Amplify! Blog

Risk-taking is an important ingredient in the optimal early childhood recipe, but we need to expand our definition of risky play to encompass more than climbing trees and knocking nails in with hammers.  

Risky play also involves taking emotional risks, delving into unfamiliar situations and facing social challenges that build emotional resilience. We explore the benefits of all types of risky play, how we can change our mindset around risky play, and how we can support children to take appropriate risks.  

Inspired by the Child Safe Standards and the Child Protection Week 2022 theme of "Every child, in every community, needs a fair go", staff at Victoria Avenue Children’s Centre in Sydney's Concord West decided to explore opportunities for actively adovcating for child protection in their community. 

Niki Ficsor, Educational Leader and Preschool Room Leader, discusses how they worked with the children to develop a community engagement and information campaign.

Many service directors are enthusiastic about implementing the Child Safe Standards but may be looking for tips on how to engage the entire team. 

Director of St Luke's Preschool Dapto Vikki Shaw shares how they have approached the implementation to date, and how they are thinking beyond the preschool staff to support the broader community. 

At Euroka Children’s Centre in the NSW Blue Mountains suburb of Blaxland, leadership opportunities are open to educators of all levels. All educators are also given non-contact programming time to develop and realise these opportunities and the projects that arise from them.  

We speak to Director Lorriene Bullivant, who's been working in the sector for 40 years, about how this model of distributed leadership came about and how it benefits staff, children and the community.  

Reports of the ECEC workforce crisis, educator burnout, insufficient pay, and a lack of professional respect have recently been prevalent in the media. These reports are backed up by studies such as CELA’s Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Survey Pulse Check, which showed that demand for places, alongside staff absences due to illnesses, professional fatigue and caring for sick family members, are impacting services’ capacity to operate.  

The University of Sydney is currently conducting a study called the Early Learning Work Matters Project (ELWM). The study aims to provide more information about educator workload and how it relates to quality education and care. This week we share results from the study’s initial phase and how you can share your experiences relating to workload through their survey.  

Guided play, or scaffolding, has long been lauded in early childhood as a powerful tool to support children’s learning outcomes. In recent research, brain activity tracking of child-parent duos during play revealed the benefits of guided play via brain synchronisation.

We explore the neuroscience of guided play and how educators can harness this concept to inform everyday practice. 

Many of our members say that their team have critical skill gaps – we can help you to fill them today.

CELA’s new Micro Credentials action key recommendations from Shaping Our Future – 10-year National Workforce Strategy. Micro Credentials are online, self-paced workshops that allow you to learn at your own pace and apply what you learn on the job straight away.

The Federal Government’s Jobs and Skills Summit was held at Parliament House in Canberra on 1-2 September. Its purpose was to bring together unions, employers, civil society and governments to address shared economic challenges. 

In the lead-up to The Summit, CELA participated in the Ministerial Roundtable on Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Issues held in Sydney on 8th August, where we shared our recommendations with Minister for Early Childhood Education and Youth, Dr Anne Aly, and other key ministers. At the Summit, our sector was represented by Early Childhood Australia CEO Sam Page, who received contributions from CELA, ELAA (Early Learning Association Australia) and CCC (Community Childcare Association) in advance. Here we summarise key takeaways from The Summit and provide an update on our ongoing advocacy position.  

The mental health statistics in this country were already confronting before the pandemic, but the impact of COVID, natural disasters and inflation have seen the incidence of people struggling with mental health climb substantially.   

In honour of R U OK Day (this Thursday, 8 September), we share Raleigh Street Community Children's Centre's experience with The Resilience Project, a program providing evidence-based mental health strategies for building resilience and happiness in adults and children.

When it comes to digital technology and children, the media often focuses on the physical, mental, and social well-being risks. This can leave educators and parents conflicted about how and when to support children's engagement with digital technology.  

A recent article from the Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child proposes that approaching children's engagement with digital technologies as we would a trip to the beach could provide an ideal framework for resolving the conflict.  

We speak with Professor Leon Straker, one of the article's authors, to find out what their framework could mean for the use of digital technologies in early education and care spaces.