Petro Papazoglu

My name is Petro Papazoglu.

I'm Head of Education at Rise and Shine Education.

We run a group of 15 early childhood centres with preschools and kindies in New South Wales and Queensland and soon moving to Victoria as well and expanding.

And our priority is STEM education.

and allowing our children in our care to be able to develop a wide range of skills that are future focused.

I'm a primary school teacher with 20 years experience, and I've worked through leadership positions, including as a principal.

So currently managing the curriculum and educational experiences, including excursions for children aged three to six.

I'm not shocked, to be honest.

You know, it's a sentiment that very often, in a packed curriculum, with not only educational outcomes but sporting outcomes and priorities of schools, science does get squished into awkward parts of the day.

And it's not a sentiment that I'm shocked to hear, but I'm sad to hear.

Chloe mentions the idea of a teacher cramming 30 children around a table and filling a jar with shaving cream and food dye and demonstrating how a storm would react in a swirling cyclone condition.

So that's what it was about.

That was the intention, Robin.

Not shocked by that.

Not shocked by the fact that time is not being used to prepare experiences for the range of children in the room.

There's not only 30 children in the room, but across a range of abilities as well.

And that takes time.

It takes time to prepare.

It takes a passion as well for science and a belief that science will make a difference to these children rather than just rushing through the curriculum.

Yeah, having 30 children squished around a jar that's being swirled for about a minute and then being thought to reflect on that maybe in four weeks' time when a little topic test is being run is not shocking to me.