Meet Our Team

The Block 8 Team is made up of a diverse group of members who all share a passion for guiding and supporting children . We hold degrees in Education, Anthropology, Business and Physical Therapy. Some are also educated in Behavioural Intervention and Special Education. Our multicultural, multi-generational team combines experience and energy to ensure our students are engaged, educated.. and having fun!

 Each team member has a valid first aid certificate and has completed training in child development. 

Cindy Sepp

Owner,  teacher

Cindy is a BC certified teacher who is known for her innovative techniques of combining games, field trips, music, stories and learning.  Cindy has led children on international trips while teaching about cultural differences and has delivered musical productions while instilling musical knowledge, leadership qualities and organizational skills in the students.  Currently pursuing her certificate in Intercultural Studies, Cindy has lived, worked, photographed and studied the local culture in 4 different countries.  Her stories keep children entertained while they gain an understanding of how vast the cultural differences can be within our city and our world.

​Miss Cindy's goal is to create opportunities for learning while the students play, do artwork, make and listen to music, and engage in physical activities. Cindy has her ARCT from the Toronto Royal Conservatory of Music and uses Orff and Kodaly methodologies combined with folk songs in her teaching.  

Danita Sepp

Owner

Danita is both an entrepreneur and a mother, and has spent many years in the BC swimming and Canadian National Rowing Team worlds.  

With a  BCOMM majoring in computer science, from UBC, she spent many years in software development.  Now, however, she has chosen a more flexible career which has her  devoting her time to setting up childcare instead of information systems (although they truly have many similarities!).  Having been an athlete and coach at various levels, she enjoys motivating groups of children to attain the highest level of performance possible, understanding that achieving excellence is a state of mind.  

​Her experience with Canadian and Estonian National Rowing teams has given her insights into different motivational techniques and how they can apply to different individuals.  ​

Roxanne

Child Care Worker,
​Accounts Manager

Roxanne is one of our most creative staff members! She loves to organize unique, hands-on projects with the kids and go exploring around the community. 

Miss Roxanne worked as a Watershed Educator/Community Artist and was also a Chep Program Coordinator at Youth Co. Through that, she designed and presented workshops to spread awareness about Hepatitis C at youth events. Roxanne also has a diploma in Criminology and has plans to use her diploma to help troubled children grow and develop through creative expression.

Roxanne is also an author of a children’s book called “Mermaids Can and Do have Tattoos” about tattoos, self-image, and loving yourself. 



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Cassedi

Child Care Worker

​Our world traveller Miss Cassedi has worked with children all over the globe including Ghana, Nicaragua, and the Dominion Republic. She has taught English and Spanish to children from preschool age to teens.

Miss Cassedi works very well with our Block 8 students, especially one on one. She is always very focused and engaged with the children, listening, supporting and guiding them.

Miss Cassedi also works as a yoga instructor and has a BA in Physical Therapy. 

Katherine 

Child and Youth Care Worker,
​Program Administrator

While raising her own three children, Katherine earned diplomas in Child and Youth Care and in Early Childhood Education Assistance and graduated top of her class in 2016. She is also trained in Behavioural Intervention, non-violent crisis intervention and first aid. Katherine’s practicum program in School District 41 gave her experience developing activity-based programs while mentoring individual students.

Though her schooling is integral to her capability of supporting children, her passion in raising her own children for over 20 years has been fundamental in hands-on experience.

Miss Katherine provides a supportive environment for children and youth and has been recognized for abundant patience and ability to maintain calm in the midst of crisis. She is compassionate and inclusive with personal experience being supportive of children and youth in the LGBTQ community.   
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Fitnat

Child Care Worker

​Having lived in Ghana, the UK and Germany, before moving to Canada, communication and cultural diversity have had an important influence in Miss Fitnat’s role as an educator.  Miss Fitnat is a certified ESL teacher. She believes that every child loves learning new life skills; “Our role as educators is to assist children along their journey of discovery". Miss Fitnat has worked with kids and youth in theatre and festivals. She enjoys sharing her lifelong love of books, the arts and learning, with kids of all ages. A fun fact about Miss Fitnat is that she is a certified tea sommelier who is passionate about sharing her love of teas, its cultural history and health benefits! 
As a lover of languages she is currently teaching herself Korean. 
Miss Fitnat holds degrees in Education and Anthropology and studied at Oxford Brookes University and SOAS (London).

