Reimagining education

Five years ago, two schools and a preschool amalgamated in one of South Australia’s most disadvantaged areas. To make it work, the school’s innovation team leaders have changed the face of learning. By Camille Howard. Continue Reading →

Myth busters: 2

Did you like our Myth Busters article in the last edition of Rattler? In times of change, common misconceptions crop up and tend to proliferate. Rattler asks experts and educators to debunk more rumours, myths and whispers and help paint a clearer picture of early childhood education and care practice. Continue Reading →

Early education and care: relationships in focus

The latest issue of Rattler magazine for Community Child Care Co-operative (NSW) has hit the desks of early childhood education and care educators and advocates and, as usual, is full of inspiring, informative and thought provoking articles to stimulate professional development in the sector.

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Step outside – why excursions are valuable

Excursions are valuable for everyone — children, educators and the community. Stepping outside the centre gate is not only an opportunity for children to see the world but also for the world to see what children’s services do. Ingrid Maack reports.

These days it is rare to see young children walking hand-in-hand in our streets and public spaces. As young children spend more hours inside children’s services and fewer services travel beyond the centre gate, children are becoming less visible in our communities.

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Growing up in coal country

On the brink of a mining boom, the town of Mudgee is questioning how its fossil fuel-driven future will reshape the early childhood education landscape. Ingrid Maack visits Mudgee Preschool—one of the biggest early education and care services in NSW.

When I grow up I want to be a miner’, reads the text on a child’s artwork featuring a smiling stick figure with a miner’s lamp and a bag full of coal. The artwork hangs on the wall of a gallery in an exhibition, themed ‘Belonging, Being and Becoming’, organised by staff and children at Mudgee Preschool.

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Equal pay for teachers please!

When it comes to pay packets, not all teachers are equal. Suzanne Kowalski-Roth from the NSW/ACT Independent Education Union (IEU), explores this much-needed campaign, and outlines why pay parity needn’t be a utopian daydream.

In a utopian Australia, young children would be valued by our society, and the role of early childhood teachers in nurturing and educating children would be truly understood, articulated and affirmed.

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The selling out of children’s services

Corporatised institutions have a stronger presence in most areas of everyday life in Australia. With the privatisation of many government services over the past decade, is there a place for corporate competitiveness and profit motivations in children’s services? Eddy Jokovich looks at the key issues in the political debate about corporatising childcare and why community-based services need to be concerned. Continue Reading →