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 →

The kids are alright

There are many advocates that have been a strong, loud voice for the sector for many years. As this determined group gets older, there was some concern about what will happen after they’ve gone. But after meeting a handful of the new wave of passionate young advocates putting early education on top of the agenda, it’s pretty clear we needn’t worry: the kids are alright.

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The place for research in developing policy

There’s a problem with many of our political systems at the moment. Or, more specifically, the way our policy is put together. Think tank’s are assembled, productivity inquiries commissioned and research is gathered to guide the policies that are created to make our nation stronger. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Continue Reading →

Advocates in action

The latest edition of Community Child Care Co-operative’s (NSW) Rattler magazine is out now, with the final issue for 2013 rounding off a jam-packed year that focused on the role of advocacy in children’s services. 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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Early Childhood Education and Care – no boys allowed?

According to the latest statistics from the Productivity Commission, the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector collectively employs around 140,000 people, of which only 3 per cent are male.

That’s just 4,200 men across the whole country. Practically an endangered species.

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NQF: Reflective journeys

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.

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A great place to work for women

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.

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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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Connecting with children

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?

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