Our Team  :   Our Teachers

Marisha

• Certificate in Professional Development for Chinese Community Language Teachers Methodology Phase I (R.M.I.T.) 2009
• Certificate in Professional Development for Teachers (CLS, Monash University) 2011
• First Aid HLTAID004 2019
• CPR 2020
• Emergency Asthma Management 2020
• First Aid Management of Anaphylaxis 2020
• (Early Childhood) Protecting Children - Mandatory Reporting and other Obligations for the Early Childhood Sector 2015

Marisha was born in Taiwan (formally Formosa before WWII), and she is a qualified trainer and an experienced teacher fluent in Mandarin, Taiwanese and English.

As a migrant herself, Marisha moved to Melbourne with her husband and first born child in 2001 when she experienced the difficulties involved in settling in a new community first hand. Joining a local playgroup, she felt frustrated and isolated as cultural differences made the acceptance of her and her family difficult amongst the local members. She realised that although the local playgroups offered opportunities for social gathering, they didn't meet the needs of a growing child. It was with this understanding that she set out to use her early childhood teaching expertise and developed Jo Jo Bilingual Education Program to encourage migrants and local communities to come together and understand each others cultures and languages through a fun, engaging, and stimulating play based language riched learning environment. Using the program Jo Jo Bilingual Education has designed for these young stars produced the best outcome for families with young children.

Under her leadership, in 2012, a new phase of bilingual early education was established: Kimmba Bilingual Early Learning Centre. It is Melbourne's very first Multilingual Early Learning Centre. With a government funded 4 year old Kindergarten Program, it is not only the next step in her dream, but will also be of benefit to the whole community in Australia.

Marisha believes that quality early childhood education should be available to all preschool age children, not just children of working parents who are on the top priority list to access child care. All children are equally valuable in our society and the establishment of Kimmba Play School in 2016 is here to offer every child the opportunity to access its quality Early Childhood Language Program.

Marisha is keen to get the message through to the community: Kimmba supports your language and culture and is looking forward to welcoming more languages on board in its new establishments, involving Kimmba families in a true multicultural society, one in which we would love to see our children grow and thrive to become the citizens of the world.

Mia

Ni Hao,

I am Mia, I’m the native English-speaking teacher here working at Kimmba Play school since 2017. I’m one of the recipients of VCE Premier’s Award for 2018, and currently studying at Melbourne University. I have experience teaching young children English and dance. I am outgoing and compassionate and I love engaging children doing activities, such as reading story, arts and crafts, singing and dancing. Just seeing the big smiles on their faces in the class makes my day. I know that learning a language is not easy for a young child, therefore, I’m here to help. Being bilingual does not only improve children’s personal literacy skills, it also allows them to experience and interact with different people and different cultures to broaden their horizon. I can transition newly immigrant children who are not confident in speaking English, as I do speak and understand Chinese, even though English is my first language. I am looking forward to seeing you all in my class!

• First Aid HLTAID004 2020
• CPR 2020
• Emergency Asthma Management 2020
• First Aid Management of Anaphylaxis 2020
• (Early Childhood) Protecting Children - Mandatory Reporting and other Obligations for the Early Childhood Sector 2020

Lulu

Ni Hao, My name is Lulu. I am the Mandarin and English teacher at Kimmba play school. I was born in China, and I moved to Australia in 2008. My professional goal is to see children develop in areas of the emotional, social, physical, creative and cognitive domains. I believe that the quality of education a person receives in early life is indispensable in bringing out that person’s potential, and that all children are capable learners and should be provided with opportunity and support to grow socially, emotionally and intellectually. I am passionate about teaching and learning with children.

• First Aid HLTAID004 2021
• CPR 2021
• Emergency Asthma Management 2021
• First Aid Management of Anaphylaxis 2021
• (Early Childhood) Protecting Children - Mandatory Reporting and other Obligations for the Early Childhood Sector 2021