Our Staff
Doodlebugs is a fun loving staff with more than a lifetime of combined experience. They love working with children and their goal is to create a fun filled learning experience!
Lee Austin
Owner & Co-Founder
Lee, a veteran teacher of 33 years started Doodlebugs with her sister Jo Holton in 2005 and became sole owner in 2006. She is a proud mom of 3 boys. She is passionate about the school and remains completely involved. She is the current Grade R teacher.
Sarah Visser
Head of Baby Department
Sarah is a mom of three, two boys and a girl. Sarah joined Doodlebugs in April of its start up year and has a great love and passion for her little ones. She has an excellent sense of humour and being involved in her class is her happy place. She quickly went from teacher assistant to heading up our baby centre. She loves meeting the newcomers each year and is passionate about helping build the foundation for her littlies at Doodlebugs
Jacky Biel
Teachers Assistant
Jacky started in our Big Bugz class and then moved to our Grade R class in 2019. She is our youngest member of staff and the children love this fun filled assistant.
Portia Clay
Teachers Assistant
Portia is a mom of two beautiful boys. She started working at Doodlebugs as a assistant in 2009 after realising that the retail industry was not her passion. She loves working with children and she feels what she learns from them, makes her a better mommy to her own boys! She believes in morals and values and being a role model to those around her as well as
the children.
Tanya Pedro
Teacher
Shelly Troskie
Deputy Head
Shelly joined the Doodlebugs team as a teacher assistant and quickly completed her studies to qualify as a teacher. Shelly always goes the extra mile for her class. She got married in 2012. She became a mommy to a beautiful little girl in March 2013 and then a beautiful boy in 2016. Both grew up in our Doodlebugs family.
Shelly Namba
Teachers Assistant
Shelly is a mom of three, identical twin girls and a boy. Shelly joined our team in our start up year with no experience as a teacher assistant. She quickly adjusted and loves working with
the littlies. The staff find her very easy to talk to and she was soon promoted to staff supervisor. She loves working with children and helping build a better future for them. She is currently the assistant to the Big Bugz class and has been with them since they were little doods.
Leatitia Masena
Teachers Assistant
Leatitia is mom to two children, a girl and a boy. She is also now a granny to an adorable little toddler who has granny’s fun and feisty temperament. Leatitia initially started with the toddlers
and then started moving up with the class of 2014. She stayed with this group until they graduated in 2020 . Needless to say she is very loved by these children. She currently assists with the aftercares and their homework.
Tersia Michello
Teachers Assistant
Tersia initially started as a cleaner and when we noticed her kindness and patience with the littlies she soon became
a teaching assistant. She loves the little babies and toddlers and they love her. Tersia is currently our Barney room assistant and she started with them when they were babies in 2019.
Tanya joined our team as our cook and we soon realised she had a huge affinity for working with children . We convinced her to switch course and to become a teacher assistant which she absolutely loved. Her fun-loving nature makes her approachable and enables the children to have fun while they learn. She soon gave birth to her second son in 2015 and shortly after that started her studies to become a teacher. She works very hard for what she wants and has achieved her goal of becoming a qualified teacher in 2020. She is now teaching her own class.