educator

care coordinator

coordinator

director of employee experience

assistant

Camp Australia

The culture is very exploitative and toxic. Support from upper management is non-existent. They guilt casual employees into being the backbone of each service, refuse to offer permanent contracts regardless of length or quality of employment, refuse to give training "because we're so shortstaffed", and then throw them under the bus when government audits happen. You will see at least 2 undertrained and overworked staff at each service - only 2 because due to the latest restructuring, the labour budget has been reduced dramatically which has resulted in overstaff and Individual Support educators being scrapped. They use government ratios to the absolute bare minimum at the detriment to both the children and the staff. They cheap out on equipment so that the Executives can have more profit. They change your shifts suddenly and with little to no notice, then blame other staff members for booking time off or getting sick (especially COVID). They double book casuals and blame the casuals for staffing mistakes. They refuse to give anybody under the Coordinator position a permanent employment contract, despite it being better for the staff, children and their families. Their culture is one of "good luck getting your mandatory break. You need to stay back and finish paperwork/cleaning/etc. and we refuse to pay you for this." 
When you complain about this to management, they listen to you, nod their head empathetically, and then take you off the roster in retaliation, despite chronic understaffing. 
The turnover everywhere is incredibly high because when they get someone who cares enough about the children's wellbeing and development, they push you to breaking point. Then they discard you and get somebody else. 

A Typical Day at Work:
A typical day at Camp Australia as an educator involves setting up activities for the children, supervising them during play, assisting with homework, and facilitating creative and physical activities. You also ensure the children’s safety and well-being throughout the day, communicating with parents and other staff as needed.

What You Believe You Learned:
Working at Camp Australia, you likely learn valuable skills in child development, behavior management, and communication. The role also teaches you flexibility, problem-solving, and how to adapt activities to suit different age groups and individual needs.

Management:
Management at Camp Australia is generally supportive, providing guidance and resources to help you succeed in your role. However, experiences with management can vary depending on the location, with some teams being more responsive and organized than others.

Workplace Culture:
The workplace culture is typically positive and collaborative, with a focus on teamwork and supporting each other to provide the best care for the children. There's a strong emphasis on safety, well-being, and creating a fun, engaging environment for the kids.

The Hardest Part of the Job:
The hardest part of the job can be managing large groups of children, especially when their energy levels are high or when there are varying needs and behaviors to address. Balancing administrative tasks with hands-on care can also be challenging.

The Most Enjoyable Part of the Job:
The most enjoyable part is the rewarding experience of seeing children grow, learn, and have fun under your care. Building relationships with the kids and watching them develop new skills and confidence is incredibly fulfilling.

This is the worst company you can work for, I made an indeed account just so I can write this review In hopes camp Australia will read and respond.

Five years of my life I can never get back
I will say the staff are lovely that you work with directly. But the head office and payroll team are a joke

For starters payroll will withhold documents that legally they need to give you . Payroll also have no phone number so you can't actually speak to them if there's problems with your pay, instead you have to continuously email and spam them, and threaten them with legal action to get a response. 

You need to give 24 hours notice of cancelling a shift - fair enough and can be done in some circumstances but not in others. Whatever, but they can cancel a shift of yours as you're driving to work, and if you don't notice but show up, you don't get paid!

They'll text you at 3am to tell you that your shift at 6am has moved 25km away 

Children with disabilities get no carers, you want an extra staff member because there's a child in a wheel chair in your care who needs help? Just file paperwork for 6 months writing letters begging for another staff member, then wait another 6 months for it to get rejected

They also have single staffed services if ratio is low, so if you need to go to the toilet they recommend for You to "call another service near by so someone can come down" lol. Don't forget locking up the school 6.30pm in winter, I'm sure that's safe.

I can go on forever but seriously if you decide to work for these idiots after this review along with all the other negatives, you probobly deserve what you're about to go through with them.

The value working collaboratively with co-workers families and community to enrich children's lives and learning.
 Becoming part of a community  in an optimistic, creative and progressive environment.
 Innovation and reflection to inform my growth and influence, now and into the future. communication that is open and clear through prosperous growth . I love seeing their innocence. I love seeing them grow and develop their own personalities  I believe that what we do is a very important part of their growth and development. I can feel pride in what I do because I believe in what I do. I am able to change the world in a small way•
.The hardest part has been dealing with a sick Child.
•The most enjoyable part of the day is getting down on the floor with the children, actively engaging with them.

       

My best attributes and qualifications include:
                                                             
Working knowledge of the QIP
Certicate III in childrens services Chisholm 
Certified supervisor
National Victorian Police Check
Working with Children Check
Bubbly and Enthusiastic 
Excellent communication skills 
Level 2 First Aid  
Anaphylaxis certification 
Asthma certification 
Strong Interpersonal and communicative skills
Proven ability to work as part of a team
Australian Citizen
Experienced in fostering children's development in a caring and engaging learning environment. 
Passionate and Confident             
Liaising with parents, staff and children  
Programming
 Maintaining daily routines   
Demonstrative professionalism     
Committed and energetic Qualified Educator

Services were inadequately resourced to meet the needs of the kids. Educators were supposed to be a teacher, a cleaner, a cook, a secretary, mediator, and somehow bond with children when given minimal hours to get things done and with little or no support from head office. Company policies changed on a whim without that being communicated to staff or families paying for the service. 

Also, regardless of the negligence of management (services not being given additional staff to remain at ratio for example) any thing that went wrong was blamed on coordinators. This was unfortunate as many staff bonded with children and cared about their health and wellbeing and were willing to put in the extra (unpaid) hours and spend their own money on resources but were not being compensated when this occurred. 