Colette

Performing Arts Guest Instructor
Virtual Programs Instructor

​Colette is a mutli-disciplinary theatre artist and instructor based out of Scarborough, Ontario.

​After completing her Certificate in Musical Theatre Performance at the American Musical and Dramatic Acadmey in New York City, she returned to Canada to pursue a Bachelor's degree in Arts Managament and teach Musical Theatre, Drama, Dance and English skills to children ranging in age from 5-15.

Passionate about sharing her love for the arts with her students, Colette  empowers them to dream big, get outside of their comfort zones, and express themselves fully and authentically. 

Colette has been performing, producing and directing as a theatre artist for over 15 years, and has been recognized with various honours for her performance work.

She is also a provincial level debater, and has been recognized for her exemplary writing skills, including being published in a youth anthology of historical fiction stories.

When she's not teaching, or performing, you can find Colette working on her original webseries, cooking, playing board games or creating videos for her
TikTok account which has amassed over 10k followers. 
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Colette is so excited to be bringing virtual programming to Block 8 and can't wait to work with your kids!

Hayley

Child Care Worker

​Hayley is a loving and energetic staff member at Block 8 who loves to be outdoors and loves animals, especially her four dogs.

She was born and raised in Maple Ridge, after graduating high school she moved to Victoria to pursue her passion of teaching at the University of Victoria. Hayley has recently moved back to the mainland and is now a student at Simon Fraser University.

​While studying to become a teacher she has volunteered and observed many elementary classrooms in public schools as well as a Montessori to experience the different ways of learning. She has also coached softball for five years at a variety of ages.

Hayley aims to inspire the next generation and give them the confidence to do or try what ever they put their mind to!

Addie

Child Care Worker

Addie is a very energetic member of Block 8 and loves organizing creative outdoor activities for the kids. She has extensive experience playing and coaching soccer and often participates in sports games with the kids - which they really enjoy! Before coming to Block 8, Addie also worked with kids as an Assistant Program Leader for the City of Burnaby. 

Addie loves creating art with the kids in unconventional ways such as bubble art or splatter paint!

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Hailey

Child Care Worker

Hailey is a very patient and loving staff member at Block 8. She loves music and sometimes brings her ukulele to do a sing-along with the kids. She also introduced the story-telling game Mad Libs to some of the kids which they really seem to enjoy!​

Before coming to Block 8, Hailey worked as an Elementary Basketball Coach and tutored a little girl with a learning disability. Hailey is currently in University with plans to become a Graphic Designer in the future. She also runs a small freelance graphic design business in her freetime.

Miss Hailey is very patient and the children love working on art projects with her. She has lots of great ideas to help inspire the student's creativity expression of feelings through art.

Mackenzie

Child Care Worker & Shuttle Driver

Miss Mackenzie has lots of energy and loves to get the kids excited about activities and adventures! 

Miss Mackenzie is attending university and will make a wonderful teacher soon. She has experience working with a hydro-physio therapy program for children with physical and mental disabilities where she worked directly with the children in the water in a one on one setting.

Miss Mackenzie also works as a one on one support worker with an elementary school aged child. 

She has lots of unique ideas for activities, is great at solving problems under pressure is also very patient in stressful situations.

Nicole

Child Care Worker

Nicole is currently working towards diplomas for Classroom and Community Support as well as Disability and Applied Behaviour Intervention.

​Nicole also has her High Five certification (principles of healthy child development) as well as her Leader in Training certification. Before coming to Block 8, Nicole worked as a camp counsellor and volunteered as a mentor for troubled and neglected children. She brings a very compassionate and calm energy to Block 8 and she often works as one-on-one support for some of our students. 

Nicole also enjoys painting, photography and hiking on her free-time.

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Dave

Child Care Worker

Everyone at Block 8 would describe Dave as a very passionate and positive person. He has a great deal of teaching experience with kids of all ages and is specialized in Math and English. He also has a BA in Elementary Education. 

Dave is also the master of card games and has introduced several fun free-time activities to the kids at Block 8. Dave also loves developing board games of his own and doing creative writing in his free time.