Rattler Focus #2: National Quality Standard

focus community Child Care Co-operative (NSW)

National Quality Standard

2013

Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 1

Welcome

Rattler: FOCUS is published at intervals by Community Child Care Co-operative Ltd. (NSW) and funded by the NSW Community Services and subscriptions.

CEO, Community Child Care Leanne Gibbs Editorial Committee Lisa Bryant, Marie Deverill, Leanne Gibbs, Camille Howard, Eddy Jokovich, Ingrid Maack, Gerard Moon, Wendy Shepherd.

Managing Editor Eddy Jokovich (02) 9310 4955 Assistant Editor Camille Howard Art Director Deborah Kelly Design and Production ARMEDIA Subscriptions (02) 8922 6444 Annual subscription to Rattler $60.00 (4 issues).

THANKS Community Child Care Co-operative gratefully acknowledges the support of Microsoft Corporation in providing Community Child Care with free software under their Community Assistance Initiative.

Disclaimer The opinions expressed in Rattler: FOCUS are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Community Child Care Co-operative Ltd. (NSW).

Office and Postal Address Addison Road Community Centre, Building 21, 142 Addison Road, Marrickville NSW 2204 Phone (02) 8922 6444 Fax (02) 8922 6445 Email info@ccccnsw.org.au Web www.ccccnsw.org.au ABN 81 174 903 921 2 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

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elcome to Rattler: FOCUS, the second instalment of our compilations of Rattler’s greatest hits.

For this Rattler: FOCUS issue, we delved into the archives to bring you a complete series of articles that explore, explain and broaden your experiences of the National Quality Standard.

This issue presents the seven Quality Areas, written by expert academics and practitioners, as well as highlighting the quality improvement journeys of a range of services across New South Wales. We’ve also included two of our popular ‘Vox Pop’ debates on quality and the assessment and ratings process. All in all, plenty to inspire you in your own service.

Future issues of Rattler: FOCUS will compile interviews from our regular ‘Face2Face’ section, features on management and leadership, educational and political issues, historical perspectives on the evolution of our sector, and more.

Community Child Care Co-operative (NSW) continues to strive to assess and respond to the needs of our membership and, as always, we welcome your feedback at rattlermagazine@armedia.net.au Enjoy the read!

Leanne Gibbs, CEO Community Child Care Co-operative (NSW)

focus community Child Care Co-operative (NSW)

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Philosophy

Frances Press highlights the critical role philosophies play in underpinning practice.

From Rattler 104, Summer 2012

Education and engagement

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educational Health & Safety

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Kirsty Liljegren emphasises the vital role programs play in learning and development.

From Rattler 102, Winter 2012 Eliza Metcalfe and Professor Frank Oberklaid explore children’s health and safety.

From Rattler 103, Spring 2012

Landscapes for LEarning

Luke Touhill turns the spotlight on high quality spaces that support and enhance children’s learning.

From Rattler 97, Autumn 2011

Staffing

Dr Frances Press explores why staffing arrangements are fundamental to quality.

From Rattler 101, Autumn 2012

Connecting with Children

Dr Leonie Arthur explains how quality relationships with children underpin all aspects of children’s learning.

From Rattler 98, Winter 2011

Come togther!

Dr Fay Hadley and Dr Katey De Gioia explore why partnerships with families and communities really matter.

From Rattler 99, Spring 2011

National Quality Standard

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Being and Becoming Leaders

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Quality: Staff & parent insights

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NQF: Reflective Journeys

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Bring it on

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Debate

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Dialogue and debate

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Dr Manjula Waniganayake and Anthony Semann highlight how leaders, leadership and learning are inextricably linked.

From Rattler 100, Summer 2011

Researchers from Charles Sturt University share snippets from their study on quality in early childhood education and care services.

From Rattler 101, Autumn 2012 A preschool, a community-based LDC and a private LDC share their quality improvement journeys.

From Rattler 101, Autumn 2012 Four NSW-based services share their stories as they take the next step towards quality.

From Rattler 102, Winter 2012 What are the most important aspects of quality?

From Rattler 101, Autumn 2012 Would you choose to go for an Excellent rating if you had the chance?

From Rattler 104, Summer 2012

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Rattler turns the spotlight on the seven quality areas of the new National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School Age Care. Articles are written by guest authors, chosen for their special expertise and interest in the particular quality area.

The National Quality Framework incorporates the National Quality Standard (NQS) to ensure high quality and consistent early childhood education and care across Australia.

The National Quality Standard includes seven areas of quality for early childhood education and care services: 1. Educational program and practice 2. Children’s health and safety 3. Physical environment 4. Staffing arrangements, including improved staff-to-child ratios and qualifications 5. Relationships with children 6. Collaborative partnerships with families and communities 7. Leadership and service management.

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Philosophy

It underpins a service’s ability to meet all of the National Quality Standards but what does a philosophy really mean to a service? And what’s the relationship between a service philosophy and the quality of education and care?

Frances Press sheds some light.

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n education and care service’s philosophy is a ‘living’ document that forms the backbone of its operations, covering policies, beliefs, values and goals for the educational program.

According to Element 7.2.1 of the National Quality Standard (NQS): ‘A written statement of philosophy outlines the principles under which the service operates. This philosophy reflects the principles of the National Law, the Early Years Learning Framework and/or the Framework for School Age Care (or other approved learning frameworks).

‘It underpins the decisions, policies and daily practices of the approved provider, nominated supervisor, educators, co-ordinators and staff members and assists in planning, implementing and evaluating quality experiences for children.

‘It reflects a shared understanding of the role of the service with children, families and the community.’

Community Child Care’s tips for Reviewing your philosophy

v Is your philosophy statement inclusive of the values and beliefs of the families, children and staff? v How can you include families children and staff in reviewing your service’s philosophy?

v Ask the service community: ‘What are we here for?

What do we do well?’

v Collaborate to formulate belief statements as a result of the consultation and discussion. v Have you ensured that your policies, procedures, practices and interactions reflect the philosophy? v What evidence do you have of your philosophy in practice?

v What is the quality and nature of the relationships in your service between management, educators and the families and children? v What processes do you have to find out about their hopes and aspirations?

v How do you communicate with families and children? v How do you ‘self-review’, to evaluate what is working well for children and their families, and identify what could improve your practice?

v What teaching strategies do educators use to engage children in learning and support them to become competent and capable learners? Is the use of these reflected in your philosophy?

Element 7.2.1 of the NQS explicitly requires services to have a statement of philosophy to guide all aspects of operations.

In fact, the word ‘philosophy’ is mentioned almost 40 times throughout the Guide to the National Quality Standard! This frequency is indicative of the expectation that the philosophy is a ‘living’ statement designed to have a tangible impact on policies, practice and decision-making.

But what does it mean for a service to have a philosophy?

And why is a philosophy considered to be important for early education and care? Essentially a philosophy is a statement of ‘beliefs and values that underpin practice’ (Arthur et al.

Programming And Planning In Early Childhood Settings). The philosophy often relates closely to the vision for the service, the ideals those connected with the service strive to achieve. To be truly meaningful, a service philosophy is a collective one— that is, it captures the beliefs, values and aspirations of service leaders, educators, families and the community in which the service is located.

However, a philosophy is not simply a bunch of ‘nice statements’. Being both aspirational and practical, it encapsulates the setting’s ideals and, in doing so, establishes the direction the setting is headed. A philosophy that sounds nice, but that has no grounding in values, knowledge or theory, is no more than an empty promise. To be meaningful, it needs to be informed and thoughtful. So what types of considerations should inform a philosophy? These can include: v educational, developmental and social theories v research v images and beliefs about children, childhood and families v understandings of the community context v perspectives and understandings of the relationship between early education and care and society more broadly.

Ideas and Influences In developing or updating a philosophy, a service might draw upon a particular theorist or theory as a reference point, or draw upon a number of theorists and educational frameworks.

Be mindful, however, that understandings and theories may change over time in response to changes in society, shifting cultural values, or in the light of research. Early childhood education is a highly researched area, and research findings frequently offer new insights relevant for thinking about what type of services we want and how to get there.

It is also important to consider the role of early childhood education and care in relation to society more broadly. For instance, how does the philosophy reflect the guiding principles of the National Quality Framework, which require services Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 5

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A statement of philosophy … will also guide a service in developing the educational program and practice.’

Philosophy in practice The philosophy should have a tangible impact on what the service looks like, feels like and what it does. It should suffuse the work of the organisation and be apparent in pedagogy, physical environment, in daily routines, and the values evident in everyday interactions. For instance, think about what it is like to walk into early education settings that identify with a specific educational theorist, such as a Montessori preschool or Steiner preschool. Although there will always be variation between each Montessori or Steiner service, in general these settings are readily identifiable as Montessori or Steiner by their distinct approaches to pedagogy, including their understandings of children and the nature of childhood. These understandings are recognisable in the ways that environments are set up, the roles that teachers play in each setting, the materials that are used and the types of learnings that are valued.

Most Australian early childhood settings, however, draw upon a diverse range of influences and theorists in developing their philosophy. Nevertheless, the match between their stated beliefs and what they do should be evident. So how does a philosophy become ‘real’ and a trigger for quality improvement? Through active use, by being an ongoing reference point for discussion and decision making, and always prompting the question: ‘If this is what we want to achieve, what do we have to do to get there?’

There are many ways that a philosophy can be incorporated into the daily life of the service. Of course, making your service’s philosophy open and available is the place to start. v Where can your statement of philosophy be found? How do parents find out about it? Is it a selling point for your service? How does it feature in your orientation to families?

Photography: Amanda James

to support principles such as the rights of the child; equity, inclusion and diversity; the valuing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and respect for parents and families?

What role does early education and care have to play in the achievement of social justice?

Looking at these issues involves canvassing the views, educational frameworks, and aspirations of individual educators, children, parents and community members. The idea is not to bring everything together in a hotchpotch, but to deliberately and consciously acknowledge and review ideas and influences and to seek new information where needed. A collective philosophy comes out of deliberation and dialogue.

By identifying and articulating our beliefs and motivations, we create the space for discussion, we can look for common ground, we can be challenged, and we can reflect on the match between our stated beliefs and what we actually do and achieve. We lay our practices open to examination. A philosophy that is thought provoking, debated and discussed will also be meaningful.

But how long should it be? There is no right answer to this question, and services adopt many different formats for writing their philosophies. What is important is that it is written in a way that is both meaningful and usable! If you are developing or revising your philosophy, you may want to look at a number of different formats and experiment.

Once developed, a shared philosophy becomes touchstone for everyday practice and strategic decisions. As Arthur et al. point out in Programming and Planning in Early Childhood Settings (p. 171), ‘an effectively developed and documented philosophy shapes a sense of identity within a setting and creates a culture of ongoing reflection and continual improvement’.

This point is reinforced by the Guide to the National Quality Standard (p. 20), which states that: ‘Critical reflection and careful planning increase the value of children’s time in education and care by ensuring that the educational program and practice responds to children’s interests and scaffolds their learning.

How does the philosophy reflect the guiding principles of the National Quality Framework, which require services to support principles such as the rights of the child; equity, inclusion and diversity?

Can you explain your philosophy in everyday terms? v Use your philosophy to review employment and staffing practices. Ensure prospective job applicants have a copy of the service philosophy. This helps develop a good match

Addressing differences

Parents and staff may have different values and personal philosophies, so Community Child Care recommends you consider how to ask about and address these on enrolment and in practice.

For example, if a staff member has strict religious beliefs about the sanctity of the relationship between a man and a woman, they are unlikely to encompass acceptance of a range of different family structures. If parents believe the role of early childhood education and care is to prepare children for academic learning, they may not be accepting of a service that enshrines the right to play.

What the services say:

‘Our preschool philosophy is about knowing our preschool community, understanding that everyone has their own beliefs, culture and understandings of the world around them. These are brought to our preschool and this is what we see as our preschool community.’

—Louissa Janes, Director, Lyrebird Preschool.

‘We have not had any objections to our religious program as we are very clear upon enrolment what it entails.

We explain our Christian perspective is about incorporating Christian values into the way we live.’

—Cathy Moon, Director, Tregear Presbyterian Preschool.

between staff and the values of the service. v Use the philosophy as a reference point when developing/ revising job descriptions, and in staff appraisals. In this way, professional development opportunities can be provided which strengthen staff capacities to enact the philosophy. v As the Guide to the National Quality Standard asserts: ‘A sound philosophy guides decision making, including decisions about the appropriate number and deployment of suitably qualified and experienced educators, co-ordinators and staff members at the service.’ Think about how the organisation of staff facilitates your philosophy. For instance, if the philosophy positions relationships as important, how do staffing rosters enable the development of strong and responsive relationships between children and staff, staff and families? v Always use your philosophy to guide strategic planning. v Always use your philosophy in evaluation. v Take your philosophy to staff meetings. Have it on hand to support reflections upon programming, planning and routines, and to negotiate the daily complexities of providing high quality early childhood education and care.

So what is the link between a philosophy and the quality of education and care? As the Guide to the National Quality Standard explains: ‘Educators and co-ordinators are intentional, purposeful and thoughtful in their decisions and actions. They engage in reflective practice as a form of ongoing learning that involves engaging with questions of philosophy, ethics and practice.’

To this end, a robust, shared philosophy is fundamental to the provision of high quality early education and care. ★

what is it?

A new National Quality Framework (NQF) for early childhood education and care services. It includes a new National Quality Standard, streamlined regulation, a new rating system and new learning frameworks for use by education and care services.

what DOES it do?

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Increases the number of educators caring for and educating children

Provides a uniform rating system for quality across all services

Increases the qualifications of these educators

Ensures each service commits to a quality improvement plan

QUALITY

Some politicians and education and care services want to slow down NQF reforms.

Children deserve the best right now.

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Authorised by Leanne Gibbs, Community Child Care Co-operative, 142 Addison Road, Marrickville NSW 2204. Printed by Mutual Printing, Unit 6, 30–32 Beaconsfield St. Alexandria NSW 2015

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Throughout 2011 and 2012, Rattler turns the spotlight on the seven Quality Areas of the new National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School Age Care.

1 It forms the backbone of our curriculum, but an educational program without a supportive environment will fall well short of its mark. Kirsty Liljegren asks critical questions to ensure the educational program and practice supports children’s learning and development.

Education and engagement

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s educators we all aspire to have an educational program and practice that is stimulating and engaging in order to enhance children’s learning and development. How do we ensure that we can achieve this in order to fulfil each child’s potential? What does an engaging and stimulating practice look like? How does it foster children’s sense of belonging in order to further develop their sense of identity and allow them to flourish?

As we critically reflect on our practice it is important to have a strong sense of our pedagogical underpinnings together with how we see the needs of today’s child who exists in a changing world ‘…where global influences are strong and the nature of childhood is transforming. Societies are made up of people from many places with varied experiences all contributing to the richness and diversity of communities.’ (Department for Education & Child Development, 2008, p.9) A shared understanding does not come easily and is a complicated web of interconnecting elements. Loris Malaguzzi, Reggio Emilia co-founder, likened learning to a ‘tangle of spaghetti’. Everything is connected and interdependent. If children do not feel good about themselves, safe and secure, then the curriculum becomes unreachable. If the environment doesn’t nurture positive relationships and invite children to learn and stimulate their natural sense of curiosity and wonder, then how are children able to learn effectively?

In her book, Mind in the Making, Ellen Gallinsky (2010) points out seven critical areas that children need most for today and for the future: focus and self control, perspective taking, communicating, making connections, critical thinking, taking on challenges, and self-directed, engaged learning.

Services should have a strong sense of their belief systems for children, which should look and feel different according to the community that it reflects—the children, parents, grandparents and staff.

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The National Quality Standard includes seven areas of quality for early childhood education and care services:

Educational program and practice.

