Training

SPECIAL EVENT WITH GUEST SPEAKER DR GAI LINDSAY

Dr Gai Lindsay will share how visual arts can deepen children’s learning and self-expression in early education. This thought-provoking session invites educators to reflect on their practice, challenge assumptions, and embrace a broader, more confident approach to arts, crafts and cultural experiences.

When developing a curriculum, educators often focus on what they will teach but do you spend enough time considering how you will implement it?

This session will explore the what, how, and why of intentional teaching practices, supporting you in being deliberate, purposeful, and thoughtful in how you facilitate and extend children's learning and development.

Cultural responsiveness is when “educators demonstrate an ongoing commitment to developing their own cultural knowledge...with children, families and communities.” (AGDE, 2022, p.23) 

• What does cultural responsiveness look like in practice?  
• How are multiple cultural ways of knowing explored and responded to in your services?  
• How will you collaborate with children and families to build a culturally responsive early learning environment? 

The Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 aims to “support early childhood providers, teachers and educators to extend and enrich children’s learning from birth to 5 years...” (AGDE, 2022, p.4).  

• Are you finding it challenging to find the time to connect and engage with the EYLF V2.0? 

This session will guide you in embracing the learning framework as an integral component of your pedagogy and practice. 

Are you new to conducting observations? 

Educators, especially those who are new to the sector, often lack confidence and knowledge around how to observe and document children’s learning. This session will aim to provide support to these educators by offering practical support for them to learn observation methods, whilst learning about what moments need to be documented.

• How confident are you in your leadership skills?                                                                              
• Are your leadership practices collaborative and empowering your team to recognise their own leadership skills?                                                                                                                                                 

This 2-hour session will focus on the collaborative leadership and teamwork practices and interpersonal skills service leaders need to implement these practices ,to improve the quality of their service, and empower children and educators as leaders.

• Have you ever wondered what authentic assessment looks like in play-based environments?  
• Are you ready to learn specific assessment strategies to identify children’s true abilities and capacities for learning?  

In this 2-hour session we will look closely at assessment and evaluation and how we gather rich data on children’s learning to inform intentionality. We will explore practical assessment strategies to identify children’s developmental capacities to inform pedagogy and planning.

Join us as we critically reflect on how can we meaningfully document children’s learning and development while meeting new digital safety regulations that restrict the use of personal devices and require strict consent for photographing children.
Together, we will explore practical and ethical approaches to documenting children’s learning using non-visual methods—strengthening educators’ understanding of how to balance digital documentation, privacy standards, and pedagogical goals.

This self-paced course focuses on understanding how children use behaviour to communicate their feelings. It takes a strengths-based approach that is responsive to children, respects diversity and difference and works with family strengths to support children’s social and emotional learning. It provides a range of strategies that you can use to both design safe and supportive learning environments and guide children’s emerging social and emotional skills. Explore the series. 

This self-paced course explores a funds of knowledge approach and what it means for educators’ work with children and families, particularly those in high-poverty and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Explore the series. 

This self-paced course explores strategies for building partnerships with families, with a particular focus on engaging families in high-poverty contexts using effective communication. Explore the series. 

This self-paced course aims to provide support for educators in mainstream early childhood services who want to cultivate partnerships with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities and embed local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and languages in the curriculum. Explore the series.