Our Team.
Caitlin and Danielle are degree-qualified local educators with more than 20 years of teaching experience between them. In addition to having worked as Teachers at local high schools, they also support local Primary and Secondary students in their work as after school Tutors.
The concept for Small Sounds Early Childhood Music Education was born out of Caitlin and Dani's shared interest in bringing creative arts education services to children in rural Australia.
Caitlin Ni Mhealoid
Founder
Lead Educator
Caitlín attributes her lifelong passion for music to being raised in an environment that was immersed in song and dance. Her musical talents are diverse; Caitlín is accomplished on the flute and tin whistle, both of which she has been playing since childhood. Throughout the years she has dabbled with various other musical instruments including accordion, piano and guitar. Caitlín is also a talented songstress who has been singing traditional Irish music for as long as she can remember, as well as participating in Irish dance. Her proficiencies in these areas have been recognised with many accolades including….
Caitlín’s passion for teaching began when she worked on language immersion camps in Ireland as a teenager. In 2018, she graduated with honours from the Professional Masters in Education at National University of Ireland, Galway. During her time at university, she worked as a music tutor. In more recent years, Caitlin has gained experience teaching students at both Primary and High School level. She currently works in Special Education at a local high school in Griffith.
Outside of her formal teaching career, Caitlín has participated in a wide variety of musical projects and productions including running children’s music groups in Ireland, touring in Europe and Australia with the band “Dó fá Dó” and performing as a solo artist. Most recently, she participated in Griffith's community musical, “The Wedding Singer”.
Danielle Frank
Founder
Business Administrator
Dani is a passionate local educator and businessperson. She moved to Griffith in 2013, after completing an integrated Bachelor of Education (Secondary) and Bachelor of Fine Arts, followed by a Masters in Social Change and Development (Organisational Leadership and Capacity Building) at the University of Newcastle, Australia. For the first five years, Dani worked in a wide variety of teaching roles at MRHS Griffth and in adult employment training, before opening her own tutoring business. Griffith Tutoring Centre currently employs 7 staff who support the learning of over 120 K-12 students every week.
Dani considers herself to be a creative person; she enjoys making all forms of visual art and recognises the importance of creative expression for developing emotional well-being, awareness of the world and self-confidence.
As a child, Dani did not have the opportunity to nurture her musical skills and so has always, regretfully, considered herself to be “unmusical”. Since having her first baby in 2022, Dani has been on a quest to discover her own musicality so that she can provide well-rounded musical and artistic experiences for her own child. Dani finds great satisfaction in these simple shared moments of musical experimentation and child play. It is her hope that Small Sounds music classes help many parents, musically capable or otherwise, to build confidence in their own creativity while nurturing the same in the lives of their children.
