Karen Capper

The Southport School

In her short teaching career, Karen Capper has proved to be an effective leader at The Southport School (TSS).

She accepted the challenge of turning the preschool centre of TSS from a new addition to the school in 2013 into a leading provider of preschool education at the Gold Coast.

A testament to her hard work is the gaining of an ‘Excellent’ rating from the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority in only 3 years of operation; the school is one of only seventeen services in Queensland to attain this rating.

Programs that Karen has implemented include the development of a Bush Kindy program and building relationships with a local Indigenous elder, the nurture of a Reggio Emilia inspired play-based learning environment and leading her Educators in providing quality provocations to support the delivery of the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guidelines and its subsequent outcomes.

She attends regular professional development sessions relating to early childhood pedagogy, then conducts in-school sessions to share knowledge she has gained with all staff members of the preschool.

Karen is the facilitator of 2 network groups on the Gold Coast, the Early Childhood Teacher Network group and the Gold Coast Reggio Network group.

Here she supports educators develop their pedagogy through providing relevant information sharing opportunities.

She also encourages staff to constantly reflect on their teaching practice, and encourages a high standard of teaching.

Through her work, local Educators are supported and her students move from the preschool into Prep with confidence and the preparation to handle the foundation years of Primary school.

Congratulations Karen on your nomination.