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Family School Partners            February 2010

Early Childhood Education

In this first issue for 2010, we're going to focus on early childhood education, preparing children for the transition to school and the role that parents play.

Recent Developments

Australian Early Development Index

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/

Early Childhood Education National Partnership

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

National Quality Framework

The National Quality Framework will put in place a new National Quality Standard to ensure high quality and consistent early childhood education and care across Australia.

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

More still needed in overhaul of early childhood education

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 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

Research

Child care and early education in Australia - The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children

by Linda J Harrison, Judy A Ungerer, Grant J Smith, Stephen  R Zubrick, Sarah Wise with Frances Press, Manjula Waniganayake and The LSAC Research Consortium

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

Resources

Aussie Educator

Self-described as "a total education page for Australia", this is a website run by a couple of highly experienced educators.

"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

Alternative Approaches

Reggio Emilia

The Reggio Emilia philosophy and approach to early childhood education has developed and continues to evolve as a result of over 40 years of experience within a system of municipal infant-toddler centers and preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy.

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/

Preparing for School

The Queensland Government has launched a discussion paper on the future of education as part of its plan to provide all Queensland children with a flying start in life.

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.

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

Selecting a School

By now, most stakeholders in the education system will have heard about the Federal Government's My School initiative. 

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

 
  Tell  us your story

The Bureau wants to build up a collection of video stories about schools that we can use to inspire other schools and their communities. Contact us at info@familyschool.org.au.