Bonjour et bienvenue à ECA WebWatch*

Thanks for making Early Childhood Australia's 2008 National Conference a huge success! We hope all of you who attended found the experience exciting and enriching. If you were unable to attend, keep your eye on ECA WebWatch and other Early Childhood Australia publications for articles and news from the conference speakers.

In this issue of ECA WebWatch:

• Learning and teaching links
• ECA GreenWatch
• Learning about High/Scope

Plus:

• Dates for your diary
• Early childhood news and speeches.

*French for 'Hello and welcome to ECA WebWatch'.

Learning and teaching links from ECA's Supporting Best Practice

Assessment-evaluation and Documentation
Lots of practical links to give you ideas and support in evaluating children's development and producing high-quality documentation.

ECA National Conference

Maxine McKew's opening address at ECA's Biennial Conference
Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education and Child Care Maxine McKew's address provides a good overview of the changing face of Australia's early childhood sector.

Latest early childhood news

Standards for accomplished teachers of three–eight year olds
Early Childhood Australia has been contracted by Teaching Australia to undertake the development of these standards. The planning for this work is currently being undertaken and the process will involve active participation by practicing early childhood teachers. The link is to information about the ongoing work of Teaching Australia around the development standards for the teaching profession.

Julia Gillard's address to the Teaching Australia and BCA Symposium
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's speech sets out how the National Partnership for Teacher Quality will progress.

Review of National Declaration on Goals for Schooling
Read Early Childhood Australia's submission to the new Ministerial Council for Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs.

ECA GreenWatch

Risk and challenge: Essential elements in outdoor playspaces
An important article from Early Childhood Australia's Every Child magazine that underscores the importance of children accessing challenging outdoor playspaces.

Learning about High/Scope

High/Scope program briefing paper (PDF)
This paper by Early Childhood Australia's CEO, Pam Cahir, provides helpful background on the High/Scope program.

New issue of ECA Voice

ECA Voice (PDF)
The new issue of Voice newsletter is now available online. This issue contains a special feature on trialling the High/Scope program in Australian settings and news on the Australian Early Development Index.

HESTA advice on superannuation
Previous issues of Voice newsletter are available on ECA's website, containing helpful guides from HESTA on managing your superannuation.

Call for papers

2009 WA Child Care and Early Childhood Education Conference
Quality and Collaboration Matter!
3–5 April 2009
Sheraton Perth Hotel, Perth

The Resource Unit for Children with Special Needs, YMCA Perth and Edith Cowan University are calling for submissions from individuals, teams and organisations by 27 October 2008.

Dates for your diary

2008 Children's Week
18–26 October 2008

Organise and participate in activities across the county that highlight the needs and importance of young children, and forge connections between adults and children.

Child Friendly Cities Symposium
Home, school and the spaces in between
23–30 October 2008
University of Wollongong, Wodonga City Council, The University of Melbourne and Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria.

A diverse series of sessions exploring the impact of architecture, design and planning on children's experiential learning using approaches from ecological and environmental psychology.

Children in Nature – From the Ground Up (PDF)
8 November 2008
Penrith Civic Centre

Explore edible gardening in early childhood settings with Nadine McCrea, one of the presenters from ECA's National Conference.

New top-quality early childhood resources

Professional reading is an important part of early childhood advocacy and professional growth. Experienced early childhood practitioners quality assure every book sold by Early Childhood Australia.

Everyday learning about reading and writing is an invaluable resource that assists parents and carers and educators in incorporating early literacy learning into day-to-day experiences in the home.

Classification, seriation and number guides practitioners through 13 math-related key experiences, providing advice at each stage to encourage children to investigate size, quantity, categorisation, patterns and other maths concepts on their own.

This book is part of a special series of High/Scope books available to purchase with a Key Experiences DVD which provides unique support for early childhood practitioners and students in demonstrating how children learn through play-based curriculum.

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ECA WebWatch - Issue 61, October 2008. © Early Childhood Australia.