2. Children’s health and safety; 3. Physical environment; 4. Staffing arrangements, including improved staff-to-child ratios and qualifications.

5. Relationships with children; 6. Collaborative partnerships with families and communities; 7. Leadership and service management.

What is the quality area?

1.1 An Approved Learning Framework informs the development of a curriculum that enhances each child’s learning and development 1.2 Educators and co-ordinators are focused, active and reflective in designing and delivering the program for each child.

The process we have all undertaken to reshape our philosophy statement is a valuable one, and timely, too. Do you have strong sense of the identity of your service? What are your dreams and aspirations for your service, your children and families?

How do we make time in our extremely busy schedules to ensure our decision-making processes are based on solid foundations, and of a shared culture, values and intent. How do co-ordinators ensure all team members have an input, a voice into this shared vision?

What can we do to be relevant, current and, as per the Guide to the National Quality Standard (ACECQA, 2011), ensure the educational program and practice responds to children’s interests and scaffolds their learning?

Listen and learn Engaging all children and incorporating their interests is not a simple task, and to do this authentically, and competently, is a recipe requiring many ingredients. One of the crucial ingredients I believe is listening to children at play, supported by the important process of collaboration between educators.

What is it that these children are exploring, working though, wondering and enquiring about as they play? What are they theorising about? How do we support children as researchers, as they seek meaning from the environment they interact with?

Reggio Emilia has taught us many things about the pedagogy of listening to children; listening with all of our senses while tuned into the richness and complexities of the play. Vea Vecchi (2010) refers to the careful, respectful and tender ‘listening’ to children’s strategies and ways of thinking.

Our role as teachers is crucial; we have a responsibility to the children in our care to listen genuinely. As Carla Rinaldi suggests: ‘Observe and listen to children because when they ask “why?” they are not simply asking for the answer from you. They are requesting the courage to find a collection of possible answers.

This attitude of the child means that the child is a real researcher.

If the environment doesn’t nurture positive relationships and invite children to learn and stimulate their natural sense of curiosity and wonder, then how can they learn effectively?

As human beings, we are all researchers of the meaning of life. Yet it is possible to destroy this attitude of the child with our quick answers and our certainty. How can we support and sustain this attitude of children to construct explanations?’

(Rinaldi, 2004, p.2) Rules of engagement There are many ways that we can engage with children and scaffold their learning, both individually and in groups. This can range from one-off experiences, to experiences and projects that may last several days, weeks or even months.

Currently, at Cornish College Early Learning Centre, we are undertaking an intriguing project with the big idea being about cubbies. The intent behind this project is to build a tree-house style mezzanine cubby in the four-year-old’s room, incorporating the ideas from the children. A strong interest in cubby building by the children over the last few years has been a catalyst for us to reflect on what this means for children and learning.

Key questions we asked were: What does a cubby mean to a child? What type of play happens here?

As we research this idea, we become learners, too, alongside the children as they investigate and further develop their ideas using many languages or modes of expression.

Right from the beginning, the children’s knowledge of what a tree-house cubby is becomes a springboard for further experiences and explorations, as does listening to the children’s play in other scenarios.

At a time when we can access research so readily, we have discovered some fascinating and useful information though Facebook, blogs and books to further understand and make sense of the learning that is occurring.

As Elizabeth N. Goodenough wrote in her foreword to Special Places: ‘Children know the importance of hiding out, of finding the “just for me place” where they cannot be seen.

Peeking through a hollowed-out hedgerow or climbing a tree

is the initial discovery of a “self-ish” space, a site detached from parents, siblings, teachers, or peers … We like to imagine that when this place of discovery is outdoors, children will find that the best things in life are still free: sand, air, trees, animals, water.

‘What girls and boys want most of all is to “make a world in which to find a place to discover a self.” However humble the shelter, these first getaways and solo vantage points live on in memory and imagination.’ (Sobel, 2002, p.viii) Learning strategies Documenting children’s play and ideas allows us to analyse and share the strategies and thinking used by the children as they work together. This makes the learning visible to the child and the community, and is an important resource for us as we reflect on the learning that has taken place and could occur in the future.

Of course, it’s not feasible to document all that we do with children, so it is important to be selective, prioritising what we are documenting, together with having a strong sense of “why?”: what is the purpose behind it, who is it for?

Doing this enables children to be authors of their own learning, together with what you decide is important for them to know or understand. It enables us to be selective, think things through, to research and gain insights into the child—their questioning, hypothesising and wonderings both as individuals and in groups.

Through careful consideration we can find the right balance of being in the moment with children together with making some of their learning visible through a variety of forms.

Solid foundations The choices we make about the way our environment supports children’s learning, how we listen to children, is directly correlated to how we view children. Do we see the competent child, or do we work from a needs-based mindset?

One of the greatest gifts of Reggio Emilia is the strong and Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 9

Making connections

What is stimulating and engaging for babies and toddlers?

The overwhelming response from staff working in the under twos room was ‘connecting with people’!

Clayton (18 months) is sitting at the table happily singing out ‘red’, ‘green’ as he sorts the wooden blocks. Sally, his teacher, joins him in the game, intentionally misnaming colours. Clayton laughs loudly, saying ‘No!’ and correcting Sally. The game continues awhile, with both Clayton and Sally showing delight and pleasure.

Later, Sally reflects on this: ‘How else could I scaffold Clayton’s interest in sorting? Does he want to cement his knowledge of colours? Is it about sharing his knowledge with me? Or is it about sharing an experience with me?’

Sally investigates further by setting up a combination of colours and shapes to sort.

In the coming weeks it becomes clear to Sally that Clayton is using his knowledge of colours to develop a strong connection to her. During this time, Clayton would run to Sally on arrival saying ‘green jumper!’ while pulling at his jumper, or pick up the yellow ball and run to Sally telling her the ball was yellow.

There is so much engagement and learning happening in this scenario. The key is an educator who is focused, reflective and who shares with the child the delight and excitement of learning.

Lynn Farrell, manager, Learning and Development Services, The Infants’ Home.

powerful image of the child, a child that actively seeks to make meaning with the world right from birth. Our society is inclined to see the needy child: the child that needs protecting, the ‘sponge’ or empty vessel waiting to be filled with knowledge.

The National Quality Standard invites us to view children as competent and capable, and this should be at the very foundation of the choices and decisions that we make with our programs and practice.

‘They [children] are autonomously capable of making meaning from their daily life experiences through mental acts involving planning, co-ordination of ideas, and abstraction … The central act of adults, therefore, is to activate, especially indirectly, the meaning-making competencies of children as a basis of all learning. They must try to capture the right moments, and then find the right approaches, for bringing together, into a fruitful dialogue, their meanings and interpretations with those of the children.’ (Loris Malaguzzi, quoted in Edwards et al, 1993, p.75).

Good intentions The concept of intentional teaching is an important one. Young children deserve the very best programs we can offer them, but what makes me nervous is its possible interpretation.

Will it mean that formal learning will be inflicted on young children because it is seen as extending children’s learning? Will worksheets be handed out because it ‘keeps parents happy’?

How do you extend children and challenge their thinking and learning? Where does play fit in? Do you feel confident articulating why play is so valuable for learning? What research 10 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

Above, intentional teaching in action: The sensory nature of the jute balls, the basket hiding the balls and the position of the basket invited curiosity and delight for Claire who was just starting to show signs of walking by frequently pulling herself to a standing position.

do we share with parents, and what do we analyse for our further understanding?

‘Intentionality utilises professional knowledge and strategies that reflect contemporary theories and research concerning children’s play, leisure and learning.’ (ACECQA, 2011, p. 42.)

So how do we tune into the richness of children’s play and build on the complexities of their learning in this context?

When looking to provide longer periods of uninterrupted time for children to go deeper with their learning, it may appear difficult. If we place a lens over our routine and reflect on what we are doing and why, could spaces be created? Are there some things that we do because we have always done them? What can you let go of, to see what possibilities can emerge?

Together with intentional teaching, we should also be mindful of the importance of a sense of joy and fun, being open to those unexpected moments.

And when thinking about our program and practice, perhaps we can be reminded of Bruner’s suggestion of ‘learning productively’, in his introduction to The Wonder of Learning.

He suggests the art of learning is about elaboration of what has been learned, rather than the acquisition and storage of information. It is about a depth of knowledge, and that ‘thoughtful learning promotes not only human competence, but also creative dignity’ (The Municipality of Reggio Emilia, 2011, p.10). Bruner titles his introduction, ‘The pursuit of the possible’, which to me is full of optimism and hope, as we should be with our attitude to what we can make possible through our exemplary practice with young children.

Kirsty Liljegren is teaching director of the Cornish College Early Learning Centre. An advocate of the Reggio Emilia philosophy, she is a regular presenter at conferences throughout Australasia. With 25 years teaching experience, Kirsty recently received a NEiTA 2011 ASG Inspirational Teaching Award for innovative practice.

References Galinsky, E. (2010). Mind in the Making: The Seven Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs, HarperStudio.

Department for Education & Child Development (2008). Reflect, Respect, Relate (Assessing for learning and development in the early years using observation scales). Government of South Australia.

The Municipality of Reggio Emilia (2011). The Wonder of Learning: The hundred languages of children, Reggio Children.

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (2011). Guide to the National Quality Standard.

Edwards, C; Gandini, L; Forman, G. (1993). The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education.

Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Rinaldi, C. (2004). Innovations in Early Education: The international Reggio Exchange, vol. 11, no. 1, Winter 2004.

Sobel, D. (2002). Special Places: Exploring the role of forts, dens, and bush houses in middle childhood, Wayne State University Press.

Van Oech, R. (2002). Exchange Everyday, Be Willing to Be Led Astray Vecchi, V. (2010). Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia: Exploring the role and potential of ateliers in early childhood education. Routledge.

Being

©2013 Deborah Kelly

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Becoming

©2013 Deborah Kelly

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Join Community Child Care Co-operative (NSW) in a creative celebration of quality early childhood education and care. This beautiful poster set features three original artworks commissioned by Community Child Care (NSW) from artist Deborah Kelly to explore the metaphors and possibilities of Being, Belonging and Becoming.

Belonging

©2013 Deborah Kelly

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For more information, call us on 8922 6444 or see: www.ccccnsw.org.au Like us! www.facebook.com/ccccnsw

Each poster is 420 x 550mm, presented on high quality matte paper in full colour, ready to frame or pin up at your service. Available for only $25 (plus $7.95 postage) for the set of three.

Purchase at www.ccccnsw.org.au/shop

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Rattler turns the spotlight on the seven Quality Areas of the new National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School Age Care.

The National Quality Standard includes seven areas of quality for early childhood education and care services:

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health and safety

Promoting health and safety goes well beyond protecting children from infection and injury.

Eliza Metcalfe and Professor Frank Oberklaid explore how a holistic approach to their wellbeing ensures all children are happy, healthy and engaged.

1. Educational program and practice

Children’s health and safety 3. Physical environment 4. Staffing arrangements, including improved staff-to-child ratios and qualifications 5. Relationships with children 6. Collaborative partnerships with families and communities 7. Leadership and service management

What is the quality area?

Quality Area 2: Children’s health and safety. This quality area focuses on safeguarding and promoting children’s health and safety.

2.1 Each child’s health is promoted

2.2 Healthy eating and physical activity are embedded in the program for children 2.3 Each child is protected

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he Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and the National Quality Standard (NQS) both emphasise the importance of health, safety and wellbeing. While these may seem like straightforward concepts, there are in fact some underlying complexities to consider.

Promoting children’s health, safety and wellbeing means more than keeping children happy and protecting them from infection and falls, though these are definitely essential components.

Quality Area 2 of the NQS, ‘Children’s Health and Safety’, highlights a holistic approach to health, safety and wellbeing and asks us to take the whole child into consideration.

This means taking the time to consider and to engage with each child in the context of their own ecology, in addition to considerations of more practical matters like good hygiene and nutritious meals. This is reflected in the EYLF, which states: ‘When early childhood educators take a holistic approach they pay attention to children’s physical, personal, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing’ (pg. 14).

Addressing children’s wellbeing as part of early education and care practice is fundamental to supporting children’s belonging, being and becoming. From the EYLF we understand that: ‘Wellbeing incorporates both physical and psychological aspects and is central to belonging, being and becoming. Without a strong sense of wellbeing it is difficult to have a sense of belonging, to trust others and feel confident in being, and to optimistically engage in experiences that contribute to becoming’ (pg. 37).

When children feel happy, well rested and are illness free, they will be most able to participate fully in all the opportunities provided by early education and care.

The importance of sleep Managing children’s variable need for sleep and rest is a critical part of maintaining their physical health and comfort. Not

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Coogee Early Learning Centre / Photography: Amanda James

‘When children feel happy, well rested and are illness free, they will be most able to participate fully in all the opportunities provided by early education and care.’

only that, but it is key to enabling children to take advantage of all the opportunities that their early education and care environment provides, which will help to set them on the path to belonging, being and becoming.

As educators know, it is also one of the more challenging aspects of the early education and care environment, and can involve skilled management of relationships with parents and other caregivers.

At the Joey Club in Melbourne, a lot of parents are shift workers at nearby Tullamarine airport. This makes the need to balance children’s sleep and rest particularly acute!

Director Julie London explains that good quality sleep and rest is one of the centre’s top priorities. ‘Sleep and rest times are relaxed and unhurried, positive experiences for our children and staff. There is no rush to have children in bed and resting or sleeping by a certain time, and the children are able to move into and from the sleep areas in their own time. Children don’t have to sleep if they don’t want to.’

To manage the relationship and communication with families, ‘we have ongoing discussions with families about how and when their children settle and sleep, beginning at the initial tour of the centre and enrolment interview, continuing at orientation sessions and throughout their time at the centre, as appropriate’.

Daily written information as well as verbal discussions (at collection or via the phone) is also provided to parents about their child’s sleep or rest routine.

At Joey Club, two separate rooms have been set up specifically for rest and sleeping, adjacent to the playrooms for the centre’s youngest children. ‘We fit in with each family’s routine and preferences for sleep, particularly in the babies’ room. This means we have children who are asleep and awake at all

different times of the day, depending on their individual needs,’ Ms London says.

Each day, educators ask the older children if they want to sleep or rest. This is done in consultation with families so that home routines are mirrored as much as possible. Those who do sleep go into a separate room adjacent to the playroom where beds are set up. Those children who do not sleep have access to the full program in the playroom.

By working with families to take children’s needs into account, the Joey Club is actively working towards Quality Area 2 of the NQS. Healthy eating and physical activity Another essential part of Quality Area 2 is the need to manage and promote healthy eating and physical activity habits.

For children who attend an early education and care setting for a full day, the setting needs to provide at least half of the child’s daily nutrition needs, which means that every day provides plenty of opportunities for modelling healthy eating behaviour. Some suggestions for ways that educators can model positive and healthy eating habits include: ◆ Consume the same food as the children; ◆ Let children serve themselves and encourage them to taste the full range of food offered; ◆ Let children eat at their own pace; ◆ Encourage children to taste all the food that’s offered, but don’t force them to do so; ◆ Don’t make tasting all the foods on offer a condition of offering other food; ◆ Do not use food as a reward, a punishment or a pacifier; ◆ Use mealtimes as an opportunity to have a conversation with the children.

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Children’s safety and protection from harm Introducing and scrupulously following infection controls in early education and care settings is critical to providing for children’s safety and protecting them from harm.

In their guide for early childhood education and care settings, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC, 2005) outlines the three most important ways of preventing the spread of infectious disease: 1. Washing hands effectively; 2. Excluding sick children and staff; 3. Ensuring immunisations are up to date.

The NHMRC notes that without these three steps, other measures to control the spread of disease—such as cleaning and food safety—simply cannot work.

A second aspect of providing for children’s safety and protection from harm is to equip the physical environment to provide a balance of challenge and safety. This is illustrated in the need for education and care services to provide spaces for active play for children that keep them safe and yet offer opportunities for children to expand their skill sets and stretch their own boundaries.

