The Connected Leader Lab
– Amie Fabry, Amie Fabry Consulting
The Connected Leader Lab invites educators into an immersive, interactive experience that builds leadership from the inside out.
We’ll explore three essential dimensions of connection and why they are the foundation of flourishing early childhood cultures and communities. Participants will engage in thoughtful, hands-on explorations of connection to self, connection to others and connection within teams.
Together we’ll surface how these connections strengthen relationships, team culture and learning, and enhance opportunities for children’s development. Come ready to reflect, connect and take away tangible strategies to enhance your daily leadership practice.
Recharge and Rise
– Fiona Rudkin & Sonali Fernandes, Child Australia
In a fast-paced and emotionally demanding sector, prioritising educator wellbeing isn’t just a personal choice – it’s a leadership imperative. When leaders actively foster a culture of care, they unlock stronger teams, better outcomes, and sustainable success.
This interactive session equips leaders with practical strategies to model and promote wellbeing both for themselves and their teams. Through reflective activities, collaborative discussions and actionable insights, participants will leave with tools to lead with empathy, set healthy boundaries, and inspire a shared commitment to thriving together.
This session empowers leaders to:
- Recognise their influence in shaping a positive, supportive culture.
- Understand the ripple effect of wellbeing on team performance and relationships.
- Lead by example with small, practical steps that encourage resilience and passion across the team.
Relational Presence
– Mira Rao, Mira Rao Coaching
Participants will be guided through a short, gentle practice to tune into the body’s subtle signals – especially in moments of discomfort or tension – as a way to explore “embodied self-empathy.”
From this grounded awareness, they’ll be invited into structured “conversational connection” with others through “empathic enquiry”, while practicing how to stay connected to themselves during moments of shared attention
The 4 Personality Styles Of Educators
– Adrian Pattra-Mclean, Farran Street Education
Teams are like gardens. With the right balance of light, space, and care, every plant can flourish. But without understanding the unique needs of each one, a thriving garden can quickly become overgrown with weeds of misunderstanding and tangled in the vines of miscommunication. Teams of Educators are no different. Each educator brings a distinctive blend of strengths, quirks, and ways of working. Some bloom in the spotlight, energised by recognition and rapid decisions. Others prefer the quiet corners, taking time to think before they speak. These differences can make a team rich and resilient, or restless and resistant.
In this interactive and highly practical presentation, we’ll explore the Four Common Personality Styles of Educators Amiable, Driver, Analytical, and Expressive. Through guided self-reflection, real-life scenarios, and collaborative activities, participants will uncover their own working style and learn how to adapt it to bring out the best in others.
Rather than passive listening, this is a session of doing and discovering. Attendees will map their own personality profile, step into the shoes of other styles, and experiment with shifting their communication to reduce friction and build trust. Like learning a new dance, it’s about finding the rhythm that allows teams to move together without stepping on toes.
By the end, participants will leave with more than insights, they’ll carry a toolkit of adaptable, respectful strategies to transform tension into teamwork. They’ll see how understanding isn’t about changing people, but about cultivating the conditions where every style can thrive and be respected.
Get to know the Speakers
Dr Amie Fabry is an award-winning early childhood consultant, educator, and researcher who works across early learning and school settings to help educators and leaders bring out the best in themselves, their colleagues and the children they work with.
With a career spanning practice, research, policy and advisory roles, Amie brings a wealth of real-world experience and a deep understanding of what high-quality early learning looks like in action.
As a consultant, Amie is known for her strengths-based and practical approach. Her PhD research revealed the critical role early childhood leaders play in creating environments where educators feel confident, supported, and able to deliver quality practices. She partners with educators, teachers, and leaders in long day care, preschools, and schools to build strong, trusting, and reflective cultures where educators and children can flourish.
- Fiona Rudkin
Fiona brings experience spanning 30 years in Corporate Management highlighted by her tenure as the co-owner of a Childcare Centre. With qualifications in both the Early Years and Disability Sectors, Fiona’s extensive background has supported consultancy roles in Early Childhood Education and Care settings, and subsequent management positions of Disability Employment Agencies.
During a 5-year residence in Phuket, Fiona delivered private English tuition to Thai-speaking children and adults. This led to a consultancy role for a training organisation, the highlight being facilitating Teaching English as a Second Language to training teachers in primary schools in Thailand. Fiona’s focus remains steadfast on the enduring success and sustainability of educational professionals, with emphasis on creating Early Learning environments that are not only sought–after workplaces, but also nurturing spaces for the holistic advancement of educators.
- Sonali Fernandes
Sonali has extensive experience in Early Childhood Education and Care, having worked across roles from assistant educator to room leader, service manager and trainer.
Sonali is a huge educator advocate, and her passion is to support educators, who ultimately support children, while creating inclusive environments where every child feels valued and supported. During her six years as a service manager, she thrived in a hands-on, collaborative leadership style, working alongside educators to problem-solve and improve outcomes for children.
To share her passion more broadly, Sonali completed her Cert IV in Training and Assessment and spent three years with a Registered Training Organisation delivering Certificate III and Diploma qualifications in Early Childhood Education and Care.
Sonali is dedicated to supporting educators’ professional growth, promoting reflective practice and equipping services with strategies to create environments where all children can flourish.
Mira works with individuals, leaders, teams and organisations to cultivate resilience, emotional intelligence, and embodied leadership. Her workshops and coaching programs provide practical, neuroscience-backed strategies to help professionals manage stress, prevent burnout, and lead with confidence, clarity, and authenticity.
Many professionals and organisations recognise the need for better boundaries, emotional agility and self-regulation – but struggle with the how. Mira’s approach blends psycho-education, simple meditation and movement practices, and structured self-inquiry to translate insight into tangible, sustainable change.
Through individual and coaching, workshops and programs, Mira support high-performing individuals and teams in breaking cycles of stress, reactive decision-making and employee disengagement.
Rather than relying solely on cognitive understanding or surface-level positivity, her work enables leaders to develop deep embodied resilience, navigate change with composure, and create cultures of psychological inclusion, safety and innovation.
With 25 years of experience in yoga and embodied practices, a decade of teaching body-based therapy, and academic credentials spanning an MBA, postgraduate studies in French, Linguistics, and Journalism, and a Master’s in Counselling at Notre Dame University, Mira brings a holistic yet results-driven approach to wellbeing in the workplace.
She helps individuals and organiszations build resilience, not just manage stress – so individuals, teams and leaders can thrive, not simply survive.
Adrian Pattra-McLean is a professional Educator, founder of Farran Street Education and Owner of Farran Street Quality Childcare Centre.
With a Master’s in Education (Educational Psychology) Adrian believes that developing and supporting high-quality, passionate Educators is the key to quality outcomes for children.