Concerns about child welfare were not taken seriously nor were concerns about single staff operations being unsafe, single staff services with high risk bathrooms mean that a staff member had to escort kids to the toilet and many male staff felt uncomfortable with the idea of being alone at a school with a few children or even one and having to take them to the toilet. When i was working at a single staff service I was instructed to call the next service over and see if they could spare someone to come look after the children if I needed to use the toilet or hold it. If you really care about the kids you are looking after be prepared to take home your work and spend quite a lot of time stressing out.

For a first time job, it is okay but you I wouldn't recommend you'd want to be staying there for longer than 12 months with the company. 

Shifts are very irregular especially if you can only get a once off shift. They are also not very long approx 2hrs in the mornings and 2.5 in the afternoons. e.g if you were to be working 2 shifts 5 days a week you might be getting around 22hrs but that in thought if a worker was to rely on public transport they pretty much lose the entire day. 

I've also noticed that if you have less availability some shifts can be cancelled by Camp Australia as it does not support roster consistency this is pretty harsh especially if one may be studying full time.

The food is terrible from what I've seen they get the same fruit weekly no seasonal fruit just the basics; Banana, Apples and Pears (sometimes Peaches and Nectarines) the food comes from out of state? in a box when they should be sourcing it locally? 

I also found that the coordinators do not support the assistants, especially if they are new and have never been to that school before. They have this unrealistic expectation that we are supposed to know everything. Yes, we may have a qualification of some sort but they don't mean we have the experience with children? nor the confidence even with doing the online training. 

They need to change the way they advertise and truthfully tell job seekers what it will really be like, they say 'Get paid to play' when in reality it's more like 'Get paid to stand and not know what to do.'

I worked for Camp Australia for 6 months and I regret ever applying for the job. It is poorly run and offers minimal support for its employees. 

I live in the inner west of Sydney (20 minutes from CBD) and all of the schools that are available to work were over an hours travel away. Shifts are up to 3 hours long but mostly 2 hours. The job requires food prep and supervision and engagement of children after their day at school (the only positive aspect of the job). 

Be warned
- Shifts can get cancelled at ANY time, this can be half an hour before
- The staffing department are ruthless (they once called me 21 times in 24 hours while I was rostered off studying at uni). I raised concerns to HR regarding this incident and nothing was done. 
- You can get called and pressured into taking a 2 hour job over 1.5 hours away. 
- I am lucky to have been trained (previous job) and am proficient in caring for children however there are workers who clearly do not know what they are doing and it makes it a very stressful working environment, looking after them, looking after the kids 
- Permanent shifts are available however difficult to secure. Multiple co-ordinators offered me permanent shifts however the staffing department knew about my discussions about them to HR and refused to put me on. 

The only thing that kept me there was the kids, that is all.

Camp Australia is a great company if you would like to work with kids. It is a very poorly run and managed company. They place you into shift with minimal to no notice, you work with under qualified people, your constantly asked to do tasks above your pay and qualifications, staff are employed with minimal English skills therefore making it extremely hard to interact with the children. I have been with Camp Australia for 2 years, I've  been at the same school for the whole two years, every child knows my name, the school and all parents know who I am, I was consistent at that school however this year all my shift were taken away from that school because I was only working 4/5 mornings as I'm also studying full time,  I was left with no shifts and was told I would need to find new shifts. Today I finished my employment with Camp Australia, I have been very disappointed at the camp Australia staffing process, losing all my shift because I was unable to be at the same school 5 mornings or 5 afternoons a week (I'm a casual employee) this doesn't just affect my ability to pay bills but it affects the staff consistency at the school.  The moto of camp Australia is "we make kids smile" a lot needs to be changed to see kids smiling again.

I really enjoy the new changes Camp Australia is undergoing with their new Rebrand, the new head office is absolutely amazing, i enjoy coming into work everyday to see what challenges await. 
Everyday is a different day and i enjoy my varied work tasks, i have found that I'm always continuing to learn and building up my skills. 
i always feel heard when having a conversation with someone or bringing up information. 
Everyone is happy to assist one another and nothing is ever too much hassle. 
The hardest part of the role is when bookings from outside of the organisation fail and someone has to be somewhere quick smart and you have to think on your feet ,or when someone has forgotten to order Catering for the next morning-  but that's what makes the role interesting and to learn. 

would be good if there was an option to learn other aspects of the workplace such as different departments to grow your knowledge. 

I really enjoy my role with Camp Australia!
and love that my role incorporates qualifications i have that i didn't get real life experience for which makes me feel fulfilled. 


Working at Camp Australia was a great opportunity to learn a lot about dealing with children as this was my first job away from my day care at home .Working at Camp Australia gave me a lot of confidence and experience with how to manage children with appropriate care and planning activities and learning from everyone around, even the children, we can do whatever is possible for the children in learning activities their behaviour and their environment sometimes kids came to school with their own sense of self and begin their day with such attitude towards teachers and educators but we also be aware of all those things because everyone come from all different backgrounds, cultures ,a religions and relationships.Camp Australia is one of the most popular company in Australia they are a well established company . They have more than 50 branches in the whole Australia.The company has a very high level professional development program,The management team has very good, staff and all workers have good knowledge and understanding about their work and they have great team work . I am very impressed with their leadership I am satisfied with their leadership this company is a very successful business and I would recommend them as a very professional company to help our children growing up in education .

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Educator 7 salaries reported	$34.00 per hour
Care coordinator 2 salaries reported	$28.50 per hour
Coordinator 3 salaries reported	$36.00 per hour
Director of employee experience 3 salaries reported	$76,667 per year
Assistant 3 salaries reported	$26.67 per hour

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