Consider your service’s provisions for active play. Do you support a wide range of supervised active play opportunities at your setting? By supporting active play you can help the children in your care to develop skills and habits that enhance their learning outcomes and provide the foundations for healthy lives (Centre for Community Child Health, 2011a).

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Finally, protecting children from harm also requires that educators understand their relevant state or territory legislation in relation to notification of suspected cases of child abuse and/ or neglect, and that services have protocols in place to support educators in this role.

Equally important is the building of relationships that may alert educators to a potential crisis within a family (Owens, 2012). Providing support, information and/or referral to appropriate local services are important actions educators can take to potentially avert a crisis situation.

There are many aspects of caring for children’s health, safety and wellbeing that require consideration in working towards Quality Area 2 of the NQS. As educators, it requires thinking of the child, family, service and the wider environment holistically.

This requires getting to know each child and considering how you can best support all the many elements that contribute to that child’s health, safety and wellbeing in an ecological way. ★ * Eliza Metcalfe is a writer and editor from the Translation team at the Centre for Community Child Health at The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne. Professor Frank Oberklaid is the Founding Director of the Centre for Community Child Health and a Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne. The Royal Children’s Hospital Centre for Community Child Health has been at the forefront of Australian research into early childhood development and behaviour for over two decades, with an objective ‘to continually improve the health of children through high-quality research, policy development, training and education, clinical services and advocacy’.

Further reading Australian Government, Department of Health and Ageing (2009).

Get Up & Grow: Healthy Eating and Physical Activity for Early Childhood [Director/Coordinator Book]. Commonwealth of Australia Centre for Community Child Health (2011). ‘Physical Activity in Education and Care’. Childcare and Children’s Health, Volume 14, No. 1. (www.rch.org.au/ccch/resources.cfm?doc_id=11808) Centre for Community Child Health (2011). ‘Sleep’. Childcare and Children’s Health, Volume 14, Number 2. (www.rch.org.au/ccch/resources.cfm?doc_id=11808) Nahikian-Nelms, Marcia (1997). ‘Influential Factors of Caregiver Behavior at Mealtime: A study of 24 childcare programs.’ The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Vol 97, Issue 5.

National Health and Medical Research Council (2005). Staying Healthy in Childcare: Preventing infectious diseases in childcare, fourth edition. Commonwealth of Australia (www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_ nhmrc/publications/attachments/ch43.pdf) Owens, Angela (2012). National Quality Standard Professional Learning Program: Health, Safety and Wellbeing. (www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/nqsplp/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/NQS_ PLP_E-Newsletter_No29.pdf)

Stringybark Family Day Care / Photography: Amanda James

Eating behaviours can be strongly influenced by the surrounding social environment (Nahikian-Nelms, 1997). Using mealtimes for positive interaction and learning encourages children to make positive associations and supports the development of healthy eating habits.

The national Get up and Grow (2009) resource adds the recommendations that educators and children: ◆ Always sit down to eat meals and snacks; ◆ Pack away play materials and set the table or other suitable space—it’s a good idea to encourage the children to help with this task; ◆ Use tablecloths or placemats to make mealtimes more special; ◆ Expect a mess at mealtimes, more so from younger children, and try not to react negatively.

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Physical environment What is the Quality Area?

The National Quality Standard (NQS) says:

Quality Area 3: Physical environment

Photograph: Sarah Scott

The physical environment is safe, suitable and provides a rich and diverse range of experiences which promote children’s learning and development.

What are the Standards?

3.1 The design and location of the premises is appropriate for the operation of a service.

3.2 The environment is inclusive, promotes competence, independent exploration and learning through play.

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landscapes for learning The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and National Quality Standards (NQS) emphasise the importance of the physical environment as both a 3 key practice and now a Quality Area to be assessed in services. And yet what does a high quality physical environment look like?

Luke Touhill looks at spaces that support children’s learning.

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he physical environment is a central component of the programs that we offer children. It is not necessarily the most important element in creating a high quality service—ultimately it will be the quality of the relationships and interactions within a centre which determines the quality of care. However the environment plays a major role in either supporting or hindering the development of such relationships.

A rich and inviting environment provides opportunities for children to explore and investigate their world at their own pace, to develop an interest in learning and to share that with others. Importantly it also provides a reflection of our views about children and families—it is a concrete measure of our beliefs and one that on first impressions can create either a sense of welcome or a sense of unease.

In the last 15 years there has been a renewed interest in the role the physical environment can play in supporting children’s learning. Much of this interest has been sparked by ideas from Reggio Emilia. To the educators of Reggio a carefully planned environment is the equivalent of an extra teacher and this idea— of the environment as a “third teacher”—has quickly become a key element in discussions about the design of children’s services. The striking differences between the preschools of Reggio and those of Australia (or, for that matter, the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom) has prompted considerable debate about the adequacy of existing approaches to service design and organisation, the result of which has been a major reappraisal within the early childhood field of how environments for children should look.

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The significance of this debate, and of the influence of Reggio Emilia, can be gauged from the fact that it is difficult now to imagine any serious discussion of physical environments without some reference to Reggio. And yet there is also a downside to this interest in Reggio. For some, the sheer beauty and elegance of the Reggio preschools has overshadowed the more important lessons as to how an environment can be designed and organised to promote children’s learning. We have therefore seen a movement to more careful presentation of play materials and greater consideration of the “aesthetics” of children’s environment. Welcome as this is, on its own it does relatively little to change children’s experience of early childhood settings and support their learning. Beautifying a dysfunctional environment will do little to address underlying issues caused by lack of space or poor organisation. Wicker baskets may be a step up from ice cream containers and shoe boxes but without deeper thinking as to how the environment as a whole can support or hinder children’s learning they remain window dressing.

Deeper thinking required In this article I would like to explore how we can move our thinking about the physical environment beyond just aesthetics to also include ideas about how we organise space and how our spaces help to structure children’s play and learning.

One of the first things to understand about our environments is that they affect our behaviour, often in ways that we are not consciously aware of. For both adults and children the environment gives us cues as to what is expected. How the environment is arranged can also make behaving in certain ways easier or harder. In the late 1960s American researchers Sybil Kritchevsky

Photography: Sarah Scott / Ingrid Maack

Arkki Daycare Centre, Helsinki. The value of permanency: would an area as rich and inviting as this be possible if it had to be regularly packed away and used for something else?

Mia-Mia Child and Family Study Centre, Macquarie University, Sydney.

A dedicated dining area is not always possible. If it is, it frees up space elsewhere and also allows for an eating space that feels like somewhere you might actually like to eat.

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landscapes for learning

‘Do we provide materials that are open-ended and flexible and allow children to engage in the kind of complex learning that we know is so valuable? ‘

and Elisabeth Prescott investigated just this—how does the way that the environment is organised affect behaviour? 40 years later their findings are still relevant: ‘What is in a space, a room or a yard, and how it is arranged can affect the behaviour of people; it can make it easier to act in certain kinds of ways, harder to act in others…

One of the most effective predictors of program quality [is] physical space…

The higher the quality of space in a centre, the more likely were teachers to be sensitive and friendly in their manner toward children, to encourage children in their self-chosen activities, and to teach consideration for the rights and feelings of self and others. Where spatial quality was low, children were less likely to be involved and interested, and teachers more likely to be neutral or insensitive in their manner, to use larger amounts of guidance and restriction, and to teach arbitrary rules of social living.’

Space therefore not only affects children’s learning but also influences how we as adults behave and even how we interact with children.

The implications of this for how we think about and use our environments are far reaching and yet sadly, are too often ignored. As Deb Curtis and Margie Carter note: ‘Early childhood program spaces are seldom put together with conscious sustained attention to the values they communicate or the effect they have on the children and adults who spend their days in them.’

We tend instead to take our surroundings for granted and, without the conscious attention that Curtis and Carter urge, it is easy for children’s services to become institutions in the worst sense of the word. For the educators of Reggio Emilia this is the worst possible outcome: ‘The idea is that we should avoid any choice or solution that would make a school building a sterile rather than a living space.’

Look around, be inspired!

In encouraging us to be reflective, the EYLF encourages us to look closely at our environments not just in terms of how they meet a set of building standards, or in terms of their functionality, but also in terms of how they can support our program. So, while 18 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

the National Quality Standard assesses the physical environment directly under Quality Area 3 the environment will also be an important contributor to what is happening in Quality Area 1 – Program and Planning and Quality Area 5 – Relationships with Children. Beyond simply thinking about what materials and equipment we set out we need to consider deeper questions about how our environments support our implementation of all of the principles and practices contained in the EYLF. If, for example, we recognise the importance of sustained shared thinking for learning then we need to consider how our environment supports it actually happening. How does the environment promote children and adults engaging deeply with each other without interruption or distraction from others? If an environment is hard to supervise because of its layout, size and shape then this becomes far more difficult. An educator who is constantly having to look over their shoulder to see what is happening elsewhere is far less likely to be able to engage in a meaningful interaction with a child or small group of children at the same time.

Similarly, if we value holistic learning then we need to think about how our environment supports it—do we provide materials that are open-ended and flexible and allow children to engage in the kind of complex learning that we know is so valuable? And does the environment allow children to combine and use different materials in new ways that will enhance their learning and understandings?

Or, if we want to provide for continuity of learning, how does our space allow this to happen? Are children able to leave what they are working on and return to it later? Lack of space within many (if not most) children’s services buildings typically means that playrooms are often places where children eat and sleep as well as play. Such arrangements mean regular interruptions to pack away and reorganise the room. If materials are packed away every one to two hours, there may be little incentive for children to engage in complex play or construction—knowing they have only a limited amount of time and that what they do will then be packed away. Where spaces are shared there is often little chance for children to develop longer-term projects which continue from morning to afternoon, let alone those that may continue for days or weeks at a time. If we value the depth of learning that such projects provide then we need to think of ways to create spaces that can stay undisturbed for periods of time.

Equally important is how much actual physical space we are able to provide for different experiences. As Kritchevsky and

national quality framework

Qualified staff due to NQF 2010 2020 Certificate III

Prescott found, where space is limited educators often find themselves exercising more control over groups of children to ensure harmony and prevent conflict. At the same time there is often no ability for children to spread out or to find their own space. Interruptions and distractions caused by closely adjoining play areas mean that children’s play may not develop as it could in a larger space. If, for example, the block area is too small then how much opportunity is there for children to build complex and interesting constructions? Or for groups of children to work together, or for different groups of children to work on their own projects side by side?

If we value autonomy, independence and agency then how does our environment allow children to have a degree of control over their surroundings—where in the environment do they get to make choices about what they play with and how they play?

And what about the importance of natural materials and the chance to engage with natural surroundings? The EYLF and NQS make clear how important such experiences are and yet many services have been designed with little or no natural space. How can we bring nature into such environments in a way that is meaningful and not tokenistic? None of these things are necessarily easy to do—especially in services that have been designed to comply only with minimum standards and space requirements. However if we recognise the importance of the physical environment to what happens in a space then the time and effort needed to create rich, engaging and beautiful environments becomes worthwhile. Equally, when we recognise the vital role that the environment plays in either supporting or hindering our work with children, we can start to consider our environment in a broader way—not just in terms of what goes where, or how it looks, but in terms of how it can promote and guide children’s learning and relationships.

Luke Touhill works as a project officer with Community Connections Solutions Australia (CCSA). He has over 15 years experience as a teacher, director and manager in a range of early childhood settings. Luke has a strong interest in service design and the physical environments of children’s services. His Ph.D. from Macquarie University investigated the design of children’s services in Australia.

References Curtis, D. & Carter, M. (2003) Designs for living and learning: Transforming early childhood environments. St Paul, MN: Redleaf Press Greenman, J. (2005) Caring spaces, learning places: Children’s environments that work (2nd edition). Redmond, WA: Exchange Press Kritchevsky, S. & Prescott, E. with Walling, L. (1977) Planning environments for young children: Physical space (2nd Edition).

Washington, DC NAEYC.

14,000

34,000 diploma

28,000

13,500 teacher

9,700

17,500

Source: Hansard, Senate Estimates, Education,

Employment and Workplace Relations Legislation Committee 14/2/2013 p 22.

don’t mess with our

Produced by Community Child Care Co-operative NSW

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Staff members must build strong relationships with children and families, engage with one another in respectful and informed ways, and productively work with other professionals and community members in the best interests of children. Dr Frances Press explores why staffing arrangements are fundamental to quality.

Throughout 2011 and 2012, Rattler turns the spotlight on the seven Quality Areas of the new National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School Age Care.

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The National Quality Standard includes seven areas of quality for early childhood education and care services: 1. Educational program and practice; 2. Children’s health and safety; 3. Physical environment; S taffing arrangements, including improved staff-to-child ratios and qualifications.

5. Relationships with children; 6. Collaborative partnerships with families and communities; 7. Leadership and service management.

What is the quality area?

4.1 Staffing arrangements enhance children’s learning and development and ensure their safety and wellbeing.

4.1.1 Educator-to-child ratios and qualifications are maintained at all times.

4.2 Educators, co-ordinators and staff members are respectful and ethical.

4.2.1 Professional standards guide practice, interactions and relationships.

4.2.2 Educators, co-ordinators and staff members work collaboratively and affirm, challenge, support and learn from each other to further develop their skills, to improve practice and relationships.

4.2.3 Interactions convey mutual respect, equity and recognition of each other’s strengths and skills.

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arly education and care settings are dynamic, people-oriented places. Not only do educators have a focus on children, they have relationships with, and responsibilities toward parents and each other. They liaise with professionals and community members inside and outside the setting. Indeed, staff are fundamental to the quality of care and education. No wonder then, that Quality Area 4 of the National Quality Standard focuses on staff.

This quality area addresses the issue of staffing in two key ways. Standard 4.1 emphasises the need for employment arrangements and daily staffing practices to meet, at the very minimum, regulated staffing requirements. Standard 4.2 builds on this floor of staffing to consider the professional, pedagogical and ethical dimensions of the work that staff do.

Why meeting—or building on—staffing standards is vital Adhering to minimum standards regarding qualifications and ratios is extremely important. Not only do standards establish a baseline necessary for children’s health and safety, they are foundational to educators’ capacity to provide good quality care and education. Research establishes that when recommended standards are met, children do better. When these are not met, children do not fare as well.

In the first instance, minimum staffing standards are an important means of ensuring children’s health and safety. For instance, higher numbers of staff to children allow educators to better monitor and promote healthy practices that reduce the transmission of disease. In addition, better ratios are associated with fewer situations involving potential danger and abuse.

Photography: Ingrid Maack

Although healthy and safe environments are important, these are only one part of the quality equation. The standards that are established for staff to child ratios and qualifications have a very big impact on staff and child interactions. Staff working within professionally recommended staff to child ratios tend to be more sensitive, less harsh and less detached with children.

They are able to respond to children’s individual characteristics and engage with children in a more stimulating, responsive, warm and supportive manner. In addition, children with more complex needs benefit from greater adult attention. Infants especially benefit from high numbers of staff.

In the consultations for the first ACT Children’s Plan, Hearing young children’s voices (2004), children were asked to describe the best preschool in the world. This quote from Bronte (aged four) reminds us what ‘too many’ children can feel like from a child’s perspective: ‘I’m happy in this picture at the lucky, lucky preschool because it’s no noisy there. There aren’t too many kids. The teachers sit down and talk to you all the time. They let you decide what to do all the time. They don’t tell you what to do.’

However, the proportion of staff to children is only one part of the equation. Another is the qualifications and training of staff. Appropriate qualifications make an extremely important contribution to the quality of the environment. Specialist training is important for all primary contact staff whether they are based in a centre or home. For instance, in relation to family day care, caregiver education and training consistently emerges as having a positive impact on quality, and counts much more than experience. Specialised training is associated with more positive and less detached care-giving.

