The Clovel Family

Handpicked & Qualified Educators

High Quality Early Childhood Education and Care is only possible if delivered by dedicated management and passionate educators. This epitomises the Clovel family, all of whom are committed to ensuring all of the children who spend their days at Clovel enjoy a strong sense of belonging and feel welcome and loved. Our passionate educators overall quest is to ensure all of our children participate in a play-based learning program based on what each individual child loves to do, is good at and interested in to ensure each child has the vital building blocks in place for a successful school life and beyond.

All of our wonderful educators are professionals who hold Early Childhood Education and Care qualifications in one of the following qualifications.

Early Childhood Degree

Diploma in Children’s Services

Certificate III in Children’s Services

Currently studying vocationally via correspondence

Clovel Management Team

Lyn Connolly

Founder and Company Director

Theresa Willett

Educational Leader and Compliance Co-ordinator

Natarsha Stuart

Company
Director

Nominated Supervisors

Kate Nolan
Kaitlyn Lonard
Kristy Knudsen
Jo-anne Rayner
Veronica Coombes
Miranda Brown
Johanna Cornelius

Support Staff

Louise Zivanovic
Operations Co-ordinator
Kristy Knudsen
Enrolments Co-ordinator

Lyn Connolly

Founder and Company Director

I started my childcare journey with my husband in 1977 when our two beautiful adopted children started school.

I was looking for a way that I could share my philosophy of love and learning with others. The first Centre we opened was Clovel Merrylands and it’s grown to comprise of 9 small early learning centres across Western Sydney. I believe that “it’s love that makes the world go round” which is the foundation on which our Clovel Family and centres are built on – a strong sense of love. To ensure this philosophy of love and learning is extended throughout the Clovel Group, I continue to mentor and educate a handpicked group of Educator’s along with caring for, developing, nurturing and educating thousands of children that all make up the Clovel Family.

Theresa Willett

Educational Leader and Compliance Co-ordinator

Hi I am Theresa, I joined the Clovel family in 1997. I am an advocate of Early Learning in Children and pride myself in the day to day operations and programming of each Clovel Early Learning Centre.

I am committed to providing a quality educational environment for every child in our care, ensuring they have a sense of belonging to the environment in which they learn and play. I believe my experience and knowledge forms the foundation of my passion and commitment to each of the Clovel educators ensuring that I am supporting and encouraging them to be the best educators they can be. My overall goal is to ensure the educators in my team are inspired and motivated, and to ensure that all the children have lives enriched with love, care, happiness and growth. which is the foundation of Clovel where we are leading Australias children to their future.

Natarsha Stuart

Company
Director

I joined the Clovel family in 2013 after working in Human Resources in both small business and corporate Australia. My passions are children and my family and being Lyn’s daughter, it was a natural career progression for me to join the family business.

I have a genuine interest in people and am inherently optimistic when it comes to solving any workplace issues and working at Clovel, has enabled me to form extended positive personal relationships with our team. It’s important for me to ensure that the business philosophy remains strong and that we continue to provide quality early education for the children. Whilst also ensuring a fun and educational workplace for our team that fosters inclusivity and career growth – I want them to feel motivated to come to work and enjoy being part of the Clovel family.

 

Kate Nolan

Nominated
Supervisor

I have been working at Clovel since 2009.

I began as a trainee and have had an amazing journey of both learning and teaching that has led me to becoming a Nominated Supervisor. I love interacting with and educating each and every child as they learn through play with our wide variety of activities covering all areas of development. I feel it is an enormous pleasure to not only love teaching the children and watching them grow and learn, but to also have the pleasure of learning along with the children. I love that I can build great relationships and bonds with all the children I spend my days with. As a leader, I love to challenge myself to find new and efficient ways to get things done. I love to teach and guide the staff and try to be a role model to my colleagues. I pride myself on being as helpful as I can, always trying to give others a hand wherever and whenever I can.

Kaitlyn Lonard

Nominated
Supervisor

I have been working with Clovel since 2012 and I’ve loved every minute of it.

To me, it is an absolute blessing and privilege to be able to help shape little minds, watch the children grow, develop their personalities, and gain great knowledge and skills that they will take into their ‘big’ school years and beyond. When you work with children and in a team environment that is full of love, happiness, adventure and many different personalities, there is not a single day the same as the one before, and that is what makes this job unique and unlike any other. As a Nominated Supervisor with Clovel I take pride in my ability to not only lead the children in their learning but also to lead all of our educators in their learning as well as they move through their studies and gain more and more experience caring for, developing, nurturing and educating the children each day.

Kristy Knudsen

Nominated Supervisor Enrolments Co-ordinator

I always knew I wanted to work with children.

