'I feel more confident in me': Sharon is a childcare pioneer

The 33-year-old has just completed her Certificate 3 in Children's Services at CIT, believed to be the first person with Down syndrome in the ACT, and only the second person in Australia, to do so.

"I feel excited and happy," she said. "I feel more confident in me. I'm a hard worker."

The centre's director Suzanne Tunks said Sharon had been with the centre for nearly two years and had been treated equally to all its trainees and paid the same rate as her peers.

"Often people with Down syndrome are engaged only as 'volunteers' and we would love to see more of them given the opportunities they deserve," Ms Tunks.

The young woman had also been given no special favours in her training.

"Nobody cut any corners for her, quite the opposite," Ms Tunks said. adding Sharon had smoothed the way for others to follow.

Sharon, a former student of Narrabundah and Red Hill primary schools and St Clare's College, has always been encouraged by her parents, Neil and Mary, to take very opportunity presented.

"We tried to give her the opportunity to be independent," Mrs Champion said.

She had always wanted to be a childcare worker.

"Just being with the children, really," is what she likes about the job.

"I like the babies room, but the whole environment."

Ms Tunks said Sharon had been an exemplary employee, taking just one sick day in two years.

"Even in the hardest winters, she caught two buses here and two buses home. Before the timetable changed," Ms Tunks said. (Sharon now takes cabs but is training to get her driver's licence.)

"She's extremely dedicated. If we need someone to stay back a little longer, she will do it. Each day, she has a list of tasks and she ticks each one off."

Sharon was the perfect combination of loving and no-nonsense.

"She can be cuddly with the babies and then very physical and rowdy with the bigger kids," Ms Tunks said.

Ms Tunks said she hoped more people with Down syndrome would follow Sharon's lead and try a career in childcare but also that other employers would take them on and treat them as equal employees.

That has been the ethos of Stella Bella Children's Centre, which opened in 2017 as a mainstream centre and respite centre for children with complex needs.

Sharon is the fifth of six children of Neil and Mary Champion. They always wanted to her to experience life in the mainstream. When the Education Department initially would not let her attend a mainstream primary school, and suggested she go to Koomarri instead, they kept her home for a year and taught her how to read and write themselves.

Mrs Champion said it had been "a very hard road" ensuring Sharon reached her potential. And her parents were very proud of all she had achieved in her growing childcare career.

"It's amazing and the kids just love her," Mrs Champion said. The kids just rush to her with open arms."