In relation to centre-based ECEC, the Effective Provision of Preschool Education (EPPE) study in the UK found that qualified

‘Staff working within professionally recommended staff-to-child ratios tend to be more sensitive, less harsh and less detached with children.’ staff encouraged children to engage in more challenging play.

The most highly qualified staff were the most effective in their interactions with children and used the most sustained shared thinking with children. Further, when qualified teachers work alongside other staff, the interactions of all staff improved.

It is clear that the number and qualifications of staff directly influence pedagogical approaches, interpersonal interactions, decision-making, and the organisation of the environment. But are they enough?

Good quality care is much more than ratios and qualifications Of course, it is possible to have the mandated numbers of qualified staff and still have poor or mediocre early years care and education. That’s because it is what staff do and how their knowledge is applied that is important. So let’s think about the real and enduring impact of staff and the multiple dimensions of their work. The quality of children’s and families experiences of the early childhood environment hinge on relationships and interactions with staff and the pedagogical decisions that staff make. In turn, staff themselves need to work in an environment that nurtures their professionalism and enables them to professionally grow and flourish.

Relationships are central to the quality of the service and staff relationships encompass many dimensions. Staff members must be able to build strong, knowledgeable relationships with children and families, to engage with one another in respectful, Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 21

informed ways, and to productively work with other professionals and community members in the best interests of the children.

Children need to be able to build trusting relationships with staff. Staff need to take the time to build relationships with families, understand the children with whom they spend their time, and plan accordingly. Children require warm, nurturing interactions with staff and learning programs based on an understanding of their development. In addition, staff need the knowledge base, time and opportunity to reflect on and respond to the individual and cultural nuances of each child’s development as well as children’s collective needs.

Consider these excerpts from children’s descriptions of the best preschool in the world: ‘The teachers hug me at preschool’ (Luca, aged four). ‘I look happy because I played with all my friends and the teachers were lovely and they didn’t tell everyone to go to sleep for 20 minutes’ (Elyse, aged five).

Friendly and mutually respectful daily interactions between educators and families are important building blocks for good relationships. They create familiarity and open up the space for longer discussions and conversations. However, they are not in themselves enough. Families need to feel that they are able to initiate longer conversations, to discuss problems openly, to offer suggestions and insights. Actively inviting families’ participation and perspectives is crucial (and not only when ‘things’ appear to go wrong!). At the same time, educators need to share their information about the child’s day and actively collaborate with families about what happens for children at the centre. In the EPPE study, a characteristic of high quality settings was the nature of the relationship between parents and staff. Childrelated information was shared between parents and staff, parents contributed to decisions about their child’s learning program, and centres shared educational aims with parents.

For relationship building to happen, it is important to think about how staffing is administered. Staff consistency is a key element in the establishment and maintenance of strong, trusting relationships with children and families. What considerations drive the organisation of rosters? Does each child have a primary caregiver/educator? What opportunities do families have to become familiar with their child’s educator?

Some research indicates that families prefer to speak to educators at the end of the day. But are rosters organised so families get the opportunity to engage with their child’s primary educator? If this is not possible, how do families get a sense of the team’s responsibility for their child? Is it easy for parents to ‘work out’ the communication system? What about relief staff? Is it possible to build a pool of relief staff that children and families can get to know, and who in turn become familiar with the expectations of the service? The nature of children’s and family experiences need to come into focus when the decisions are made about such administrative aspects of staffing.

Standard 4.2 emphasises the need for respectful and ethical relationships between all staff in the setting. In doing so it recognises the importance and impact of a healthy organisational climate. A sense of shared purpose and mutual respect for one another’s contributions creates a positive and palpable atmosphere felt by all. This observation from a parent about staff in their child’s centre illustrates the impact of staff relationships upon the ‘feel’ of the service: ‘That’s the one thing I’ve found, that they’re really close and they seem to take changes enthusiastically and they’ve got a good bond. It’s nice, because you know that there’s no tension, bringing your kids in.’

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‘While each staff member brings a unique combination of propensities, knowledge, skills and expertise, it is the working environment that enables staff strengths to flourish and supports all staff to develop.’

It is important that professional standards are used as a reference point for ‘practice, interactions and relationships’ (Quality Element 4.2.1). Professional standards can include (but are not limited to) the ACECQA framework, the Early Years Learning Framework, a service’s philosophy and policies, and the ECA Code of Ethics.

However, in order to come alive in practice, such documents must be referred to in the context of purposeful and reflective professional discussion and dialogue. So Quality Elements 4.2.2 and 4.2.3 stress the importance of building strong professional collaborations, based on a preparedness to learn from one another and a strong ethic of enquiry. The following quote from a 2008 study on the impact of professional development captures the positive impact that such a commitment can make.

‘I find this place really interesting. I can’t put my finger on what it is, but there’s a really good atmosphere here of encouraging people’s ideas, even though everybody’s got a very strong personality, with strong opinions, they still respect each other’s ideas.’

Administrative and management decisions concerning staffing are important enablers of strong relationships and professional growth. While each individual staff member brings a unique combination of propensities, knowledge, skills and expertise, it is the working environment that enables staff strengths to flourish and supports all staff to develop.

‘I’m very passionate about continuing learning and promoting learning, because I think it brings motivation. And if you’re following your interests, like we do with the children, you’ll learn more.’

For managers and administrators in the day-to-day, it is easy to think about staffing as just another task—filling that vacancy, finding relief staff, and organising rosters. If each of these tasks is taken as an opportunity to build a vibrant team that ‘acts in the best interests of children’ (ECA Code of Ethics) great progress can be made toward continually improving the quality of the setting. For instance, the philosophy of the service can be a touchstone for thinking about the qualities and skills that might be desired of staff. In turn, this can be reflected in employment processes and professional development opportunities. Teams do not flourish unless they are given opportunities to thrive.

‘I like to have feedback from staff. I love having professional conversations with staff. And [I love it] when they go to a course and come back enthusiastic and can verbalise what they saw and what they thought would work, [and] wouldn’t work.’

It is clear that staff and staffing arrangements are foundational to quality care and education. Staff qualifications and staff-tochild ratios count. However, the quality of care and education is not simply the product of individual staff members and compliance with standards. It is interactive in nature.

It relies on sound relationships, great teamwork, and strong collaborations with families, professionals and other key community members—and a willingness to learn. In turn, team

work, professional growth, robust relationships and effective pedagogies are facilitated by conscious decision-making by service management about what staff need to do their job well.

Dr Frances Press is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University. Her research interests include early childhood policy and integrated programs for children and families. Frances teaches in undergraduate subjects and postgraduate subjects in the areas of sociology, leadership, research and children’s rights.

References Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics http://www. earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/code_of_ethics/early_childhood_ australias_code_of_ethics.html Press, F. (2006). What about the kids? Policy directions for improving the experiences of infants and young children in a changing world. Commission for Children and Young People, NSW; Commission for Children and Young People, Queensland, National

Investment for the Early Years.

Russell, A. (nd). Child care staff: learning and growing through professional development http://www.cscentral.org.au/Resources/ PSCAPD_Resource.pdf Children’s Services Branch ACT Department of Education, Youth and Family Services., MacNaughton, G., Smith, K. & Lawrence, H. (2004) Hearing young children’s voices http://www.children.act.gov.au/documents/PDF/under5report.pdf Sylva, K., Meluish, E., Sammons,P., Siraj-Blatchford, I., Taggart, B., & Elliott, P. (2003). The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) Project: Findings from the pre-school period. http://eppe.ioe. ac.uk/index.htm Reedy, C. & McGrath, W. (2010). Can you hear me now? Staff-parent communication in child care centres. Early Child Development and Care. (180), 3. 347–357.Reedy, C. & McGrath, W. (2010). Can you hear me now? Staff-parent communication in child care centres. Early Child Development and Care. (180), 3. 347–357.

Case studies A great place to work

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by Ingrid Maack

In a female-dominated profession known for employing women in their childbearing years, family-friendly staffing arrangements are a priority at the University of New South Wales’ three long day care centres—Kanga’s House, The House at Pooh Corner and Tigger’s Honeypot.

Jemma Carlisle, general manager of Early Years @UNSW.

Photography: Ingrid Maack

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emma Carlisle, general manager of Early Years@UNSW University Services, says educators at the recently amalgamated group of UNSW services are offered flexible work arrangements including 36-weeks paid maternity leave (for staff employed for fives years or more) and 26 weeks for staff employed for less than five years.

Educators can negotiate the capacity of their return role and may have until their child starts primary school till they have to return to their original full-time position.

‘Nearly all of our educators return from maternity leave to work part-time and then will have a second baby within that first five years.

‘It can be hard to juggle so many part-time staff but we have long-serving staff so we don’t have retention and attraction issues. Community engagement is strong and our staff and families are so connected.’

The University of New South Wales first began the process of acquiring and amalgamating the three long day care centres under the auspices of the university when voluntary student unionism ended in 2006. Previously, two of the centres had been funded by student organisations. By the end of 2012 the three centres will come under the one management model and cater for 241 children and 75 staff.

There are many benefits to being affiliated with the university such as campus facilities, operating under the university’s workplace agreements and receiving 17 per cent superannuation

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as part of the university’s superannuation scheme.

‘We are on the university’s pay schedule, so our staff are very well paid. A Cert III, for example, gets $920 per week versus the modern award of $680 per week, and our Diplomas start on $981.00 per week compared to $808.00 on the modern award.

Part of Ms Carlisle’s role is to promote cross-centre collaboration and one obvious way has been to bring all educators together for training.

‘We do expect a lot in terms of out-of-hours meetings but our educators are happy to go that extra mile and enjoy getting together to collaborate.’

In May last year they had a cross-centre EYLF meeting and a series of catered breakfast meetings to flesh out the NQF. At the time of writing, Ms Carlisle was also planning an NQS session on a Friday afternoon/evening.

‘It’s a child-free day and the first day back for many educators so the meeting will be followed by ‘welcome back’ food and drinks.’

Two years ago Ms Carlisle also started a successful rewards and recognition program for which she gets staff to self-nominate.

‘I send a template to all staff asking them what they have done throughout the year that they are most proud of or where they feel they have gone above and beyond.’

It could be studying, attending professional development in their own time, reading in their lunch break, subscribing to industry journals or becoming members of peak bodies, she says.

‘The first year, one educator got $5,000 to put towards her university fees. Smaller rewards are also offered such as a $200 Myers shopping voucher.

‘Ideally, I want educators to think about it pro-actively—not just as a reflection exercise. This would encourage goal-setting and planning for the year.’

All directors are non-teaching directors with full-time administrators, and each centre has additional floaters or what the

Early Years@UNSW team like to now call ‘curriculum support’ staff.

‘We feel that when they are called ‘floaters’, it implies that their main priority is solely to cover absent staff but we want to build up a strong network of casuals so the priority is programming and developing the curriculum even if people are away.’

The three children’s services will come together for a professional development day mid-year. This is typically dedicated to ‘ticking off any mandatory training’ or enjoying team-building activities such as white water rafting. However, this year the plan is to have all three services open their doors to showcase their centres to one another.’

‘All educators will be involved whether it is conducting a centre tour, cooking food or doing a presentation. I want each service to think about what makes it unique—the essence of each centre— and what they are most proud of.

Construction has also begun on a fourth long day care centre for the university. The proposed 48-place centre is due to open in the second half of 2012.

Educator Michelle Pecenka counting at Tigger’s Honeypot.

Work-life balance top priority in Top End

Cash bonuses, paid maternity leave, a newly-built study and programming room, flexible work hours, financial study assistance and various other family-friendly policies benefit educators at Mitchell Street Child Care Centre in the Northern Territory capital of Darwin.

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hese flexible work arrangements have allowed the community-based long day care centre to retain valuable employees and boost staff morale, says Louise de Bomford-Scott —a former nurse who has made good use of a Human Resource Management Degree.

Last year when the centre had its annual staff-training day, Ms de Bomford-Scott organised a personal trainer to talk to her team of 13 employees about exercise, diet and ways of achieving worklife balance.

She has also rostered staff numbers at the Darwin City Council-run centre well above the minimum ratio for the past six years—therefore reducing stress levels and increasing the standard of care.

Educators are rewarded with a bonus (one week’s pay) on the anniversary of their commencement date, she says.

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Christmas bonus. In 2010, for example, they each got $100 per year they had worked at the service,’ she explains.

Ms de Bomford-Scott focuses on the ongoing improvement of all her staff. Each of the team leaders has their own laptop, and all staff can use the recently built on-site programming and study room to do research or complete assignments.

‘I have developed a really good research library with lots of books and training DVDs, and I encourage staff to attend, seminars, workshops and conferences.

‘We have monthly staff meetings after-hours which staff are paid overtime to attend. As a trained trainer, I often do staff seminars onsite myself but we also get trainers in.’

With four children of her own, Ms de Bomford-Scott—who worked for many years in maternity and children’s wards— understands only too well the challenges of balancing work, family and study commitments.

‘Unlike some services, we allow educators to have their own children at work with them. So there is that crucial bonding time between mother and baby but with the parent still being on the job. It is a happy medium that works well for us!’

‘I left nursing because the shift work was just too hard on family life. My husband and I wanted a sea change so we ended up moving from Tasmania to Jabiru in the NT where we lived and worked for four years.’

Jabiru is a township within Kakadu National Park, originally built in 1982 to house the community living near the Ranger Uranium Mine.

‘It was a sensational experience. Once the community knew a nurse was coming to town, I was put to work. I worked at the health clinic, was the local ambulance driver and was later offered the role of managing children’s services in the town.

‘It was a multifunctional service and I did a bit of everything— before-school, after-school, holiday programs, family day care and long day care. I was also a 24-hour emergency carer so I often had more than my own four children at home. We moved to Darwin and I became director of Mitchell Street Child Care Centre when my own children started secondary school.’

Located in downtown Darwin, the centre has an open-door policy to allow working parents to pop in and spend time with the children throughout the day.

‘Many families are choosing to live in Darwin’s CBD, where there are public parks, gardens and infrastructure, rather than be married to a large garden and pool in the outer suburbs. Other parents live on the outskirts of Darwin but work in the city where it is convenient for them to have their children nearby it they are breast-feeding, if their children become ill or if there is a cyclone or other emergency!’

With so many staff with young families, Ms de Bomford–Scott has consciously made family-friendly policies a priority at the centre.

Early childhood educator, Prudence D’mello in Darwin.

Poster art Join Community Child Care Co-operative (NSW) in a creative celebration of quality early childhood education and care. This beautiful poster set features three original artworks commissioned by Community Child Care (NSW) from artist Deborah Kelly to explore the metaphors and possibilities of Being, Belonging and Becoming.

Belonging

©2013 Deborah Kelly

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Each poster is 420 x 550mm, presented on high quality matte paper in full colour, ready to frame or pin up at your service. Available for only $25 (plus $7.95 postage) for the set of three.

Purchase at www.ccccnsw.org.au/shop

22/10/13 5:25 PM

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Throughout 2011 and 2012, Rattler turns the spotlight on the seven Quality Areas of the new National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School Age Care.

The National Quality Standard includes seven areas of quality for early childhood education and care services: 1. Educational program and practice; 2. Children’s health and safety; 3. Physical environment; 4. Staffing arrangements, including improved staff-to-child ratios and qualifications;

5 Relationships with children; 6. Collaborative partnerships with families and communities; 7. Leadership and service management.

What is the quality area?

Quality Area 5: Relationships with children Relationships that are responsive, respectful and promote children’s sense of security and belonging free them to explore the environment and engage in learning.

5.1 Respectful and equitable relationships are developed and maintained with each child.

5.2 Each child is supported to build and maintain sensitive and responsive relationships with other children and adults.

5.3 Each child’s behaviour, interactions and relationships are guided effectively.

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Quality Area 5 of the National Quality Standard (NQS) focuses on respectful and equitable relationships between educators and children. Dr Leonie Arthur explores why educator– child interactions should always be respectful, responsible and reciprocal.

