Documentation: Do you document too much, too little or too late?

Documentation: Do you document too much, too little or too late?

ECA recently launched a new series of Learning Hub modules on Digital Documentation and Technology in collaboration with Storypark. We note here that there is no requirement to use digital documentation and if settings choose to engage in digital…
Empowering the child in 2020

Empowering the child in 2020

‘Children leave the caregiver; the caregiver does not leave the child.’ Who would have thought that a global pandemic would lead to a world where social normality and early childhood practice was completely transformed? In early childhood,…
Kindergarten funding, time for an ongoing commitment

Kindergarten funding, time for an ongoing commitment

Since 2013 children across Australia have been attending kindergarten for 15 hours each week. For eight years they have been the beneficiaries of a funding partnership between the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments. These children…
Partnerships with families of young children with disabilities

Partnerships with families of young children with disabilities

Educators are in positions of enormous privilege in the relationships they share with young children and their families. Such relationships are built on trust and respect, even when early childhood education and care may also be a necessity…
Avoiding burnout together

Avoiding burnout together

Through Australia’s bushfires, COVID-19 and a number of other highly stressful events in the past few years, educators, learning communities, families and children have shown resilience and supported each other’s mental health and wellbeing.…
Finding the balance: Play-based learning and intentional teaching

Finding the balance: Play-based learning and intentional teaching

A play-framework for play-based learning and intentional teaching in early childhood education Balancing open-ended play and intentional teaching in early childhood education can be difficult. Open-ended play can appear to be at odds with…
Celebrations: Easter

Celebrations: Easter

Celebrations. To do, or not to do? Is it even that simple? Early childhood educators are often faced with ongoing internal discussions, rules, policies or expectations about how national celebrations such as Christmas and Easter are marked.…
Open the world to children through books

Open the world to children through books

Books and the stories they contain have the power to connect communities and help children learn and grow values and empathy. There are hundreds of wonderful books for children written and published each year. Sometimes as educators and as parents,…
Five reasons your service should support a trainee early childhood educator

Five reasons your service should support a trainee early childhood educator

As Australia’s early learning sector continues to grow, its benefit to young children as well as to future prospects of the Australian economy are increasingly being recognised, both by the government and the general community. Despite…
An EYLF wish list: What’s on yours?

An EYLF wish list: What’s on yours?

Rolled out more than ten years ago and a key element of the National Quality Framework, the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) has had an enormous positive impact on early childhood education in Australia. The review process, which is…
Five tips for leading professional learning

Five tips for leading professional learning

There’s no doubt that professional learning is essential for educators. It provides opportunities to share, network, set and achieve goals within the early education space, and it is inherently linked to quality outcomes for children. But…
Remote Karen-Hope

Silver linings and unexpected outcomes—early childhood professional placements in the time of COVID-19

Less doing means more listening  More listening means deeper understanding  Deeper understanding means authentic connections  Authentic connections mean stronger relationships   Stronger relationships mean deeper respect  Deeper…