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Excellence and Innovation

• Universal access to high quality and affordable prior to school services for a minimum of two days per week for all children in the year prior to starting school. Ideally this would be extended to younger children. These services to be staffed by specialist early childhood (birth to 8 years) university trained teachers.
• The complexity of the NSW system with multiple Departments responsible for the provision of early childhood services (DoCS, DET & the Commonwealth Government) results in an inequitable system for children and families in NSW. The inequity in funding arrangements for long day care, community based pre-schools and DET preschools needs to be addressed. Currently:
  • For profit and community based long day care services are funded by the Commonwealth government and are able to offer Child Care Benefit (CCB) for working families.
  • Community based long day care services also receive a small amount of funding from DoCS which has been frozen since 1989. 
  • Community based preschools receive base funding from DoCS and are only able to offer affordability assistance to families on annual incomes lower than $40,000. The bulk of this funding from DoCS has been frozen since 1989 and now represents les than 25% of the operating costs of the service. The average fee for DoCS funded preschools is now over $30 per day. Parents who are working or studying part time are also able to receive a very small amount of money from the Commonwealth Government but this is not at all equitable to CCB for long day care services.
  • On the other hand, DET preschools are funded to a level that enables families to pay fees of between $0 and $5 per day.

Currently the focus in DoCS is on child protection issues (as it should be), but this results in the education and care of young children in children’s services becoming a low priority – as reflected in the current funding levels. DET has a main focus on the education and care of children; however, there are curriculum issues that need to be addressed. Prior to school settings are not just about preparing children for school! There is much evidence about the importance of the early years to support the significant role that prior to school settings play in young children’s learning and future growth to justify recognition in their own right.

• All early childhood services in NSW to be funded and regulated equally. This would include the requirement for DET preschools to fully comply with the Children’s Services Regulation 2004. 
• Children with additional needs to be included in the universal mainstream and additional resources to be made available to ensure true inclusion.
• Provision of resources to ensure prior to school services and schools can be involved in meaningful transition to school programs. This would take into account the needs of families where both parents are working and build on the extensive work already undertaken by Dr Bob Perry & Dr Sue Dockett, University of Western Sydney.
• Ensure better planning of all children’s services and DET preschools so that new services are not established where others exist. New services should be located where no others exist and consideration needs to be given to the development of new schools as 'hubs' of their new community.
• Work in partnership with other government departments for example Health.

• As stated earlier, NSW needs to ensure universality of access to high quality and affordable early childhood education for all children. Children with additional needs are to be included as are children from disadvantaged areas, children living in rural and remote areas, children with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander backgrounds.
• Develop and promote the importance of the early years for children’s learning and development in the community. This does not mean children need to be 'hot housed' with structured learning experiences in order to get a 'head start' in a competitive way, but rather emphasise the significance of the development of children’s self esteem, early literacy and numeracy experiences and social experiences in the home and early childhood setting. The image of what parents can do with their children in their everyday life to enhance their development; the role that children’s services can play and the quality that parents can expect needs to be promoted. 
• Investigate the possibility of more than one intake into starting school – not just at the beginning of the year where we have children starting school with age ranges of 4 ½ years to at 5 ½ years. A great deal of work was done on this issue several years ago and other states have models in place that better cater for individual children. 
• Early childhood services and all K to 2 classes in schools to be staffed by specialist early childhood university trained teachers (birth to 8 years). 
• Schools have the potential to be a hub of the community, with the ability to extend on the Schools as a Communities model to incorporate more community facilities, such as Health, Playgroups, Housing and Out of School Hours Care to be located on one site. 
• Strengthen prior to school services to include the availability of health and family support services. 
• Strengthen the NSW governments’ Families First strategy to include children’s services where there are low enrolments with vacant rooms that can be used for supported playgroups with qualified early childhood staff available.
• Re-introduce health screening checks for children (such as medical, dental, hearing and vision checks) in prior-to school services to ensure that a number of screening visits occur prior to school. 
• Increased provision of affordable resources to support parents with children who have been identified with delays or disabilities (such as psychologists, speech pathologists etc).
• Strengthen the links between the agencies that work with children with disabilities in prior to school settings and school staff.
• All Kindergarten to Year 2 classes to have a maximum class size of 20 children. 
• More bilingual teachers’ aids to be employed to work in classrooms to ensure full inclusion for CALD children.
• More support to be given to teachers to ensure inclusion of children with disabilities.
• Transition to school programs to be developed for children who do not access any children’s service prior to starting school. 
• Educational programs for Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander children need to be re-looked at in consultation with their communities.