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elationships aren’t static; each day, our interactions shape and reshape them’ (Casper & Theilheimer, 2010, p.80). How do your interactions with children shape your relationships with them? Are there changes you can make that will strengthen these relationships?

How do you support all children to participate in interactions with others and build relationships? What else can you do to support respectful relationships and a sense of community?

Why are relationships so important?

Relationships underpin all aspects of children’s learning.

Positive, trusting relationships are essential for children’s sense of identity, connections with others, sense of wellbeing and confidence in themselves as learners.

Bernstein argues that educational settings deliver powerful messages to children through their curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices. These messages helped shape individuals’ perceptions of what they might do now and in the future, and what they might become.

When children get the message they are valued and respected, they are more likely to explore their environment and to seek out challenges that extend learning and promote feelings of competence. Respect for children and their families also promotes a sense of connectedness and belonging to the early childhood setting and facilitates relationships with others.

Respectful relationships support social aspects of learning such as collaboration, co-operation, democratic participation, teamwork and active citizenship.

The attachment research of Bowlby shows that secure early relationships promote emotional and social competence later in life. While children’s first and strongest relationship is with members of their family, sensitive and positive relationships between educators and children build on this foundation.

These trusting relationships provide a secure base for children to explore their environment, try out new ideas and communicate with others.

Effective learning environments involve more than the physical environment. They also include the social environment.

The social environment, consisting of relationships and

Photograph: Daisy Romwall

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interactions, is at the heart of the curriculum. The term ‘pedagogy of relationships’ was termed by Carla Rinaldi, a pedagogical director from the Reggio Emilia centres, to capture the importance of relationships in teaching and learning.

Effective relationships include a ‘pedagogy of listening’ that focuses on openness to and respect for difference and active listening and interpretation of meanings. Children actively construct their understandings as they interact with others in their environment.

Interactions between children and adults, as well as with peers, support the acquisition of new learning and the building of relationships. In order for educator–child interactions to support learning, there needs to be respect for children’s ideas and a positive relationship. When there is a warm and respectful relationship between the child and educator, and sensitivity to children’s ideas and understandings, educators are able to interact with children in ways that scaffold new learning.

Socio-cultural theorists such as Vygotsky highlight the ways in which children learn through social interactions. It is the combination of play-based learning environments with resources that are appropriate to children’s family context, interests and understandings along with sensitive interactions between educators and children that best supports children’s learning.

Socio-cultural perspectives consider the social, historical and cultural aspects of everyday life and aim to better understand children by taking each of these dimensions into account.

‘Positive, trusting relationships are essential for children’s sense of identity, connections with others, sense of wellbeing and confidence in themselves as learners.’ focus on relationships places social interactions and daily life issues at the centre of the curriculum. Children learn about collaboration, conflict resolution and negotiation through these daily interactions.

From a socio-cultural perspective, the educator and children are viewed as equals, rather than as existing in separate, hierarchical domains. This view challenges the traditional power relationships between educators and children and encourages educators to take children’s ideas seriously. The relationship between the educator and the child mediates learning.

Respectful interactions Janet Gonzalez–Mena says that in order to build relationships, educators’ interactions with children must be respectful, responsive and reciprocal.

Educators show respect by listening to children’s ideas, valuing diverse ways of being, doing and thinking and engaging in meaningful conversations with children. Respect means being sensitive to different communication styles, rather than assuming that all families communicate in the same way. For example, it may not be appropriate to expect a child to maintain eye contact when interacting with an educator if this is not what happens in the family and community context.

Culturally competent educators find out about and respect

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diverse family values and practices and use this knowledge to develop respectful relationships and culturally-appropriate interactions. They plan environments that respect children’s competencies and emerging understandings and that nurture a community of care. They adapt routines to take account of family practices and children’s growing independence.

Respectful relationships also ensure that all children are included in the learning community.

When educators respect children’s ideas and preferences they view children as active contributors to the early childhood learning community. They provide an environment that encourages children to choose what, how and when they engage in experiences and who they interact with in these experiences.

Strategies such as daily group meetings, children’s participation in setting up environments and easy access to resources enable children to have a voice in determining the experiences and resources that are provided and to negotiate the curriculum with educators. This active involvement in decision-making supports children’s autonomy and agency and promotes respectful relationships where children are viewed as active constructors of their own learning.

Responsive interactions Responsive educators view children as strong and capable and able to make meaning from diverse experiences. They understand and value children’s family and community culture, including language/s spoken at home and interaction styles. To 28 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

‘The social environment consisting of relationships is at the heart of the curriculum.’ be able to respond to children effectively they tune-in to what children are doing, saying and thinking. This means, as Siraj– Blatchford has suggested, that educators listen and observe carefully, take notice of the verbal and non-verbal language children are using in play and respond with genuine interest.

Sensitive discussions with children about their understandings and ideas and flexible approaches to curriculum enable educators to respond to children’s lead. They are then able to provide play environments that connect to children’s worlds and join in play in ways that facilitate and extend relationships and learning and foster positive dispositions.

Responsive educators observe children’s play and interactions and draw on a repertoire of practices in their interactions with children. Different practices, or pedagogies, are appropriate with different learners in different contexts. At times, it may be appropriate to provide a clear demonstration, for example how to save children’s photographs onto the computer.

Sometimes there will be a need to explicitly point out literacy

and numeracy concepts and processes such as directionality of print. Some children may need the educator to support them to initiate interactions, join in play and negotiate roles. At other times, it may be appropriate to join in children’s play and model problem solving by experimenting and hypothesising and by verbalising thinking. Many pedagogies are most effective when the educator engages in conversations with children and uses questions and comments to scaffold learning.

Educators who are responsive to children’s ideas are able to interact with children in ways that extend thinking and construct new understandings. Siraj–Blatchford refers to these types of interactions as ‘sustained shared thinking’. Sustained shared thinking involves both the educator and the child, or children, actively participating in interactions about an area of interest. Responsive teaching occurs when there is a warm and responsive relationship between the educator and children and a shared focus of attention and shared purpose.

Warm, supportive, responsive relationships between educators and children are also critical to the scaffolding of new learning. In these types of relationships, children feel safe to take risks and to try out new ideas. Educators offer support and encouragement, ask questions that challenge thinking and provide feedback and explanations.

Reciprocal interactions When educators are sensitive to children’s play and interactions and readily available to children they are able to join in play and take part in reciprocal interactions. In these contexts educators initiate and respond to children’s verbal and non-verbal communication and engage in conversations with children.

These two-way exchanges are opportunities for the sort of sustained shared thinking that scaffolds children’s learning, extends vocabulary and builds conversation skills. Siraj– Blatchford suggests that useful strategies for sustained shared thinking include recapping what a child has said, adding details that extend the interaction, inviting children to elaborate and clarify their ideas and asking open-ended questions.

How can a focus on relationships support children’s positive interactions?

Supportive environments encourage collaborative learning where children share ideas and experiences, express feelings and negotiate meanings with their peers. Educators have a critical role in modelling and scaffolding collaborative interactions and positive social behaviours.

When educators listen to diverse perspectives, verbalise feelings and give reasons for preferences in socially acceptable ways they promote positive social interactions among children.

Participation in children’s play can enable educators to model how to enter play, consider others’ perspectives, problem-solve collaboratively and negotiate with others. They can also talk with children about their feelings, scaffold children’s problemsolving and conflict-resolution skills, and assist children to learn to appreciate diverse interaction styles and perspectives.

A respectful, connected approach that focuses on understanding diverse perspectives and negotiation supports children to self-regulate their behaviour and collaborate with others. Positive relationships and inclusive language can build a sense of community amongst the children. When children have input into the expectations and responsibilities, or ‘rules’, in the early childhood setting, they develop shared understandings and relationships of care. In these environments there is a

strong focus on responsibilities as well as rights, respect for others, listening to each other and sharing ideas, and building of relationships amongst children.

Mutually respectful relationships that provide for children’s agency and autonomy and opportunities to engage in meaningful experiences that connect to children’s family and community experiences enhance both social and academic learning outcomes.

As the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) states, supportive relationships enable children to develop the dispositions and skills necessary ‘to interact positively with others… to appreciate their connectedness and interdependence as learners, and to value collaboration and teamwork’ (DEEWR, 2009, p.12).

Dr Leonie Arthur is a lecturer in early childhood education at the University of Western Sydney. She was a member of the consortium contracted to develop the Early Years Learning Framework and has written a number of resource books to support educators in their work with the Framework.

Dr Leonie Arthur is a lecturer in early childhood education at the University of Western Sydney. She was a member of the consortium contracted to develop the Early Years Learning Framework and has written resource books to support educators in their work with the Framework.

References Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). Belonging, being and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia. Canberra: Author.

Bernstein, B. (1996). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: theory, research, critique. London: Taylor & Francis.

Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Volume 1. Attachment, New York: Basic Books Casper, V. & Theilheimer, R. (2010). Early childhood education: Learning together. New York: McGraw Hill.

Gonzalez–Mena, J. & Widmeyer Eyers, D. (2009). Infants, toddlers and caregivers: A curriculum of respectful, responsive caregiving, 8th edition. New York: McGraw Hill.

Rinaldi, C. (2006). In dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, researching and learning. New York: Routledge.

Siraj–Blatchford, I. & Sylva, K. (2004). Researching pedagogy in English preschools, British Educational Research Journal, 30 (5), 713–730.

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes, translated by V. Cole, S. John–Steiner, S. Scribner & E. Souberman, Cambridge, Ma: Harvard University Press.

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Throughout 2011 and 2012, Rattler turns the spotlight on the seven Quality Areas of the new National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School Age Care.

Building collaborative partnerships with families and communities is the sixth quality area of the National Quality Standard (NQS). Families are regarded as a critical resource for educators and are ‘the primary influence in their children’s lives’ (DEEWR, 2010, p. 103). Dr Fay Hadley and Dr Katey De Gioia from the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University, explore why partnerships with families and communities really matter.

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The National Quality Standard includes seven areas of quality for early childhood education and care services: 1. Educational program and practice; 2. Children’s health and safety; 3. Physical environment; 4. Staffing arrangements, including improved staff-to-child ratios and qualifications; 5. Relationships with children; Collaborative partnerships with families and communities; 7. Leadership and service management.

What is the quality area?

6.1 Respectful supportive relationships with families are developed and maintained.

6.2 Families are supported in their parenting role and their values and beliefs about child rearing are respected.

6.3 The service collaborates with other organisations and service providers to enhance children’s learning and wellbeing.

6.4 The service participates in the community.

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his focus on the families’ influence on their children’s education is also emphasised in The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), whereby families are positioned as ‘children’s first and most influential educators’ (p.7). While the notion of building partnerships with families and the community is not new to early childhood (see Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007), the way this can be developed is certainly being rethought (see Moss, 2009). In this article we will share some of our thoughts in relation to working in partnership with families and communities.

Building respectful and supportive partnerships Partnerships take time to establish. They are about trust and an equal balance in the relationship with each party bringing and sharing strengths. The importance of building secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships is a core principle in the Early Years Learning Framework (DEEWR, 2009). The time we invest in developing and maintaining partnerships with families allows us to create an environment whereby children can feel a sense of belonging and educators can provide an appropriate program for children to be and become.

The leadership or management team of the setting has a responsibility to ensure the service’s information; forms, policies and resources reflect diverse families and the community they are situated within. Regardless of ethnicity, culture or family structure, we know that no two families operate in exactly the same way. The manner in which educators approach the

initial phone call, the enrolment and orientation process will determine the messages communicated to families as to how we believe they should be involved in our program. To encourage this partnership, the physical environment and the policies and procedures we adopt need to be taken into consideration. For example, does the enrolment form state mother/father details or parent 1/parent 2/other? This detail impacts on how some of our families will feel invited and visible in the program. Is our entry space reflective of the diversity of family types in the community? Are there written/ translated messages as well as visual documentation which shows how families can belong and contribute to the service? Is there room for developing a partnership notice board over the year with photos and explanations of families being involved in a variety of ways such as reading or cooking with children, sharing something cultural from home or talking together about child rearing issues such as toileting.

Establishing the initial relationship with families is only the first step to building respectful and reciprocal partnerships.

Establishing ongoing processes that allows families to contribute to and feel included in the program assists to build this partnership. The conversations we have with families once they are settled in the service reflect the culture of inclusion.

Inviting families to contribute in different ways can help create and maintain the relationship over a period of time. For instance, displaying documentation of children’s learning, sharing

‘Perhaps identifying a key educator to act as the liaison between the setting and the community would allow for these partnerships to flourish and be sustained over time.’ portfolios and observations with families, creating times to discuss their child’s individual learning and progress and inviting families to spend time in the setting are opportunities for families to feel included and valued.

Sometimes we can be unaware of how we communicate with families through the messages we deliver. For instance, a family member receiving a phone call from the setting usually fills them with dread. Think about the last time you rang or emailed a family member throughout the day to share something positive about their child.

Working with families in their parenting role Personal attitudes to child-rearing practices and conversations educators have with each other can give a clear indication of whether there is a culture of understanding about approaches to parenting or not. One area that can create tension between families and educators are child-rearing practices; such as guiding behaviour (discipline), toilet training, sleeping and Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 31

feeding practices (Hand & Wise, 2006). Consider carefully the types of conversations that might be occurring in your setting, do they reflect some of these thoughts?

‘They are too old for a dummy/bottle’; ‘I can’t believe that they won’t let them have a day sleep’; ‘They are too young to be toilet trained’; ‘They are spoiling their child’; and/or ‘They are too tough on them’.

Differences in practices can create tensions for educators. For instance, Hughes and Mac Naughton’s (2002) study highlighted the tension that occurred between educators and families when they were communicating different viewpoints on particular practices. Sometimes these tensions occur as there is a lack of understanding as to why family members have made certain decisions or it can be about our own attitudes and beliefs around what is familiar to us. It is important as a staff team to reflect on and discuss child-rearing practices, our own beliefs and what previous learning and current literature provides for us. Educators should be able to engage in conversations that are free from bias and allow family members to contribute meaningfully. This does not mean that there has to always be agreement but that the educators understand the approach the family implements in the home and where possible offers continuity in the setting or negotiates together in the best interests of the child (De Gioia, 2009; Gonzalez-Mena, 2007).

The EYLF identifies ‘families are children’s first and most influential teachers’ (DEEWR, 2009, p. 12). However, this does

‘Are there written/translated messages as well as visual documentation which shows how families can belong and contribute to the service? Is there room for developing a partnership noticeboard?’

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not diminish the role of the educator but rather the notion of partnership is strengthened as each partner brings their strengths to the conversation. Educators can rely on their theoretical and practical knowledge to support families in making decisions which best meet their children’s needs. For instance, we know that in the year prior to starting school some families become concerned that there are specific tasks their children should be doing (such as stencil work or sitting for long periods of time in large groups), however as educators, we know the value of the program we offer to families which underpins their learning. It is the role of the educator to articulate how these authentic experiences are valuable. For example: providing information on the value of social and emotional maturity for children and processes in the setting for developing this; through routines on arrival and departure, children being responsible for their belongings and learning how to get along with others through small group experiences.

Connecting with the service’s community of families As stated in the EYLF, principle 4: ‘when early childhood educators respect the diversity of families and communities, and the aspirations they hold for their children, they are able to foster children’s motivation to learn and to reinforce their sense of themselves as competent learners’ (DEEWR, 2009, p. 13). Providing opportunities for families to participate and engage with the educators and other families is an important aspect of building partnerships. Services can create trusting spaces (physical as well as being available) so that families feel comfortable to share and discuss their needs with educators. Research has illustrated the benefits of both formal and informal get-togethers where families and educators get to mix and talk (Hayden, De Gioia, & Hadley, 2005). These opportunities allow families to establish connections as well as create less formal spaces for families to chat to the educators. In a recent NSW Families research project (Hadley, 2007) 80 per cent of the families interviewed indicated they wanted to attend social events at the setting as they provided an avenue to make connections with other families as well as see their child in an environment with other children.

