Early Childhood Australia

It was in 1996 that the first UK curriculum was introduced which was called ‘Desirable Outcomes’. Within the document were learning outcomes to be achieved by all children by the age of five and being a centralised system, an inspection scheme was also introduced. In this article Soler and Miller (2010) highlight how these changes were perceived to be shaping the early childhood curriculum from the outside rather than from within the early childhood community.

“In December 2009, all Australian governments, through the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), agreed to a partnership to establish a National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care (‘National Quality Framework’) for most long day care, preschool/ kindergarten, family day care and outside school hours care services in Australia. The National Quality Standard is a schedule to the National Regulations. The National Quality Standard sets a new national benchmark for the quality of education and care services. It also gives services and families a better understanding of a quality service. This enables families to make informed decisions about the services providing education and care to their child.” (NQF/NQS, 2013) Furthermore, the early childhood educator has the responsibility to guide the children towards the norms and values of the society and discipline. The respect of the existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups within the

Theories of development and frameworks to support development are incredibly important to us working with children and young people. They help us to understand children, how they react to things/situations, their behaviour and the ways they learn. Different theories and ways of working with children have come together to provide frameworks for children’s care, such as Early year’s foundation stage (EYFS) which is used within all child care settings. This encourages us to work together, help and check the development of babies, children and young people, to keep them healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to

Early childhood education curriculums are becoming a national curriculum in most countries. With more governments and society thinking about education of under-fives we are seeing shifts in thinking and education to meet the changing world. We are developing children skills for the future to create a society where children feel they belong and can contribute to society. Curriculums are being influenced my social, political, cultural, historical and theoretical issues that are impacting different curriculums in the world. I am going to explore and develop my understanding about three different curriculums to recognise the different influences affecting curriculums. I am going to explore the curriculums of Te Whāriki: New Zealand, Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia and Curriculum for Excellence: Scotland. This will allow me to develop an understanding of other curriculums which I have not heard about to discover other way to education that I have not been taught in teacher’s college.

Striving to provide high quality childcare provisions that support children’s development to reach their potential.

The range of Early Years Settings reflects on the requirements of parents and families for their children. Some parents want care for their children so that they can return to work, some may want to stay with their children while they socialise, some may want their children in a setting which offer services aimed at learning, whilst some may want their children to be in a home based environment and some families cannot afford to pay fees for provision. This is why the |Early Year’s sector has various forms of provision to meet the needs of families. Provision include

Working in partnership is essential to the development of children and young people in the early years setting and school. Partnerships are formed by positive relationships, from practitioners to parents, carers and multi-agencies. Multi-agencies are different types of servicers brought together for one purpose, which is to support the needs of the child and young person. Through this partnerships are formed with practitioners and families through the key worker system, and integrated work supports the child and young person by meeting their needs and improving their life. Integrated practices and multi-agencies work together to benefit children and young people as it brings together a range of different services which is open to the community.

Johann Pestalozzi’s work is still evident in modern practises. Most of today’s curriculum is based on child led learning because we now that children understand concepts when they have explored and found out for themselves.

This research report presents an analysis of and conclusions drawn from the experiences and perspectives of two educators that work in the early childhood setting. The main objective is to identify key elements and issues in relation to the families, diversity and difference. In particular how an early childhood educator implements, different approaches to honour culture and diversity, and to advocate for social justice in an early childhood settings. As such, it allows an insight into the important role that families and their background plays in the everyday lives of the children and educators within early childhood settings. In today’s ever-changing growing society it is essential for educators to be flexible to the

Explore Australian government policies, initiatives and legislative requirements and analyse how these documents influence curriculum, promote quality care and support the achievement of high quality outcomes for young children in Early Learning contexts.

Parents and society as a whole are realizing the importance of the first five years. They are realizing that “school readiness” is important and that we can do better for our children. As an industry, that has given early childhood the opportunity to grow both in a business sense and in an educational sense. It has given schools, like Lily Academy, the opportunity to grow the brand and has also forced all early childhood educators to reevaluate their mission and their vision for what they do and how they do it. Because of the demand for early childhood education by parents, the industry continues to grow.

The early childhood are the most vital time for learning, therefore observations, assessments, planning and evaluation are an important part of the curriculum for children’s

This is reiterated by the fact that under 30% of Australian children participated in the preschool sector in 2008, as well as educators low pay rates, lack of funding to the sector and the constant barrage of academic articles consistently reaffirming early childhood education’s worth (Albon, 2011; Keeley, 2007; Zajda, Davies & Majhanovich 2008). In spite of consistent beliefs that the EYLF (DEEWR, 2009) learning outcomes and Australian Curriculum general capabilities (ACARA, 2014) complement one another, the emphasis on meeting and recognising children’s individual and diverse learning needs have become neglected in exchange for the popularity of standardised testing (NAPLAN) (ACARA, 2014; Connor, 2011; Klenowski & Wyatt-Smith, 2011; Reid, 2009). Consequently, the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2014) has mirrored British education models by placing utmost importance on assessing the ‘essential twenty-first century skills’ of literacy and numeracy, ultimately, adopting a ‘social efficiency’ approach with its focus on producing ‘socially ideal’ ‘active and informed’ members of society as opposed to promoting the personal growth of individual citizens (ACARA, 2014; Klenowski & Wyatt-Smith, 2011; Lingard, 2010; MCEETYA, 2008; Reid, 2009; Schiro 2013).

The Early Childhood Education program at Carlow University focuses on educating children from birth to grade four in any context—school, family, or community. As a signature mark of the program, students learn how to honor diversity and form strong inclusive relationships between child and caregiver/teacher. They learn that a child’s environment needs to be rooted in trust; physically and psychologically safe. They learn that the caregiver/teacher relationship needs

In early childhood education, school readiness has been becoming an issue of concern. Early childhood educators have the responsibility to prepare the child to demonstrate certain skills, behaviour and abilities that are essential for getting them ‘ready for school’ and their ‘school-success’. Children are prepared to excel in certain key areas of learning so that they can meet certain kindergarten standards and expectations of curriculum.