Amplify Editor Bec Lloyd put together this post as an overview of the man who will be sworn in as Education Minister for Australia this week, putting him in charge of billions of dollars worth of funding for early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary education.

Explore & Develop Breakfast Point is tucked away in a newly built estate with many amenities close by, such as grocery stores, restaurants, parks and schools. At the beginning of 2017, the local school (St Patrick’s) at Mortlake opened its doors, just minutes from our centre’s gate. Many of our preschool children from 2016 chose this local primary school for their future education, and so naturally we were eager to find out more ourselves.

The recent SBS Insight program on teaching children consent highlighted a successful program run by Deanne Carson and Whitney Yip, founders of Body Safety Australia.

In March this year, the Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wrote to all state and territory governments asking them to exclude children from any early childhood service or preschool unless they were immunised against preventable diseases or had a valid medical exemption. 

The NSW Government tabled a Bill in Parliament today which aims to strengthen the vaccination requirements for enrolment in early childhood education and care services from 1 January 2018.

Professional learning for educators is a crucial aspect of the sector and ongoing quality improvement, but it often emerges in a static form. Why are we comfortable about children directing their learning but constrained to stricter patterns in adult learning? Our newest guest writer, Nicole Halton of Inspired EC, shares a vision of adults as the co-constructors of their professional education. Chaos in the classroom, or a creative expression of lifelong education – you be the judge!

When disaster strikes a town, children can be affected in many ways.  One of our CELA advisers, Kathy Lawton, has just returned from a support visit to services in a region severely damaged by floods earlier this year and shares her reflections with us.  Scroll to the end for some great advice from KidsMatter on talking to children about trauma, sadness and confronting news.

Free flow, free play, free feeding, free choice – how much freedom do children really want and do we know what we are doing when we give it to them?