Organising events both at the setting and in the community provides connections and links beyond the setting. Some settings may hold an annual picnic day, participate in a community fair, or attend a community event, such as NAIDOC week. These different ways of connecting with the community help to build partnerships both with families and the community and ensure the children in the service are provided with a program that acknowledges cultures, identities and the broader issues of the society they are citizens of.

Finding time to organise these events can be a challenge.

Some services have found that utilising the skills of family and staff members can alleviate this issue. For instance, calling for people to volunteer (a staff and family working party) to organise and coordinate the event(s). Often this requires the educators to ask families to be involved or it can be an expectation that is built into the culture of the setting about participating in these events. Other ideas could be to create a roster or list of jobs where people opt out (not in) so that all families over a period of time contribute. >> Continued on page 35

Case study

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Partnering with parents: Panyuni ba kra

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At Playful Beginnings Early Learning Centre in Liverpool—where 80 per cent of enrolled families are Aboriginal—a health and lifestyle program has helped to engage parents in both the curriculum and the community. Designed by parents together with educators, the program aims to educate families on health and nutrition, support culture and strengthen ties with the wider indigenous community.

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anyuni ba kra is Bunganditj dialect for “play, learn, share”,’ explain licensees and early childhood teachers Brooke Joy and Michelle Jacquelin-Furr.

Program activities include Aboriginal dancing, yoga, traditional Indigenous games, ‘deadly’ fruit and vegetable juices, bush foods, boomerang throwing and excursions to Taronga Zoo. ‘A lot of our parents are overweight or have heart problems or diabetes…We wanted to get them moving and empower them to make positive health and lifestyle choices,’ Brooke Joy said.

Workshops began with a community walkabout to the local creek to learn about bush foods. The walks also included visits to local Aboriginal health services, providing families with a nonthreatening introduction to community facilities.

The Panyuni ba kra program was funded by the federal Government’s PaCE (Parental and Community Engagement) program. For more information, visit www.deewr.gov.au/pace

A parent’s perspective Daliah Nwaogazi, a Torres Strait Islander mother in Yagoona, Sydney shares her thoughts on cultural inclusion. Her son attends Playful Beginnings Early Learning Centre.

‘The minute you step into the foyer of the centre you feel proud to be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Cultural pride

oozes from the walls to the floors. You can see the women behind this centre are proud black women and are passionate about ensuring that those who enter experience a true indigenous cultural experience.

The importance of family, oral history is promoted with pictures of loved ones plastered on the walls so that the children are always close to those they love. The eucalyptus branches that hang from the ceiling, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dolls, instruments, artefacts, paintings, murals and books show children that our culture, as rich and diverse as it is, is something to be proud of.

Elders, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters, nanas and pops are all encouraged to participate and share their life stories with the children. Yarn ups can be done by the humpy out the back or under the man-made tree inside.

All of it reinforces that our culture is one that has respect for the land, sea and animals that walk the lands. Identity is so important and as a child of mixed heritage I know the obstacles and barriers you can face in everyday life as a person knowing who they are but not knowing how to fully embrace it. I’m proud and honoured that my son is fortunate to be enrolled in a centre that I believe should be modelled around the state.’

(From an article first published in the Indigenous Times.)

Nutrition know-how: A mother and daughter take part in the Panyuni ba kra program.

L to R: Michelle Jacquelin-Furr (Bunganditj nation), Uncle Stephen Williams, Brooke Joy (Bunganditj nation)

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Case study

A sense of community in the Shire

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Cronulla Preschool, a community–based service in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, builds its preschool community by facilitating parent workshops and hosting a series of open days including a grandparent and special friends day

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ach year Director Tracey Popple puts up a roster at the preschool’s family BBQ and get parents to volunteer 30 minutes of their time to supervise activities such as face-painting or helping with the BBQ. ‘It’s a great way to get parents involved. Hot on the heels of that event I recruit a parent social committee. I then step back and let them manage the committee—they own it, they organise it, they do it!

‘It’s not about fundraising or making a profit—it’s about socialising,’ Ms Popple says.

The preschool also hosts an annual grandparents or special friends day where they invite extended family and friends to visit the service.

‘This usually means [the grandparent or friend] brings the children so the parents get a morning off!

‘We have morning tea together, the children perform songs and then they read the children’s journals full of special learning stories, work samples, photographs, and other observations and reflections about their time at the preschool.

‘We include special friends so children without grandparents don’t miss out. We get great attendance and everyone enjoys being included in the preschool community.’

Ms Popple has also formed close links into the wider community by facilitating parenting workshops and by networking with Area Health and a local child and family interagency.

Photos from the annual grandparents or special friends day at Cronulla Preschool.

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‘Parents say it’s hard to get babysitting for evening events so now I run parenting programs during the day. They can drop the children at the preschool and then gather in a local meeting room offsite (in Cronulla Mall). We’ve had a Triple P Parenting workshop, a psychologist come to talk about behaviour management and one of our mums is a nutritionist who presented healthy lunchbox ideas.

‘Last year we had four mums starting small businesses. One mum makes jewellery, another does massage, so we had a pampering evening at the preschool for those mums to showcase their products.

I supplied supper and put on a trivia quiz all about the preschool. It cost $10 to attend, which we donated to a local women’s refuge. I got two representatives from the refuge to come and speak.

Domestic violence is a topic that is difficult to broach but really important for women to know about.’

A non-teaching director, Ms Popple also ensures she personally knows all the parents’ names.

‘I sit down and memorise them each year. If you greet a parent by name it instantly puts them at ease and makes them feel welcome.

‘I also make sure I am accessible. I am always at the front door when families arrive and go. They don’t have to come looking for me—I’m just there.’

In a recent NSW Families research project (Hadley, 2007) 80 per cent of the families interviewed indicated they wanted to attend social events at the setting as they provided an avenue to make connections with other families as well as see their child in an environment with other children. >> From page 32

Partnerships with other organisations and service providers Ongoing partnerships with local community organisations are a critical part of the role of an educator and have a twofold impact: ♦ L ocal organisations become familiar with the setting and the services it provides to families and can refer families they come into contact with. ♦ E ducators have up-to-date information about key organisations that can provide families with advice, support and further services; for example, allied and health services, counselling services, dentists and local schools.

These partnerships enable the educator to refer families to key agencies which can offer support and services beyond which are the role of the setting. As we know, successful partnerships take time and this is also the case with local community organisations. Valuing time given to developing and maintaining these partnerships is critical. Perhaps identifying a key educator to act as the liaison between the setting and the community would allow for these partnerships to flourish and for an ongoing exchange of information which enables the partnership to be sustained over time. For example, linking with schools allows a two-way flow of information— understanding of curricula in each setting and goals for children, sharing of ideas and expertise and an understanding of expectations can be discussed. This information can then be shared with families through a variety of means; notices, general conversation, meetings and via setting newsletters.

Conclusion: We know that building real partnerships with families and the community is crucial to the quality of the program we implement for the children who attend the setting. We also know that developing these connections and relationships is not always easy. It requires us to move out of our comfort zone and rethink the ways we currently connect with families. It may be useful at a staff meeting to consider some of the ideas provided and how they are being or could be implemented more effectively in your early childhood setting.

Dr Fay Hadley is a lecturer in early childhood at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University. She is interested in and has conducted research on parent partnerships and community connections.

Dr Katey De Gioia is a lecturer at the Institute of Early Childhood, Macquarie University. She researches in the areas of community and family issues focusing on transition to school and cultural diversity.

References

Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (2007). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation (2nd ed.).

London: Taylor and Francis.

De Gioia, K. (2009). Parent and staff expectations for continuity of home practices in the childcare setting for families with diverse cultural backgrounds. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 34(3), 9-17 Department of Education Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) (2010). Draft Guide to the National Quality Standard Education and Care Services. Journal. Retrieved from http:// www.deewr.gov.au/Earlychildhood/Policy_Agenda/Documents/ GuideNationalQualityStandard.pdf.

Department of Employment Education and Workplace Relations (DEEWR). (2009). Belonging, being and becoming. The early years learning framework. ACT: Commonwealth Government.

Gonzalez-Mena, J. (2007). Diversity in early care and education: Honoring differences (5th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Hadley, F. (2007). Families First Northern Sydney Children’s Services Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Project Final Report. Sydney: NSW: Families First NSW & Lady Gowrie Child Centre, Sydney.

Hand, K., & Wise, S. (2006). Parenting partnerships in culturally diverse child care settings: A care provider perspective. Research paper No. 36. Melbourne, Victoria: Australian Institute of Family Studies.

Hayden, J., De Gioia, K., & Hadley, F. (2005). ECD and health promoting. Building on capacity. International Journal of Early Childhood 37(2), 67-76 Hughes, P., & Mac Naughton, G. (2002). Preparing early childhood professionals to work with parents: The challenges of diversity and dissensus. Australian Journal of Early Childhood, 28(2), 14-20 Moss, P. (2009). There Are Alternatives! Markets and Democratic Experimentalism in Early Childhood Education and Care. The Hague: Bernard Van Leer Foundation.

Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 35

Throughout 2011 and 2012, Rattler turns the spotlight on the seven Quality Areas of the new National Quality Standard for Early Childhood Education and Care and School Age Care.

Leaders, leadership and learning are inextricably linked. So is leadership and quality in early childhood settings, say Dr Manjula Waniganayake and Anthony Semann. This is enshrined in the National Quality Standards (NQS), Quality Area 7 which focuses on Leadership and Service Management (ACECQA, 2011).

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The National Quality Standard includes seven areas of quality for early childhood education and care services: 1. Educational program and practice; 2. Children’s health and safety; 3. Physical environment; 4. Staffing arrangements, including improved staff-to-child ratios and qualifications; 5. Relationships with children; 6. Collaborative partnerships with families and communities; Leadership and service management.

What is the quality area?

7.1 Effective leadership promotes a positive organisational culture and builds a professional learning community.

7.2 There is a commitment to continuous improvement.

7.3 Management and administrative systems enable the effective provision of a quality service.

7.4 Adults working with children and those engaged in management of the service or residing on the premises are fit and proper.

7.5 Grievances and complaints are managed effectively.

7.6 Information is exchanged with families on a regular basis.

Being and becoming leaders

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uality Area 7 is concerned with establishing effective strategies to achieve national benchmarks that guide self learning as well as the learning of others, including children, families and colleagues. Leading within these contexts means accepting responsibility for learning by being and becoming leaders. Now more than ever, we need early childhood leaders to be courageous, to step up and demonstrate their commitment and capacity to nurture learning within their organisational settings. This view is based on the belief that effective leaders can make a difference by leading learning in multiple ways.

Within the NQS, leadership is defined as ‘a relationship between people and the best leaders are those who are able to empower others’. (ACECQA, 2011, p.171). Noticeably, the NQS does not provide an operational definition of management, and leadership appears ahead of management. Within early childhood settings, almost everyone performs administrative functions, such as checking the sign-in book or collecting consent notes signed by parents for an excursion. Not everyone however, may be involved in management and leadership roles.

In preparing for NQS assessments, it is therefore prudent to reflect on what is expected of individual staff in terms of administration, management and leadership roles and responsibilities. There are no right or wrong answers here; it is a matter of being clear about what happens in your own organisational settings. Taking stock of what is current practice, can not only be helpful in understanding what everyone is

supposed to do, it can also provide a baseline against which you can discuss directions for leadership and service management in the future.

Leading learning for self Luthans and Aviolio (2003) suggest that effective leadership can be defined as being self-aware, genuine, optimistic, balanced in terms of decision-making, and transparent in enacting leadership that energises people. These characteristics and strategies can build trust, as well as reinforce and develop the leaders’ and followers’ strengths, especially self-awareness. As such, self-awareness is at the heart of any learning.

Effective leaders have a strong commitment to life-long learning for themselves as well as others. It is, however, not unusual for those in positions of seniority within organisations to ignore or not consider professional development needs and opportunities for themselves. Anecdotal findings also suggest that managers or directors of early childhood settings are busy mentoring colleagues occupying subordinate positions but often do not have mentors for themselves. Slattery and Davies (2010) report that within the early childhood sector, mentoring may be understood as a leadership strategy for optimising learning and professional development and is viewed as a viable strategy to enhance the professionalism of early childhood staff.

Resilience is a hallmark of how your identity as a leader is formed. More recently, there has been a growing interest in leadership research that invites individuals to explore their personal experiences, theories and enactment of leadership.

It is inevitable that as individuals enact leadership, they will encounter a range of challenges. Perhaps reflecting on the role of resilience is timely in such instances. Resiliency is defined as the ability or capacity to rebound or bounce back from adversity, uncertainty, conflict, failure or even positive change, progress and increased responsibility (Huey and Weisz, 1997). In early writings, resiliency was portrayed as a rare gift that only a few people possessed, similarly to the way charisma was isolated as an essential leadership quality.

Effective leaders have a commitment to lifelong learning … Educators at Community Child Care Co-operative and ECEEN’s recent ‘Early Childhood Environments and the NQS’ conference in Sydney.

Leaders are also role models as they are being observed in the way they behave whilst going about their day-to-day functions.

Behaviour reflects one’s attitudes, beliefs and values in both words and deeds. In this sense, it is imperative that leaders are mindful of what they say and do, to ensure personal integrity through ethical practice and the ways in which they respond to the challenges around them.

Leading learning for and with others For those who work in early childhood settings, teamwork is not a new concept. However, learning to work collaboratively can take time, and challenges often emerge, especially in times of staff turnover or when competing pedagogical approaches become evident.

Teams often encounter challenges given the hands-off approach adopted by some leaders in establishing and maintaining a co-operative work environment. Our personal experiences as researchers would suggest that attention is often afforded to teams in times of crisis. This could suggest several things including: ♦ L eaders experience competing tensions in what they should focus their attention on in their day to day role; ♦A lack of knowledge about the theories of how teams are established and function; ♦A belief that teams just work and little intervention is required in developing and sustaining effective teams.

Creating an effective team is not the sole responsibility of the leader. Instead, it is the responsibility of each individual to craft productive relationships, govern their own behaviours and take responsibility to address professional issues that may arise in the workplace. In turn, the role played by those with leadership responsibilities, will vary according to how specific functions Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 37

‘Leaders are also role models as they are being observed in the way they behave whilst going about their day-today functions … It’s imperative leaders are mindful of what they say and do.’ are defined and shared within each organisation. Clarity and transparency of expectations around staff and management responsibilities can make a difference in the way leadership is enacted, creating efficiency and satisfaction for everyone.

Creating learning communities Within early childhood organisations, creating a community of learners where all staff critically engage in reflecting on their own contribution to teams is fundamental in the delivery of excellent quality programs. Leaders can create learning communities within their own organisational settings as well as externally, within their neighbourhoods, local regions as well as across states/territories and more globally, involving colleagues working within Australia or internationally.

Arranging to meet on a monthly basis as a regional group, by holding meetings in each other’s preschools or childcare centres after hours, is a popular strategy. Holding a public forum on a particular topic of interest with a guest speaker or having a fullday forum two or three times a year, can also provide a focus for collective learning. The standards and elements of Quality Area 7 reflect and extend these possibilities in a variety of ways (ACECQA, 2011).

Though not limited to geographically isolated centres located within rural and remote communities, innovative solutions to learning through networking could be found with effective engagement with technology. Use of online social media, such as wikis, Twitter and blogs, can enable leaders to create virtual learning communities. These online strategies offer flexible opportunities for learning not bound by time, travel and space limitations because individuals are usually free to come and go from the online forums. In essence, being a leader is not an endgame: instead it is a continuous process. Your interest in staying connected and building learning networks therefore also reflects your capacity to stay up-to-date with emerging community trends, innovative technologies, new knowledge and skills.

