Munch & Move Healthy Eating and Active Play Virtual Conferences
Professional development to extend and reflect on your knowledge and skills
Early childhood is an important time to establish lifelong healthy eating and physical activity habits. You can make a difference to the health and wellbeing of young children in your care by attending a FREE Munch & Move Healthy Eating and Active Play Virtual Conference!
There will be 2 virtual Conferences held in 2021. They will be open to early childhood education and care (ECEC) services across NSW, already trained in the Munch & Move program.
The Conferences will provide online professional development opportunities for senior staff and service leaders, with content tailored to suit directors, nominated supervisors, educational leaders and family day care coordinators.
Registration is open to one service leader per service, to allow for greater attendance and participation across NSW. A waitlist will be available for additional service leaders to attend (subject to approval).
The Conference program will extend beyond the Munch & Move program training and focus on areas of leadership, including service management, having challenging conversations with families, and programming age-appropriate active play experiences.
PLEASE NOTE: On 30th November 2020, the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) announced that all accredited Professional Development endorsements have been cancelled following an internal review. NSW Health will work to re-submit for endorsement of the coming Healthy Eating and Active Play Conferences once applications re-open in 2021. We will provide further updates as this process takes place, but please provide your Teacher Accreditation number on registration if you are working towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW. Conference delegates can also refer to the NESA website for more information: https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/teacher-accreditation/professional-development/pd-update.
Dates and eligibility
To register your ECEC service, please click the ‘Register now’ link in the table below. Please note that the 24 February Conference is only open to senior staff and service leaders from South Western Sydney and Hunter New England Local Health District (LHD) regions. Senior staff and service leaders from all NSW regions can register for the 10 March event if they have not already attended a Healthy Eating and Active Play Conference in 2019 or 2020.
If you are unsure of the region where your ECEC service is located, please click here to view a map of the LHD regions and search by suburb. If you would like to contact your LHD representative to find out more information, their contact details can be found on the Munch & Move website here.
| LHD Region | Date | Virtual Platform | Registration open | Registration close |
| South Western Sydney & Hunter New England | 24 February 2021 | Zoom | Registration Closed | Registration Closed |
| Open to all LHD regions | 10 March 2021 | Zoom | Registration Closed | Registration Closed |
Click here for the Munch & Move Healthy Eating and Active Play Virtual Conference terms and conditions.
Session speakers
To view further information on each of the speakers, please click on the images below
View a message from Catharine Hydon who will be speaking about ‘Service Management’ and ‘Conversations with families’ at the Munch & Move Healthy Eating and Active Play Virtual Conference.
Program overview
Please see below for the Conference program overview:
| Time | Event | ||
| 9.00 am—9.05 am | Acknowledgement of Country | ||
| 9.05 am—9.20 am | Welcome message and program overview | ||
| 9.20 am—10.45 am | Session 1 – Service Management Catharine Hydon |
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| 10.45 am—11.05 am | Morning tea | ||
| 11.05 am—12.30 pm | Session 2 – Programming with play Dr Yeshe Colliver |
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| 12.30 pm—1.00 pm | Lunch | ||
| 1.00 pm—2.30 pm | Session 3 – Conversations with families Catharine Hydon |
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| 2.30 pm—2.55 pm | Munch & Move support session | ||
| 2.55 pm—3.00 pm | Closing address | ||
Please note: changes to the program can be made at any point at discretion of the conference organisers.
Virtual Conference Evaluation
Munch & Move are excited to announce that we are conducting an outcome evaluation of the 2021 Healthy Eating and Active Play Virtual Conferences. We have already received positive feedback from delegates on the knowledge, skills and confidence they have gained during 2019 and 2020 Conferences. This evaluation will allow us to formally capture and use delegates’ feedback, to help us develop useful and relevant Munch & Move professional development opportunities in the future!
All ECEC leaders attending the 2021 Virtual Conferences will be asked to complete a brief survey before and after their Conference. For more information about these surveys, including how responses will be confidentially stored and analysed, please click here . If you are an ECEC leader who has registered for an upcoming Conference and you have not yet completed a survey, please contact Early Childhood Australia at rkellett@earlychildhood.org.au.
10 ECEC leaders will also have the opportunity to share their feedback and learnings during post-Conference telephone interviews. Each interview participant will receive a Coles Group & Myer gift card for $30. If you are registered for or have attended a Conference in 2021, and are interested in participating in an interview, please click here for more information.
