Welcome to ECA's new National President

Margaret Young has been appointed as the new national president of Early Childhood Australia. Judy Radich has stepped down from the role after two terms in office.

Margaret has been on the National Executive for 10 years, and has spent the last six as National Treasurer. She is currently executive director of the Lady Gowrie Child Centre, NSW.

Many of my priorities as ECA National President reflect the ongoing focus areas of the organisation: endorsing and promoting service quality standards for the wellbeing of children, bringing clear issues to the forefront for the next federal election, and promoting the long-awaited reviewed ECA Code of Ethics.

The ECA Board has also committed to strengthening ECA's work for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families, highlighting global warming as a crucial issue for children's future wellbeing, and focusing on leadership development and further integration of ECA's work for young children around Australia.

Announcement for the early childhood field

Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics 2006
The ECA Code of Ethics was groundbreaking work when it was first released more than 10 years ago, and the recent Code of Ethics Agenda has involved a focus on review and renewal over the past two years.

The new Code of Ethics was endorsed by Early Childhood Australia at its National Council meeting in September 2006.
The ECA Code of Ethics 2006 is available in PDF on our website.

Posters and brochures will be ready in December - you can also pre-order online.

Everyday literacy practices

The right questions can improve thinking and learning
What is 'Basic' vs 'Thoughtful' literacy? This article looks at sustained conversations that expose children to a full and varied vocabulary - a powerful predictor of later literacy growth.

About listening and talking (Supporting Best Practice)
These 6 links from Early Childhood Australia's Supporting Best Practice web directory provide a variety of approaches and issues involved in communicating with young children.

Reflecting on early childhood policy

Policy Brief, issue 4: Services for young children and families: An integrated approach (PDF)
This Policy Brief, from the Centre for Community Child Health, reviews the current system of services for young children and families, and outlines how it might be reconfigured to keep pace with the changing needs of today’s families.

A review of the state of the field of early childhood learning and development in child care, kindergarten and family support programs (PDF)
This is a very long article, however it is an excellent and comprehensive account of the state of early childhood in Canada. This field review of the range of early years programs gives much food for thought for services - of all types - in Australia.

Early Childhood Australia books

K today: Teaching and learning in the kindergarten year gathers highly respected early childhood educators to paint a realistic picture of the challenges and roles of today's kindergarten educators.

Discover how the words, letters and symbols found in everyday life can be linked to major learning areas in Everyday literacy: Environmental print activities for children three to eight.

All books are quality assured by Early Childhood Australia.

Let us know what you think! We welcome any suggestions or comments you have: webwatch@earlychildhood.org.au

Past issues of ECA WebWatch are available on the Early Childhood Australia website.

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ECA WebWatch - Issue 18, November 2006. Early Childhood Australia.