Pedagogical leadership Effective leaders have a strong sense of identity. Giving shape to this identity requires leaders to be professional, and demonstrate a sound knowledge and understanding of early childhood contexts. It also highlights the critical role leaders can play in achieving excellence in pedagogy. That is, whilst pedagogy is connected with professional practice, it takes sound leadership to support the development of effective programs. This is what pedagogical leadership is about.

Pedagogical leadership therefore involves working side by side with colleagues who design and deliver children’s programs to support and/or guide decision-making in relation to learning encounters involving children and their families.

Leading learning in collaborative ways can, not only enhance children’s learning, it can also strengthen teamwork. This can also mean there is a coherent approach to practice and policy within the setting, making it possible for everyone to work 38 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

towards achieving the same goals and vision. It will be easy to see that, much can be realised through trust and respect amongst staff. Accordingly, effective early childhood leaders can create ‘a positive organisational culture that values openness and trust; where people are motivated to ask questions, debate issues and contribute to each other’s ongoing learning and inquiry.’ (ACECQA, 2011, p.171) Leading change and innovation One of the certainties in working in early childhood programs is that change is constant. However the pace of which change is being experienced at the moment does create some unique challenges for individuals who are either leading or recipients of change. So how do leaders and teams prepare for change?

Step one is to take time out and decide on how you wish to conquer and work through the change at hand. We are aware that there are hundreds of models of change and we don’t aim in this article to privilege one model over another. However, it is important when facilitating change that leaders are acutely aware of the ultimate destination they are hoping to arrive at. Whilst there are no certainties that this end point may be achieved, most people who are recipients of change require some indication of the journey ahead of them.

In addition, leaders require quality resources to achieve successful change. Unfortunately, there is a long history of early childhood practitioners just making do with what is there, despite evident gaps in resource allocation. We have a collective responsibility in aiming to deliver excellence in standards for every child in Australia. With many changes fast approaching, we suggest that leaders identify the resources, including wellqualified personnel and infrastructure they require to promote learning by all—children and adults.

It takes courage to accept your leadership responsibilities.

Leaders who can create opportunities for the meaningful engagement of others, understand the benefits of shared learning. As such, leadership for learning is a journey of joint inquiry, exploration and reflection that can involve everyone who believes in making a difference for children.

Dr Manjula Waniganayake is Associate Professor within the Institute of Early Childhood at Macquarie University. Her teaching and research interests cover leadership in early childhood.

Anthony Semann is Director of Semann & Slattery, a research and consulting firm based in Sydney and Melbourne. Anthony is a PhD candidate at Macquarie University, and his research explores the role of courage and leadership.

References

Australian Children’s Education & Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) (2011), Guide to the National Quality Standard. October, No.3. Creative Commons.

Coutu, L. (2002), ‘How Resilience Works’, Harvard Business Review, 80, (5), pp.46–55, 7 Heikka, J. and Waniganayake, M. (in press) ‘Pedagogical leadership from a distributed perspective in the context of early childhood education’, International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice.

Huey, S. J. Jr., & Weisz, J. R. (1997), ‘Ego control, Ego resiliency, and the Five-Factor Model of personality as predictors of behaviour problems in clinic-referred children,’ Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 106(3), pp.404–415.

Luthans, F. & Avolio, B. J. (2003), ‘Authentic leadership: A positive development approach’, in K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton & R. E. Quinn (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline (pp.241–258). San Francisco, CA: Berrett–Koehler.

Masten, A. S. (2001), ‘Ordinary magic: Resilience processes in development’, American Psychologist, 56, pp.227–238.

Slattery, C. & Davies, C. (2010), Mentoring a Literature Review, Semann & Slattery, Sydney.

Case studies A stand-alone managed service

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‘Every service needs to have a leader to bring staff together so they work in harmony under the philosophical mantle of the service. I like to think of myself as a conductor of an orchestra full of highly talented people who make beautiful sounds together,’ says Paula West, director of Northern Nursery School.

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anaging a 60-place community-based preschool in the Sydney suburb of Mosman, Ms West says she gets particular professional fulfilment from watching her team of 14 educators ‘grow and shine’.

‘My role is facilitating continuous improvement within a culture of inclusiveness and belonging. Watching people become skilled and confident gives me such enormous pleasure in the role I have in leading the team. Each of us works together to build on what we have, continually looking for ways to enrich the environment and program that we offer children and ourselves—building our community.

‘We are all equally important, and together we take responsibility in making a difference, using our many different skills, talents and experiences.

‘I create opportunities where we work together to make change happen—creating a sense of “Belonging, Being and Becoming”… People need to feel they “belong”, to feel free to “be” who they are, to continue to grow and “become”.’

The Northern Nursery School has a 75-year history within the Mosman community and there is a long tradition of family involvement at the service, which has a particularly active and passionate parent management committee.

The parents want to be ‘highly involved’ in the program and the continued growth and wellbeing of the preschool. As such, Ms West says she has a very motivated team of educators as well as a ‘team of highly motivated families’ to support her.

‘This strong sense of community really supports the work we do with children’.

This year the management committee has specialised, forming four sub-committees that focus on different aspects of the preschool’s management.

‘So, for example, there is a sub-committee that looks at people (staff/parents/children/community), one that focuses on the physical environment (environmental sustainability/outdoor spaces/buildings), another that looks after the preschool’s finances (awards/budget/fundraising/building fund), and another that looks at the program for children (professional development/NQF/Regulations/current best practice).

Educators at the Northern Nursery School are involved in continuous development and growth through staff appraisals, staff meetings and staff development days, and staff and the management committee also appraise the director annually.

‘It gives you terrific insight into how people see you, which allows you to work more effectively… If the leader is open and inclusive then that flows from the top of the organisation down.

‘That is the challenge and appeal with this position (being a leader and advocate), you never stop learning and growing.’

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A cluster-managed service

Leadership and corporate management skills are transferable to the children’s services sector, says full-time manager of Queanbeyan District Preschool Association, Rod Pymont.

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n electrician by trade, Mr Pymont had his own business and once worked for a multinational before turning his hand to managing a cluster of four preschools in south-eastern NSW. ‘Project planning, timelines, budgets and networking are all skills that have followed me across from the corporate world.’

The community-based preschool association operates three preschools in the growing regional city of Queanbeyan (Harris Park Preschool, Waratah Preschool and Karabar Preschool) and Jingera Preschool in the neighbouring village of Captain’s Flat.

‘I became involved as a parent volunteer and never left.’

Mr Pymont’s daughter, who is hearing impaired, attended the preschool for three years.

‘Preschool made a huge difference to her and I wanted to give back those three years by volunteering my time,’ he explains.

Under Mr Pymont’s leadership, the group recently secured funding to extend one of the preschools from a two-room to a four-room centre, as well as additional funding to build another preschool in Queanbeyan.

Mr Pymont oversees the management of the association and is monitored by a community management board. As

manager, he is responsible for appointment of staff, setting of fees, formulating and managing the budget, maintenance, project management, strategic planning, as well as helping and advising the parent committee. As well as sharing administration resources (enrolments and wages are centrally managed), all preschool staff meet monthly and fortnightly to network, engage in professional development and share ideas.

Mr Pymont has also recently revived a defunct e-newsletter after staff feedback revealed just how much it was valued as a resource. It includes staff profiles, important events, dates for the term, funding announcements and information about the EYLF and the NQF. ‘Communication is a big thing. Sharing information and positives news with staff is great for boosting morale. When you share positive stories, it helps create a positive culture—and staff feel the difference that they are making in children’s lives.’

There is also a culture of staff appraisals and plenty of professional development and in-house training.

‘We have a stable staff with very little turnover. One staff member has been here for 26 years and another for 20 years—so there is a wealth of knowledge internally.’

A privately managed service

Kellyanne Gianatti wears many hats as the licensee, director and early childhood teacher at Adventure Preschool, a private 18-place preschool in Penrith, Sydney.

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look at leadership like a herd of cows. They herd together but at certain times one cow has to lead the herd home.

There are times when you have to make decisions and the buck stops with you. That’s what leadership is. When the crunch comes, someone has to lead the cows home.’

Adventure Preschool was founded in the late 1980s with Ms Gianatti purchasing the preschool 10 years ago. Located beside the Nepean River in a converted cottage, Adventure Preschool is the smallest preschool in Penrith.

‘We cater for only 18 children per day in a small, home-like environment.

The small size of the service has allowed the preschool to develop a reputation for catering to children with additional needs, and there are several children at the service with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

‘It seems to be our niche. We provide a quieter environment than larger centres, which can be overwhelming for those children.’

Mrs Gianatti believes additional needs children learn a lot by being in a social group with their peers and says play therapy for these children is as important as occupational or speech therapy.

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She is such a passionate believer in the benefits of play for these children she has started a weekly play therapy group.

‘I see advocacy to governments as an important role and recently our local federal member wrote a letter about including play and music therapy on the FaCHSIA funding model, just like speech and occupational therapy.

‘Leadership in early childhood is like that …you can’t just think about what you are doing today but also about how you can reflect and affect positive change for the future.’

Mrs Gianatti was inspired to create the play therapy group after completing a 12-month Semann & Slattery leadership program last year. As part of the leadership program, she now regularly networks with directors and room leaders in an area hub based in Blaxland.

She is also currently a mentor under the Children’s Service Central mentoring program.

‘It’s a bit like having a big sister or big brother. My protégée is in a red-dirt country area managing a mobile service. I’m a willing ear over the phone or via email and someone who she can bounce ideas off so she doesn’t feel alone and overwhelmed.’

Staff and parenting insights

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Dr Frances Press and Dr Linda Harrison from Charles Sturt University share key insights from their three-year study on what staff and parents see as contributors to quality in early childhood settings. Quality, it seems, is a web of interwoven factors. What follows is not a manual for quality but offers practitioners points for consideration, discussion and reflection.

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etween 2008 and 2011 researchers from Charles Sturt University and Macquarie University undertook a three-year research project examining the processes that contribute to achieving and sustaining high quality early childhood education and care. The research team comprised ourselves (Linda Harrison, Frances Press) and Jennifer Sumsion from Charles Sturt University, with Marianne Fenech and Jennifer Bowes from Macquarie University. The project was funded by the Australian Research Council and was undertaken with the co-operation of National Childcare Accreditation Council, which provided access to data.

In the research, the team was keen for a view of quality that deliberately incorporated a variety of perspectives.

We drew on a wide range of information to highlight the complex web of factors that enable the staff and management of centre-based early education and care to deliver beneficial and responsive programmes to children and families and we sought to highlight the multiple ways quality could be understood and worked toward.

As part of the project, we undertook in-depth case studies with six centres that had consistently achieved

ratings of High Quality across two different quality rating scales in the five years prior to 2008. These case studies allowed us to gain an in-depth understanding of the factors associated with services’ capacity to achieve and sustain high quality programmes. We drew on a variety of sources, including interviews with centre directors, focus group discussions with educators and parents, video footage of centre practices, parent surveys, and centre documents. This article reports on the themes that emerged as important for quality from the case study sites. The themes are drawn from the insights of staff and parents about what they saw as contributors to the high quality of their setting. What follows has been extracted from the full report provided to the study centres at the completion of the research funding.

Each centre was unique in its approach and the quality of each setting’s programme was very much the product of thoughtful decisionmaking reflecting the needs and aspirations of each context. So in presenting this summary of themes, we are not providing a manual for quality.

Rather we are offering points for consideration, discussion and reflection.

Case study participants raised issues

‘It was clear from the case studies that an important aspect of quality related to the look and ‘feel’ of the centre.

Quality can be experienced as an intangible feeling of ease and a sense of things working well.’

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that can be broadly clustered around the areas of: ▶ leadership and management ▶ service philosophy ▶ working conditions and expectations of staff ▶ aesthetics and ‘feel’ of the centre ▶ approaches to children and children’s learning ▶ relationships.

Although we discuss each of these in turn, it is fair to say that none of these areas operate in isolation. Each area affects the other, and together they combine to contribute to the overall culture of each organisation.

Leadership and management Although leadership and management are distinct attributes they work in tandem. The visionary aspect of inspirational leadership needs to be supported by effective management systems. If systems and processes don’t work, it is impossible to achieve the aspirational goals established for the centre.

The leadership traits that staff and families regarded as contributing to the high quality of their settings included leaders’ ability to see the ‘big picture’ and be advocates for their centre, children, staff and for the field of early childhood education. Successful leaders made sure that daily and strategic decisions actively supported the philosophy of their centre and were based on a genuine concern for what works well for children and families.

They set high expectations for staff and they supported staff to meet these expectations. At the same time, leaders facilitated the meaningful involvement of staff and families in the life of the centre. They invited ideas, collaborated with staff and families, delegated

RESEARCH FINDINGS

responsibility and fostered the leadership capacities of others within the team.

In relation to management, case study participants identified a swathe of specific processes and systems established to ensure the smooth running of the centre. They discussed factors such as the director’s thorough knowledge of regulatory requirements, sound financial management skills, employment processes, staff appraisals, policies and staff development. However, underpinning the identification of a specific process or system was the sense that these always reflected or supported the culture of the centre and its ideals. For example: employment practices were geared to finding staff who shared a commitment to the centre philosophy as well as possessing specific knowledge and skills; professional development opportunities genuinely supported the professional growth of staff; regular and predictable forums for discussion, such as staff meetings, committee meetings, and appraisals provided opportunities for reflection and the generation and application of new ideas.

The service philosophy Rather than simply being a nice statement on a piece of paper, the centre philosophy was a living document that was taken seriously and used as a reference point for decisions and action. Shared with parents when they come to find out about the centre, and with potential new staff members, the philosophy drove practice. However, it was not a static document. Parents and staff were invited to provide feedback to ensure that the philosophy captures their

values and understandings. At the same time, the philosophy was a source of inspiration and triggered new ways of thinking about children and the role of the early childhood programme. In short, the philosophy provided a real sense of the values, understandings and key commitments at work within the centre. Aspects of philosophy integral to our case studies were: ▶ images of children as capable and resourceful ▶ respect for children, families and fellow staff ▶ commitment to the provision of authentic, real world, experiences for children ▶ child-centred approach that actively referenced decisions and

practices back to the best interests of children ▶ recognition of the centrality of families in children’s lives and the need for all families to be welcomed and respected – for example, ‘We enrol the whole family, not just the child’.

Some centres made strong commitments in their philosophy to particular ideals such as social justice, or environmental sustainability. All centres situated themselves as an integral part of broader community life.

The working conditions and expectations of staff In many of these centres staff reported a high degree of work satisfaction. In

‘… staff felt supported and valued for their contributions and trusted for their professional judgement. Opportunities for actively contributing to the centre were present and encouraged as were opportunities for taking on leadership roles.’

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turn, centres tended to have a highly stable staff body and a strong team ethic. Directors and management bodies acted in ways that conveyed they had confidence in, and respect for, their staff. High standards were established for staff performance. At the same time, staff felt supported and valued for their contributions and trusted for their professional judgement. Opportunities for actively contributing to the centre were present and encouraged as were opportunities for taking on leadership roles. Staff were encouraged to set professional goals for themselves and their teams and supported to achieve these through professional development.

Equally, staff respected one another and had high expectations of one another’s work and helped one another meet these expectations in collegial, supportive ways. However, in relation to times of difficulty, staff appreciated interventions that enabled conflicts to be resolved in a timely manner.

Importantly, staff regarded themselves as professionals and

conveyed the image of early childhood education as a profession to families and the broader community.

The aesthetics and ‘feel’ of the centre It was clear from the case studies that an important aspect of quality related to the look and ‘feel’ of the centre.

