Family-School & Community Partnerships » Early Childhood Education

Preparing for School

ronsman — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:03:30 +0000

Building on the changes wrought by the introduction of a Prep year in 2007, among the themes the Bligh government is opening up for public discussion – online, at community forums, or in writing – is Getting Ready For School, in which plans include:

“… building up to 240 new kindergartens and providing funding for long day care centres to employ qualified early childhood teachers, so that every child in Queensland can participate in an extra year of learning with a qualified early education teacher before they even start Prep.”

This is to help address the current low ratio of Queensland children who attend a kindergarten program: 29%, compared to 80%-95% elsewhere.

To see how other state & territory governments address early childhood education and the transition to school, go to:

http://www.det.act.gov.au/teaching_and_learning/early_childhood_schools
http://www.det.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/18613/Starting_School_2009.pdf
http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/gotoschool/preschool/adjusting.php
http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/gotoschool/primary/primaryindex.php
http://www.det.nt.gov.au/parents-community/schooling/stages-of-schooling
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/childrensservices/
http://www.decs.sa.gov.au/portal/community.asp?group=matters
http://www.education.tas.gov.au/early-learning
http://www.education.tas.gov.au/school/parents/starting
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/parents/earlychildhood/default.htm
http://www.education.vic.gov.au/earlychildhood/transition/default.htm
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/ece/
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/schoolsandyou

More still needed in overhaul of early childhood education

ronsman — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:00:40 +0000

The radical overhaul of Australia’s preschool sector will require better legislating for the sector and increasing the number of early childhood education teachers, according to a policy paper released today by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

The policy brief, Preschool Education in Australia, summarises the current structure of preschool in Australian in contemplation of major policy shifts announced by the Commonwealth. It follows a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) commitment last year to a “radical makeover” of the preschool sector.

COAG promised that by 2013 all preschool children would have access to high quality education programs delivered by degree-qualified early childhood teachers.

“COAG’s welcome commitment to universal access illustrates a government awareness of the long shadow cast by early learning experiences,” said ACER’s chief executive Professor Geoff Masters.

“But implementing this commitment will require significant cooperation between the Commonwealth and the States to ensure that preschools do reflect our society’s professed care for its youngest participants.”

The policy brief highlights a need for more nationally consistent and comparable preschool data. Information about the preschool sector is currently 15 to 20 years behind what is available about schools.

Read the paper at http://www.acer.edu.au/documents/PolicyBriefs_Dowling09.pdf

Early Childhood Education National Partnership

ronsman — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:59:34 +0000

The 29 November 2008 meeting of the Council of Australian Governments agreed on an Early Childhood Education National Partnership to support universal access to quality early childhood education whereby every child in the year before school has access to a pre-school program delivered:

in the 12 months prior to full-time schooling;
by a four-year university qualified early childhood teacher;
for 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year;
across a diversity of settings;
in a form that meets the needs of parents; and
at a cost that does not present a barrier to access.

For the first time the Commonwealth will be making a major investment in early childhood education for all Australian children ($970 million in Commonwealth funding, over five years to 2012-13) and the States and Territories (the States) have committed to achieving universal access to early childhood education for all children in the year before school by 2013.

Because of the different systems and approaches across the country, each State will be implementing tailored, agreed action plans, with an initial focus on 2009 and 2010.

The Commonwealth has committed $22.2 million over four years to develop a National Quality Framework, including rigorous new national quality standards for child care and pre-school and a ratings system.

Read the National Partnership fact sheet at http://www.coag.gov.au/coag_meeting_outcomes/2008-11-29/docs/20081129_early_childhood_factsheet.pdf

Read the full text of the Agreement at http://www.coag.gov.au/intergov_agreements/federal_financial_relations/docs/national_partnership/national_partnership_on_early_childhood_education.pdf

Australian Early Development Index

ronsman — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:58:07 +0000

In 2009, the AEDI was completed nationwide for the first time. Between 1 May and 31 July, information was collected on 261,203 children (97.5 per cent of the estimated national five-year-old population). This involved 15,528 teachers from 7423 Government, Catholic and Independent schools around Australia.

The initial results (available from December 2009) provide a snapshot of the early childhood development outcomes for children in communities across Australia.

The AEDI provides a measure of children’s development at the time they start school. By understanding children?s development at school entry, communities can begin to examine the ecological or environmental factors that may be influencing child development outcomes in their community.

The AEDI results provide communities with a snapshot of the development of their children across five key areas of early childhood development.

Browse geographic community snapshots at http://maps.aedi.org.au/

Read the National Report at http://video.wch.org.au/aedi/AEDI_Snapshot-2009.pdf

Read more about AEDI at http://www.rch.org.au/aedi/