for equality amongst all children and educators. All of our educators are trained in first aid, anaphylaxis and asthma. We have a number of procedures in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children with medical conditions and allergies (including anaphylaxis).

We also work closely with a KU inclusion support officer who provides strategies and professional development for educators with children in their classroom with additional needs.