Mr Holm began a uni degree in early education three years ago, and has worked at Little Learners for the last year and a half. 

A former pub owner from Jugiong, Mr Holm’s epiphany about the direction in which he wanted to take his life occurred after the birth of his son four years ago. 

In conjunction with running the local pub, he and his wife also coached at the swimming club in their spare time, which is where the thought of teaching was planted in his mind for the first time. 

“A lot of the parents were saying to me ‘Oh you should do teaching’, and the idea hadn’t really occurred to me [before then],” Mr Holm said. 

“So they put the idea in my head, then when my son came along I wanted to get out of the hotel business … so I enrolled in uni, investigated it [teaching], and really enjoyed it.” 

Mr Holm also revealed that part of his motivation to teach was rooted in his own less-than-enjoyable experience at school, and he wants to help ensure that Yass’s newest generation doesn’t have the same experience. 

When asked about the honour of being named Staff Member of the Month, Mr Holm said that it of course felt “really good”, however he believes that “there’s tons of educators here that could win.” 

“They’re all very good and they’re all going above and beyond.” 

The real reward, according to Mr Holm, is the opportunity to work hard with the kids and seeing them move forward. 

“I would say that it’s often the children who require more intensive guidance, that you get that really close connection to,” he said. 

“It does feel very rewarding when they make progress … some children make progress easily, and you probably get a bigger buzz from the ones who struggle harder to get there.”