“She started drawing in the wet sand, placing her found items in just the right way. As she began, I walked away. This was not my experience, it was hers and it’s not my right to interpret what she is doing.” New Amplify guest writer Linda Tandy is a nature based educator with Inspired Family […]
Children are too important for politics One third of Australia faced an election last weekend. We’ve been bringing you the NSW issues in some detail because, more than usual, this state contest and the Victorian election before it, have featured promises with national implications. The re-elected Premier promised NSW “could have it all” – and […]
The Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) reports every three years on how Australian children have developed by the time they start school. It looks at five areas of early childhood development domains: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills and general knowledge. The 2018 report is out […]
This is a big year for elections and even though NSW will be voting this Saturday, the campaigning is far from over as the Australian election is expected before the end of May. Neither election has a certain outcome, although unlike Victoria’s landslide to Labor last year, pundits are generally predicting much closer results in NSW […]
Election countdown As we’ve previously shared, the NSW election has raised early learning and OSHC issues to a higher level than we’ve seen in many years. The inclusion of Federal Labor in the state-based promises is also sending signals to educators across Australia about what an ALP Commonwealth government might have in store following the […]
As recently as the last NSW election in 2015, there was an acknowledged need for 45,000 or more places in outside school hours care (OSHC, or OOSH) in both public and private schools. In 2019, a new election promise from the current NSW Government (Coalition) might come close to resolving that deficit if they are re-elected, with […]
Early childhood and early primary years educators are quite possibly the most active poetry readers in Australia. Don’t laugh: it’s true! Regardless of whether you have sonnets by your bedside, or you don’t know your iambic from your pentameter, chances are that you read aloud from a book of poetry nearly every day at work. Poetry […]
A record-breaking investment, a cautious welcome, or ‘all tip and no iceberg’? CELA CEO Michele Carnegie talks to Amplify editor Bec Lloyd about the NSW ALP announcement this week of a half-billion dollar package for early learning in that state. Head to this article to see why the NSW election matters to you even if […]
17-23 March 2019 Almost 50% of all Australians were either born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas, a fact that the organisers of Harmony Week 2019 are keen to share this year. That’s right: Harmony Week. This year is the first time organisers (currently the Australian Department of Home Affairs) have extended […]
Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child has released an information package including the below infographic explaining the emerging science of epigenetics (not to be confused with eugenics). Epigenetics sounds very complicated and science-y, and indeed it is, but we decided to share this research package because it is a field that’s starting to shed fascinating light on the impact of […]
