The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority has set up a website that allows visitors to compare NAPLAN test results of almost 10,000 Australian schools.

One of the specific uses for such a tool is to help parents select a school for their child by comparing results on the literacy and numeracy tests from within a local area.

While the website is not hard to use, it is definitely worth reading some of the accompanying material, in order to get the most out of it.

In particular, it’s important to understand what the NAPLAN tests measure, how the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage is calculated and what it affects, and how to interpret the data on the website.

All of these topics are covered on the My School Resources page, as well as specific information for parents, an explanatory video, flyers in 18 community languages and a list of frequently asked questions and their answers.

Read more at http://www.myschool.edu.au/Resources.aspx

“… 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.

Read more at http://deta.qld.gov.au/aflyingstart/

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

Parents, who started the schools in the 1940s, continue to participate to ensure the schools reflect the values of the community.

From the beginning, the late Loris Malaguzzi, leader, philosopher and innovator in education, who was then a young teacher, guided and directed the energies of those parents and several teachers. Through many years of work with them, he developed an education based on relationship, which has become widely known and valued.

The Reggio Emilia approach is built upon a solid foundation of connected philosophical principles and extensive experience. Educators in Reggio Emilia have been inspired by many early childhood psychologists and philosophers, such as Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, Gardner and Bruner.

Parents are a vital component to the Reggio Emilia philosophy. Parents are viewed as partners, collaborators and advocates for their children. Teachers respect parents as each child’s first teacher and involve parents in every aspect of the curriculum. It is not uncommon to see parents volunteering within Reggio Emilia classrooms throughout the school.

This philosophy does not end when the child leaves the classroom. Most parents who choose to send their children to a Reggio Emilia program incorporate many of the principles within their parenting and home life. Even with this bridge between school and home, many people wonder what happens to Reggio children when they make the transition from this style of education to a non Reggio Emilia school. The answer is that there is some adjustment that must take place.

In most school environments, intellectual curiosity is rewarded, so students continue to reap the benefits of Reggio after they’ve left the program.

The influence of the Reggio Emilia approach is being felt increasingly in government and non-government schools across Europe and North America.

In our own region, there is a conference in Singapore from 4-6 March called The Reggio Emilia Approach to Education: Experiences in Dialogue, at which Amelia Gambetti and Emanuela Vercalli from Reggio Children will present the experience of the Municipal infant toddler centres and preschools.

Download the conference flyer at http://childcarewa.com/files/admin-images/Reggio_Conference_Date_Claimer.pdf

A study tour to Reggio Emilia has been confirmed for the 12th-16th April, 2010. For details, go to: http://www.reaie.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=179

Read more about Reggio Emilia in Australia at http://www.reaie.org.au/

“We have a combined period of almost 70 years teaching as classroom practitioners, executives, principal, librarian, casual and Relief from Face to Face teacher.

In all these situations, we were often in the difficult position of not knowing what was happening in other states, or even how to find out.

Additionally, we were in schools with extensive English as a Second Language requirements, worked with classes for children with disabilities and classes for students who were gifted. Each became a learning experience that, in many cases, required us to ‘start from scratch’ in terms of where to find both general and specific information to make us as effective as possible.

This site attempts to remedy the situation we faced. We only wish something similar had existed when we were in schools.”

The Early Childhood Education pages are well-organised and well-laid out sets of links to relevant websites and documents, with descriptive notes mostly quoted from the resource linked to.

Read more at http://aussieeducator.org.au/education/levels/earlychildhood.html

This report was commissioned by the Australian Government Office for Women as part of the Women’s Leadership and Development Programme. The research undertaken for Child care and early education in Australia is based on data collected in Wave 1 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) from parents, children and child care/early education carers and teachers.

The Wave 1 LSAC sample comprises 5,107 infants (mean age 8.8 months, range from 3 to 19 months) and 4,983 children (mean age 4 years and 9 months, range from 4 years and 3 months to 5 years and 7 months) and their families.

The report addresses a number of questions relating to child care and early education in Australia and contains findings on these topics:

• child care and early education attendance patterns for infants and 4 to 5 year-old children
• parents’ reasons for using care and satisfaction with their infant or child’s care/education
• family, child and community factors related to current attendance at child care and early education services
• indicators of quality in formal and informal care/education programs attended by the LSAC infant or child
• developmental outcomes, such as health, social and cognitive development, for infants and children in relation to care/education attendance patterns, quality indicators, and other influencing family, child and community factors.

Read the report online at http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/about/publicationsarticles/research/socialpolicy/Documents/prp40/default.htm

Download as PDF at http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/about/publicationsarticles/research/socialpolicy/Documents/prp40/sprp_40.pdf

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 more at http://www.acer.edu.au/1/index.php/media-releases/detail/more-still-needed-in-overhaul-of-early-childhood-education

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

These changes will help providers to improve their services in the areas that impact on a child’s development and empower families to make informed choices about which service is best for their child.

At the moment quality standards across early childhood education and care services vary across Australia and there is often limited information available to help families choose the best service for their children.

The National Quality Framework will require all providers to improve services in the areas that impact on a child’s development and safety and to provide families with quality information to help them make informed choices about services.

Read more at http://www.deewr.gov.au/EarlyChildhood/Policy_Agenda/Quality/Pages/home.aspx

• 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

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/

Parents are taking a back seat in their child’s education, with almost two thirds saying they have little contact with their youngster’s teacher, a survey found today.

Over one in five (22 per cent) of parents say they do not see the benefit in keeping in regular contact with their child’s school, according to a poll by the government’s technology agency Becta.

Two thirds of teachers (67 per cent) said these parents do not realise how important their support is in helping their child to succeed at school.

More than one in five teachers (22 per cent) feel they do not have enough contact with parents.

Becta is leading a campaign urging parents to talk to schools about using modern technology to keep in touch.

It says that communications between parents and schools can be improved by using email and text messaging, and enabling parents to follow their child’s progress, including their achievements, homework assignments and attendance records online.

Their survey, of 2,000 parents and 1,000 teachers across England, shows that 59 per cent of parents contact their child’s teacher just once a term or less.

More than one in five (22 per cent) say they don’t want to add to the teacher’s workload.

Two fifths (42 per cent) of teachers say that parents lack the confidence to approach the school to discuss their child, while a similar proportion (43 per cent) admit that parents might find them “difficult to approach”.

One in 10 parents (11 per cent) say they think they will be dismissed by the teacher as a “worrier” while the same proportion say they feel they’re “imposing on the teacher’s time”.

Becta executive director Niel McLean said: “Parental engagement is vital to a child’s learning and known to help raise attainment. To do this effectively, there needs to be a meaningful dialogue between parent and school, keeping the parent informed and updated.”

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/parents-urged-to-increase-schools-contact-1815234.html

You can read the Report Introduction and Key Findings for free here: http://www.nextgenerationlearning.org.uk/AboutUs/Research/Schools-and-Parents/