Meet The Team
We are a dedicated team of child care professionals, excited to me you and your family! Learn more about our experienced team members below.
Netta Gove
Owner/Director/Room Leader
My name is Netta Gove (neé Sawicki) and I was born and raised on the North Shore of Sydney where I attended East Lindfield Primary School and Killara High School. While earning my Bachelor of Interior Design at UTS, I gained a variety of work experience as a cook, caterer, sales assistant, designer, nanny and teacher. Those later experiences proved to be formative and during my post-Uni gap year, I came to realise that while I enjoyed my work as a designer, my true passion was, and continues to be, working with children.
Upon my return, I became a nanny and, in 2005, I completed a Diploma in Children’s Services. Since that time, I have been the teacher/room leader of the (0-3) babies room at two different centres and have also worked for an agency that allowed me the opportunity to work with children of all ages in various childcare centres across Sydney. Although I have enjoyed working in childcare centres and have gained valuable experience while doing so, it has been a long-time dream to open a home-based centre that allows me to provide more individualised attention to the children in my care.
I have been running Cockatoo Family Day Care since May 2013, and have loved every moment. It truly is my dream job. I feel so fortunate to be able to watch the children grow and develop.
I am very excited for the next chapter of Cockatoo FDC, having Pook as an educator and another group of children on the premises will open up a myriad of possibilities, activities and experiences.
Hiranya Kijbochai (Pook)
Room Leader
My name is Hiranya or you can call me “Pook” as my nickname. I am originally from Thailand and have lived in Australia for ten years.
I have had experience in caring for children for about ten years (aged between 3 months and 8 years old.). My latest role was working as a family day care educator at Hanna’s (Mango Tree Monkeys Family Day Care) for about 2 and a half years. Prior to the role, I worked as a nanny for 5 years and the family and I are still in regular contact to this day. Before coming to Australia, I was a teacher assistant (trainee) for 3 months at an International Kindergarten in Bangkok. Afterwards, I worked as an Au Pair in America before moving to Sydney to study. During my study in Sydney, I worked part-time babysitting for many families and my first experience working at a family day care was in Waverly during my school break.
I have completed Certificate III in Children’s Services and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (English) from Bangkok. I hold a current certificate for first-aid and asthma and anaphylaxis training and also safe food handling certificate.
I am delighted to join Cockatoo day care team. I have known Netta since I worked at Hanna’s and also had Bento in my care for 2 days a week for a short period of time. It was very sad when Hanna’s day care was closed last Christmas because I had formed good relationships with the children and families. However, we had such great time and the children enjoyed learning through individual play and group time – a lot of cooking, science experiments, singing and dancing, story time, arts and crafts, outdoor activities, etc. Also, they were interested in learning different cultures and languages. As I had a few older children, I encouraged them to experience school readiness to get ready for school.
Thanks to Hanna, I had the opportunity to be a volunteer at Lindfield Montessori preschool where her son goes. I assisted the teachers in preparing and delivering the class every Wednesday for 6 weeks last year. It was great for me to experience the different environment and I put some interesting activities from Montessori in the learning program as well.