Everyday leadership and lollipops Leadership is a term that has become so common that it is often taken for granted. Often there are also dominant ideas about who can lead and what leadership should look like. Ideas and images from the world of business and corporations often colour our ideas about leaders. Speaking at the […]
Mixed-age grouping is also called family grouping in education and care settings and is simply where children are grouped in mixed ages rather than the more traditional way of grouping by age. The current trend of smaller families, children spending more time in out of home care and family mobility means many children have little […]
Originally posted in 2016, this post was updated in June 2020. Children need to feel that their world is a safe place Children need to know they’re cared for, that their needs are met, and that they can get help when they need it. When children have these things they develop strong feelings of belonging […]
Written before the 2016 Federal Election, this blog post by Early Childhood Australia’s CEO Samantha Page calls on all early childhood educators to be involved in advocacy for young children. As the CEO of Early Childhood Australia I feel very proud of our organisation’s long tradition of advocating for the rights of children, parents and […]
In the past at Treehouse, we have celebrated our end of year celebrations with the traditional Santa, gifts and songs that the children would be learning over the weeks leading up to the special event. On the day the children and educators (mostly educators) would all sit around and sing these songs to their family […]
Over-attention to documentation continues, often seemingly with more emphasis on quantity than on quality. It would be heartening to hear of a service where practices were rated as outstanding in every respect and at every level, but the National Quality Standards rating was diminished because there wasn’t enough documentation! Many documented observations of children appear […]
‘Mindfulness’ as a concept and a practice has rapidly entered the zeitgeist, helping to define the spirit and ideas of our times, including in education. Not much more than a decade ago a Google search for mindfulness and education would show the Garrison Institute Initiative for Contemplative Teaching and Learning at the top of the […]
Car crashes are one of the leading causes of child death in Australia. Several thousand children aged birth to six years are hospitalised each year in Australia from injuries sustained in car crashes. And while studies by road safety researchers show that almost all young children in Australia (98 per cent) use child restraints when […]
Speech problems in early childhood are common. One in four parents of Australian children are concerned about their 4- to 5-year-old child’s speech but two-thirds of these parents don’t act on their concern. Why? What might stop them from seeking expert advice from a speech pathologist? Myth 1: Children grow out of speech problems (just […]
Element 1.2.2 Educators respond to children’s ideas and play and use intentional teaching to scaffold and extend each child’s learning. (National Quality Standard) This Element reminds educators to do more than simply notice children’s learning and congratulate them on it. When you think about extending children’s learning, what do you think about? My experience is […]
