The word ‘Antarctica’ is not easy for a four-year-old to pronounce, but every single child at Barrack Heights Preschool in Shellharbour can say it! Thanks to technology, the preschoolers went on a once-in-a-lifetime journey to Antarctica from the comfort of their Illawarra classroom. Ingrid Maack reports. Continue Reading →
Meet Harry. Harry is four and is vision-impaired. He has profound developmental delays. But, Harry is lucky. He attends The Infants’ Home, where he accesses an on-site speech therapist, occupational therapist, play therapist, GP and a team of passionate educators as part of the organisation’s integrated service model. Ingrid Maack reports. Continue Reading →
Rattler sees advocacy in action at Amarina Early Learning Centre in Airds, a disadvantaged south-western suburb of Sydney on the cusp of rapid change. The service is operated by Campbelltown City Council—a local government that understands how early education can transform communities and children’s futures. Ingrid Maack reports. Continue Reading →
When Karen Anderson visited nature kindergartens in Denmark, educators asked her where her closest natural environment was. Her reply was the beach, where she took the children just once a year. Upon her return, she began taking children once a week. Ingrid Maack profiles Balnarring Preschool, where a beach and bush program is making waves in the local community and beyond. Continue Reading →
When Goodstart Early Learning intervened in 2009 to clean up the mess left in the wake of the ABC Learning collapse, the early childhood education and care landscape looked grim. Now, with more than 650 services under its not-for-profit brand, the future is looking bright. Ingrid Maack reports. Continue Reading →
Rattler talks to a DEC preschool, a community-based service and private long day care centre about the long and winding road to quality improvement. By Ingrid Maack.
The past three years has been an era of rapid change and reflection with children’s services using the reform agenda as a road map to raise quality and drive continuous improvement. Even while still in its draft form, many services began engaging with the National Quality Framework (NQF)—turning the mirror inwards, so to speak, and sparking a spirit of self-study and reflection that is effectively reshaping the sector.
In a female-dominated profession known for employing women in their childbearing years, family-friendly staffing arrangements are a priority at the University of New South Wales’ three long day care centres—Kanga’s House, The House at Pooh Corner and Tigger’s Honeypot.
Jemma Carlisle, general manager of Early Years@UNSW University Services, says educators at the recently amalgamated group of UNSW services are offered flexible work arrangements including 36-weeks paid maternity leave (for staff employed for fives years or more) and 26 weeks for staff employed for less than five years.
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.
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.
Quality Area 5 of the National Quality Standard (NQS) focuses on respectful and equitable relationships between educators and children. Dr Leonie Arthur explores why educator–child interactions should always be respectful, responsible and reciprocal.
Relationships aren’t static; each day, our interactions shape and reshape them’ (Casper & Theilheimer, 2010, p.80). How do your interactions with children shape your relationships with them? Are there changes you can make that will strengthen these relationships?