• All schools to be the provider for Out of Schools Hour Care, located on the premises, and operated by qualified teachers. This would reflect the changing work practices of families and ensure children’s safety. It has the potential to attract children to enrol in under utilised schools and to attract qualified teachers back into the workforce on a part time basis.
• Improved daily communication between teachers and parents, especially in Kindergarten. Parents need to have more access to teachers for daily communication about their child’s day.
• An open door policy for parents would establish a sense of collegiality and ensure more collaborative relationships.
• Expand the Schools as Communities program to other schools.
• Appoint more bilingual workers to liaise with communities.
• Transition to school programs to be offered in a variety of settings and implemented in a variety of ways to suit local communities.

3. Students – Primary School Years
3a What changes would you like to see generally for primary education in the future?

• Early childhood services and all K to 2 classes in schools to be staffed by specialist early childhood university trained teachers (birth to 8 years). 
• Schools have the potential to be a hub of the community, with the ability to extend on the Schools as a Communities model to incorporate more community facilities, such as Health, Playgroups, Housing and Out of School Hours Care to be located on one site. 
• Employment of more bilingual teachers aids to work in the classroom to ensure full inclusion for CALD children.
• Re-establishment of community & dental health services provided in schools particularly in disadvantaged areas.
• Provision for refrigeration of children’s lunches.
• Improved toilet facilities that are both hygienic and pleasant for children. 
• Suitable play equipment (that meets Australian / New Zealand playground standards) that encourages gross motor development and increases physical activity in free play time. 
• Increased supervision of children during recess and lunch play times.

• In the early years of school, it is important that reporting and assessment focus on the individual child within the group setting with more emphasis on process rather than simply just outcomes. There needs to be more systemic flexibility in the early years when learning patterns differ greatly from child to child.

• The value of pre service professional experience in child studies courses needs to be recognised and funded as a core component of the curriculum.

• Careers advisors in schools need to be better informed and resourced about career pathways for students who undertake studies in early childhood courses.

• Regularly consult with employers regarding skills and knowledge required to be competent in the workplace.

• Financial incentives and some type of recognition needs to be given to attract teachers into these areas. We need to have some of our most experienced and inspirational teachers working in schools with disadvantaged families if we are to break the poverty cycle. 
• Specialist early childhood qualified staff need to have a clear career structure within DET.
• Teachers working in both prior to school and school settings should have equivalent pay. At the moment, the prior to school services cannot match school staff’s salaries as any increase in staff’s salaries has a direct impact on the fees that families are required to pay.

• The value of pre service professional experience placement needs to be recognised and funded as a core component of the course curriculum. In latter years, we have seen a decrease in professional experience placements for student teachers because of cuts in funding to universities and we believe this will eventually have a detrimental effect on the calibre of teachers entering the teaching profession.
• It is difficult for university courses to keep up to date with changing legislation such as OH & S, Accreditation, Child Protection and the Regulations. There needs to be some flexibility built into university courses which will allow for these current issues to be addressed with students before they enter the field.

• Within a complex society where knowledge and facts are either changing or being questioned constantly, it is important that children are given opportunities to problem solve, learn how to search out information, use technology, debate, develop good written and verbal communication skills, resolve conflict, care for the environment, care for others in our society and develop long lasting relationships. Some of this cannot be measured in a clear outcomes manner but can be seen in many of our great leaders.

• Increase the number of Schools as Communities programs across the state.
• Strengthen transition to school programs to enable school staff to visit prior to school settings and vice versa.
• Develop deeper relationships with prior to school children’s services.
• Make the school premises more available to the community. Outside School Hours Care programs and Vacation care programs could be run by DET.
• Provide opportunities for families to be involved in the planning and evaluation processes in place in their child’s classroom.
• Invite more parents into the classroom to share their expertise.

• Release time for teachers to attend interagency meetings.
• Joint funding submissions to meet local needs.
• Joint inservice and staff development programs for school staff, children’s services staff and staff from other community agencies. 
• Use of school premises for interagency meetings.