I joined the Clovel family and began my career in 2002. I wanted to make a difference and especially for those children who are less fortunate, to provide a second home, to give as much love to them as I could. I really enjoy watching the children grow and develop, hitting all their milestones and celebrating all their successes. Every day is a different day, always fun with many laughs and hugs along the way. I love to watch the imaginative and creative skills the children utilise to turn what one would think was nothing much into something fantastic and go to places you never dreamed you would go – and the children absolutely love it. I love watching the big smiles and getting warm hugs every morning and afternoon. You know you have made an impact when you see their happy faces and you feel the bonds you have created. As a long-standing educator and Nominated Supervisor with Clovel I also reflect on my own years of learning and being trained in the Clovel way and how valuable that experience has been for me. Thus, I am very conscious of ensuring that I am the best leader and teacher of other educators that I can be to give them the greatest chance to thrive as educators with Clovel and our Clovel children.

Jo-anne Rayner

Nominated
Supervisor

I joined the Clovel family in 2002. Growing up I struggled with my learning and most of my teachers didn’t change their teaching style to the way that I learn.

It is such a rewarding job – in fact I do not consider it to be a job. I consider it to be a pleasure to be able influence and shape the minds and lives of the young children who are within my care. Every day is a new day. I am not only able to teach the children, but they are also teaching me as they shine through their different stages of development. Through this I can see them start to walk or struggle with a puzzle, and then it happens, the smiles on their faces as they master new skills makes me proud to be a part of their lives. The children never fail to bring a smile to my day. I also feel blessed that as a Nominated Supervisor not only to I have the pleasure of caring for, developing, nurturing and educating the children I also have the opportunity to replicate these features with other Clovel educators. It gives me a warm sense of pride to watch the educators I lead and teach shine in their interactions with the children we spend our days with, their families and their Clovel colleagues.

Veronica Coombes

Nominated
Supervisor

began my Clovel Early Childhood Education journey in 2019 when I accepted a trainee role and have since continued with my studies to attain a Diploma in Early Childhood Education. 

Upon leaving school I knew two things; that I loved children and that I wanted to shape young minds to do amazing things. I started this experience working alongside some amazing educators to further my knowledge as I studied for my diploma. Throughout this amazing journey of learning, teaching, and exploring, I have now been awarded the amazing opportunity of being the Nominated Supervisor of Clovel Granville. There is nothing more rewarding than watching the young children who started as babies progress to become young adults getting ready to lead the world. I love to see the beauty in the little things and seeing my children hitting milestones to achieve their little dreams, knowing that we play a huge role in forming the tall buildings of these children’s lives, makes me feel eternally blessed to have this opportunity. As a Nominated Supervisor, I pride myself on being able to lead a team that will help build, educate, nurture, develop, care for, love and encourage the next generation of leaders, teachers and achievers. 

Miranda Brown

Nominated
Supervisor

I considered myself so fortunate to be offered a place on the Clovel team in 2018.

began my journey as a trainee and through my hard work and dedication to my studies, I have not only achieved my Diploma in Early Childhood Education, but I’ve also been given the honour of becoming the Nominated Supervisor for Clovel Day Nursery. As a Nominated Supervisor, I will have the opportunity to guide the children in their learning and also lead the educators in their own learning journey as they progress through their studies and gain more experience in caring for, developing, nurturing, and educating children. I have a deep understanding that the children are our future, and as educators, we play a vital role in helping them learn and grow and to have all those vital building blocks in place for their school life and beyond. Witnessing the children’s joy and excitement as they learn through play, allowing them to achieve their goals is truly rewarding and makes my day every day!

Johanna Cornelius

Nominated
Supervisor

I have been an early childhood educator since 2014 and I believe that every child is unique.

My favourite teacher adapted to my learning style, and it made the world of difference to me. That teachers love and kindness inspired me to be an early childhood educator. I am living proof that if more teachers showed these qualities, we would have greater hope for the future of our children. I hope all the children in my care will remember an educator that cared for them, guided them through a high-quality child centred education, showed them love, kindness and never gave up on them. I also ensure that I fully support all of our Clovel educators to be the best educators that they can be and I make sure I adapt my training skills to each educators learning style as I know that is the best way that I can support them in their learning.

Louise Zivanovic

Operations
Co-ordinator

I have been part of the Clovel family since 2018 and I absolutely love it.

I really enjoy helping others, organising and improving systems so working in the office has been really fun and satisfying for me. I took on the role of Operations Manager at the beginning of 2022 and love the challenge of a more demanding role. It has been a really rewarding experience for me. I love the values that Clovel stand for as a company. In working closely with the management team, it really warms my heart how much dedication and love they each put into looking after every member of staff and every child in the Clovel family, I’m really proud to be part of such an amazing team.