10 April 2018 The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP Prime Minister via email malcolm.turnbull.mp@aph.gov.au Dear Prime Minister, Time for action – calling for universal early learning for every Australian child Following a meeting on 8 February 2018, we the undersigned, call on federal, state and territory governments to accept and implement the recommendations of the Lifting […]
Louise Grigg has been a teaching director in preschools and long day care services for 23 years. A new guest writer, today she shares her story of achieving a learning goal for many early and middle years services: embedding authentic Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the curriculum. In 2016 I had the opportunity […]
May Murray’s story In recent times, outdoor classrooms have been in vogue. They are seen as innovative and creative: they connect children to nature and allow educators to extend their pedagogy and look “outside the box” of intentional and play based learning. Research by advocates of outdoor learning espouse the benefits of risky play, exposure […]
The connections between environments and learning have been explored in many ways in the Amplify blog over the past year. Today we share a very direct connection as the YMCA Belconnen Early Learning Centre team-writes their journey from a dysfunctional work space to a Reggio inspired centre of learning and development. The secret was not […]
The Land Cruiser Workmate Emma Fenton and her colleague Vicki take on outback roads for a month at a time is packed to the brim with the resources they need for early learning and play sessions with children scattered across a 220,000 km square western NSW region that also touches Victoria and Queensland. The Workmate […]
After last week’s story about the happy outcome of a completely unexpected Ratings and Assessment visit, we’ve been thinking more about quality ratings and about how ACECQA’s research shows families are still largely unaware of what they mean. By both research and anecdote, ratings matter far more to educators, providers and regulators than they […]
One of Amplify’s favourite writers and provocateurs, Jennifer Ribarovski, returns this week to look at what ‘goal setting’ for children might mean in your service. Are you comfortable with the balance of family and educational input into individual children’s goals? Where are the children’s voices in your goal setting? What about the community context? Do you […]
Dr Deborah Harcourt questions children’s services about what ‘state of the art’ really means, and rejects access to a coffee barista as a benchmark of quality.
“Early childhood contexts for young children, in my view, should be spaces that offer an opportunity to engage in an ‘internship’ with the real world – with access to rich and authentic relationships with people, places and things as the basis of their construction of new knowledge and ideas.” Read on…
As autumn weather arrives, many ECE and OSHC services will be looking to head outdoors to take advantage of the not-too-hot, not-too-cold season. How they approach the outdoors, however, is another question. Risk during play in early childhood services is a balance between keeping children as as safe as necessary rather than possible. Westgarth Kindergarten […]
What would you do if your service only had one business day to submit your Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) and just eight business days to prepare for an assessment and rating by the NSW regulatory authority? This happened to Emma Armitage, Centre Coordinator of Victoria Avenue Children’s Centre, a 47-place long-day care service managed by the City of Canada Bay, Sydney, when their written notification was lost in the mail. Emma’s been at the three-year-old service since day one and built her team from the ground up. Here’s their story, as told to CELA writer Margaret Paton.