Quality can be experienced as an intangible feeling of ease and a sense of things working well. It is also evident in tangible features that make the centre appealing to children and families.

The case study centres’ environments were described by staff and parents as having the following features: ▶ home or family atmosphere and the creation of a ‘loving’ environment in which staff see themselves as an extension of the child’s family and children experience the centre as an extension of the home ▶ aesthetically beautiful and inviting, in which high quality materials reflect the view that children, staff and families matter and deserve ‘the best’ ▶ physically and emotionally safe

‘Staff talked about giving children credit and trust, and expecting them to be capable, to take risks, to challenge themselves.’

Poster art Join Community Child Care Co-operative (NSW) in a creative celebration of quality early childhood education and care. This beautiful poster set features three original artworks commissioned by Community Child Care (NSW) from artist Deborah Kelly to explore the metaphors and possibilities of Being, Belonging and Becoming.

Being

©2013 Deborah Kelly

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44 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

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RESEARCH FINDINGS

▶ calm, relaxed, non-chaotic atmosphere ▶ haven where children and staff can laugh and have fun ▶ natural and authentic.

Signs, photographs, and other public displays explicitly reflected these features. Documentation provided for parents communicated children’s experiences and the professionalism of thinking informing and interpreting children’s experiences.

Approaches to children and children’s learning In each of the centres, children’s learning experiences and educators’ practice were underpinned and informed by a philosophy of respect for children and their families. Staff talked about not underestimating children. They stressed the necessity of giving children credit and trust, and expecting them to be capable, to take risks, to challenge themselves. Planning for children’s learning was located in a larger context of the centre being ‘a community of learners, a community of thinkers’ where everyone was engaged in lifelong learning and children considered active agents in their own learning. Educators regarded real world, hands-on experiences as important for children’s learning. Descriptors such as ‘fun’, ‘play-based’, ‘engaging’, ‘challenging’ and ‘stimulating’ were used in descriptions of the curriculum and educators stressed that curriculum emerged from the needs and interests of the children and should be concerned with the holistic development of the child. Aims included: ▶ giving children time, freedom and opportunities to explore ▶ providing materials and activities that are purposely variable so as to give children exposure to different experiences ▶ extending children’s skills and thinking ▶ building children’s independence, confidence, self-esteem, autonomy, communication, co-operation and respect for others.

Staff saw their role as one of making a difference in the lives of children and families and preparing children for life, so that each child left the centre feeling competent and capable.

‘Staff saw their role as one of making a difference in the lives of children and families and preparing children for life, so that each child left the centre feeling competent and capable.’

Relationships Relationships are the ‘glue’ that binds the tangible and intangible features of quality. Positive relationships contribute to a sense of being valued and belonging. Many different levels of relationships contribute to high quality: ▶ collegial, caring and trusting relationships between staff and across the centre ▶ honest, genuine and strong relationships between staff and families ▶ respectful, loving, caring, and consistent relationships between staff and children ▶ meaningful, respectful and caring relationships between children.

Staff spoke about really knowing the children, engaging with them as individuals, and spending ‘magical moments’ with children. Such relationships made the children feel special and gave them a sense that the centre is their place just as much as it is the staff’s. This, in turn, made empowered children and enhanced their love for learning and capacity to learn. Parents were regarded as genuine partners in the life of the centre, so staff consciously and deliberately took the time to build strong relationships with families and to provide extra support to families when that was needed.

Partnerships with health and education services in the local community were vital in enabling extra support for families. Through such relationships centres were able to refer families to appropriate services; support children’s transition to school and/or other settings; and keep children connected with siblings in different services.

In summary Here we have presented ‘snippets’ from the centres in our studies. It is clear that quality emerges from an interwoven set of factors that in all its manifestations involves thoughtful and informed decisions. Although this aspect of the study focused on the processes that contribute to quality, staff and parents acknowledged the importance of regulatory factors such as qualifications and staff to child ratios. However, building on this were strong organisational cultures.

These cultures were reflective and professionally informed, built strong and respectful relationships, and always focused on the best interest of children.

Dr Frances Press is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University.

Her research interests include early childhood policy and integrated programmes for children and families.

Dr Linda Harrison is Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education in the Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University. Her research and professional work focus on young children’s experiences of childcare/ early education. She has investigated multiple dimensions of quality in early years settings and the ways that provisions and practices in childcare, preschool and school influence children’s health, learning, and well-being.

References Fenech, M., Harrison, L., Press, F., & Sumsion, J. (2010). Contributors to quality long day care: Findings from six case study centres.

Bathurst: Charles Sturt University.

Fenech, M., Sweller, N., & Harrison, L. J. (2010). Identifying high quality centre based childcare using quantitative data sets: What the numbers do and don’t tell us.

International Journal of Early Years, 18(4), 283-296.

Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 45

Rattler talks to a DEC preschool, a communitybased service and private long day care centre about the long and winding road to quality improvement.

By Ingrid Maack.

T

he past three years has been an era of rapid change and reflection with children’s services using the reform agenda as a road map to raise quality and drive continuous improvement. Even while still in its draft form, many services began engaging with the National Quality Framework (NQF)—turning the mirror inwards, so to speak, and sparking a spirit of self-study and reflection that is effectively reshaping the sector.

For many, the journey began with

in-house workshops and professional development days where educators reflected on practices while breaking down the new National Quality Standards (NQS). Others looked outwards—networking with peers via preparation working groups, training days or online using wikis, webinars and blogs.

With the requirement of draft Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs) to be completed by 30 April 2012, many services are already well down the road in the quality improvement journey.

s y e n r u o j e v i t c e l NQF: Ref NQF: Reflective journe ys 46 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

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Documenting reflection in Dubbo

Regand Park Early Childhood Education Centre is a private long day care centre in Dubbo, NSW, owned and operated by Jacqueline Benn (Mothercraft Nurse) and Justine Cook (Early Childhood Teacher). Regand Park has 141 enrolled children.

Licensee, director and teacher Justine Cook shares her team’s journey: ‘Last year I attended the ‘NQF: Preparation Working Group for Preschools and LDCs’ run by Children’s Services Central. This group met five times between August and November to work through the National Quality Standards in detail, forming networks and brainstorming as a collective group.

Jacqueline and I also attended ‘Making Your Preschool or LDC NQF Ready’ run

by Children’s Services Central and Community Child Care’s Really Simple Regs Info Session run by Community Child Care in late 2011.

Some examples of our reflective journey at Regand Park are: the makeover of our indoor environments, a huge renovation of our outdoor environment which incorporated ideas and suggestions from the children, a new way of gathering and documenting parent input and suggestions into our programs, rostered reflective time and a commitment to better utilise and portray our local Indigenous culture.

In-house, we provided our five rooms with their own copy of the EYLF and NQS documents and the Guide to the National Quality Standard. Educators have been working through these documents in their programming time and using the outcomes and elements as links and reflections for their learning journals.

‘It’s all about reflection … we have a centre reflective journal, room reflective journals and educator reflective journals as well as rostered reflective time.’

Documenting our reflective journey ‘We have been focusing on the concept of reflective practice for some time now. The team really engaged with the concept of reflection and together we developed a reflective journal for our centre.

It is an A3-size spiral bound art book that we began in January 2011. The idea came as we worked through the EYLF and looked at what we did well and areas we could improve upon. When we came across the principle “Ongoing Learning and Reflective Practice” we knew we did [this] well, but we couldn’t show or demonstrate how we do this at a centre level. We felt it necessary to give Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 47

reflection of our thoughts, ideas, beliefs and practices more importance.

I had read that educators should demonstrate how they were working through the Educator’s Guide to the Early Years Learning Framework. As a director, I was overwhelmed by the size of that document let alone giving the Guide out to my team, so the idea to work through a section at a time and have a centre reflective journal was born.

Jacqueline and I spent time looking at our roster and were able to squeeze three lots of 45-minute “reflective journal” times into our weekly roster. During this time educators are replaced and leave the room to work on the journal. As a team of 24, it takes approximately six weeks for everyone to complete each section.

I used passages, paragraphs, quotes, activities and questions from the Educator’s Guide and put these into our journal for staff to read, reflect and comment upon. Each educator then signs off on a table at the front of the journal so at a glance we can see who still needs a turn. We also table 5–10 minutes at our monthly staff meeting to discuss items that have arisen.

Due to the success of our reflective journal we have also implemented room reflective journals and individual journals to help educators document their thoughts on programs and practice.

Making the most of monthly meetings ‘At our monthly educator meetings we have been looking at each Quality Area in detail, focussing on one area [per] meeting.

We typically begin by reading through the overview and then brainstorming answers to three key questions.

The questions are: What is the Quality Area about? What requirements must we meet? Questions to guide reflection. We then divide into smaller groups to gather perspectives. Each group focuses on one element of the Quality Area. They are given a piece of paper with the element at the top and four headings: “Observe, Discuss, Sight, Improvements/Questions”.

As they read through each element, they write down how we currently meet it under each heading. For example, under “Observe” they write things the assessor may see on a visit that support that element. Under “Discuss”, they list things they might discuss about our service with an assessor.

Under “Sight”, they list what documents and policies we need to update and display to reflect current practice. Under “Improvements/Questions”, they list various issues raised after reading through the Guide. It may be a question to pose to the whole group, a task we have to do, or something we feel we don’t currently do or could perhaps do better.

The “Improvements/Questions” section has made us really look at how we communicate as educators and how we reflect and document our reflection on our programs and procedures.

All these pieces of paper have been placed in an A3 display book that we have called “Our Journey with the NQS”. This is located in our staff room so educators can add ideas to it any time.

We have also done up question templates using questions outlined in the discuss sections of the Draft NQS. At Regand Park we have a lot of visitors from TAFE and University. They usually come with a certain focus (e.g. programming or environments) and they ask our educators many questions. I like to give question sheets to each visitor with one question on the topic they are covering. I then ask the student to pose their question to one of our educators as they move through the centre and record their answer on the sheet. At the end of their visit, I photocopy the sheets for the students. This way they leave with a bank of information and we get practice in explaining, justifying and discussing our practice with others.

Right now, we are just about to Brainstorm Quality Area 7: Leadership and Management and we’re using the Improvements/Questions sections to begin our Quality Improvement Plan.

‘I realised early in the NQF journey that it’s a bit like a running race.

You have people who are sprinters, those who are long distance runners, joggers and walkers.’

48 | Rattler: Focus – NQS July 2013

This will help us enormously when we come to formally write the QIP. I would say the NQF preparation process has reminded us to value each Standard and Element and its impact on overall quality. Without relationships you cannot effectively intentionally teach, and unless you have considered how the environment is set up you cannot allow children to learn through play, respect diversity or investigate and problem-solve.

Instead of being caught up in the negative aspects of change, I like to remind our educators that for the first time we have a [Framework], we are being recognised as educators, and the focus is on the valuable work we do and the impact we have on the lives of children.

After all, isn’t that why we are all here!’

Continuous improvement in Central West

Mitchell Early Learning Centre in Bathurst is a community-based long day care centre located on the campus of Charles Sturt University. It has 30 staff and 59 enrolled children.

Director of Mitchell Early Learning Centre Jenell George shares her team’s journey: ‘Preparing for and implementing the National Quality Framework continues to be an exciting journey. For Mitchell ELC it’s been a relatively easy transition from the old system—we haven’t found the jump that big. While it has been overwhelming at times with the amount of information to read, the essence of it is still about quality practice and quality outcomes for children.

I realised early in the NQF journey that it is a bit like a running race. You have people who are sprinters, those who are long distance runners, joggers and walkers. We have 30 staff so it’s been important from the start that everyone has been engaged in the NQF and EYLF learning process.

Whatever crosses my desk via email— e-tips, journal articles, etc.—I have been displaying on the staff room notice board and discussing in staff meetings.

We have also been sending as many staff as possible along to training within our region and further afield.

We have paid, monthly two-hour staff meetings. The first hour has a focus on professional discussion and reflection, while the second hour is devoted to

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Feeling future positive at John Brotchie

Towri MACS director, Diane Fraser (left) and Mitchell ELC director, Jenell George.

reflective practice at a room level.

We often have guest speakers at our meetings, for instance to assist us with the rewriting of our philosophy, (done annually) or staff will do a presentation about training attended or something they have read in a journal.

Regularly reviewing our philosophy Three years ago we decided to review our philosophy annually. The first year we broke down our philosophy into just four points with the help of Lorainne Madden from Semann & Slattery. The second year we made it a reflective journey for the whole community and invited the management committee, centre families and children to help.

Children made posters, now displayed in our hallway, where they wrote or drew what they like at Mitchell Early Learning such as their friendships or favourite educators.

This year we brought in facilitators from Lady Gowrie, and met with our local Multifunctional Aboriginal Children’s Service, Towri MACS, which is our new sister service. We had a combined professional development day earlier this year to focus on the NQF, review our philosophy and develop our first Quality Improvement Plan. Both services worked on our QIPs individually and then presented them to each other.

Our QIP is displayed in the staff room.

I suspect it will be a “work in progress” forever as we are constantly improving and learning new things. It’s about striving for best practice always, and wanting to make the things you do to be authentic and meaningful for everybody.

We’re licensed for 70 children but we currently only have 59 children enrolled.

This is part of our improvement journey and is supported by our management committee, which sees the value in minimising numbers. We have higher staff-child ratios in every room.

We changed our name last year from Mitchell Child Care Centre to Mitchell Early Learning Centre to reflect the NQF and the focus on education as well as care. We made a notice board in 2011 to involve the wider community in the name change. We also asked the children, whose suggestions included “Kid’s House” or “Fun Place”.

For some educators, the enthusiasm and commitment to continuous learning was already there, but the National Quality Framework is a great tool to encourage other educators to join in on the improvement journey.

It is the catalyst for driving people who have been in the field for a long time and have been waiting for these changes.

This is the fruit of all those hard years of work. Those whispers were always there, but now that voice is getting louder and stronger … and that is exciting!’

John Brotchie Nursery School is a Department of Education and Communities preschool in the Sydney suburb of Botany. In 2010 John Brotchie Nursery School was part of the trial group for the National Quality Standards.

Preschool director, Rebecca Andrews shares her journey: ‘The Department of Education has been very supportive during this change period. We have had two state conferences both for teachers and support staff around the EYLF. We have also established a Community of Preschool network group, where local preschools meet twice a term to discuss the Framework, and we have the support of an early childhood consultant.

Participating in the NQS pilot was a valuable experience and gave us a head start, especially because we are a preschool and new to the accreditation and assessment process. The draftonly Document also gave our team an introduction to the Standards and Elements, many of which have since changed, but the experience did jumpstart our journey.

The report we got at the end of the trial gave feedback on our strengths and areas for improvement. As part of the pilot we also did a Quality Improvement Plan (QIP), but we did ours in just three weeks, whereas now I would work on a QIP over three to six months.

Two years on (February 2012), we are excited about putting the Framework into practice, and of course, we are reflecting, documenting and preparing for our QIP. We have two more Quality Areas to reflect on and discuss as a team, and we are starting to put some of our key improvements into place.

So far, I have found the QIP template easy to use. It’s kept us focused and helped break things down into achievable steps.

We’re introducing new practices ‘We have identified our strengths and what we could do differently—i.e. how we could challenge our current practice or maybe introduce new policy or procedures based on discussions and reflection.

For instance, after looking at Quality Area 5: Relationships with Children, we have introduced family photo albums. On our open day each family is given a little album to allow children Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 49

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to reflect on their lives at home and at preschool. The albums have been a great success and have helped children settle into preschool and allowed educators to get to know children’s family and home lives.

For us, the Framework has also highlighted the importance of the Physical Environment (Quality Area 3).

We have always valued our outdoor area as a place for the children to experience nature through climbing trees, growing veggies and caring for plants and animals but I think training around the principles and practices has helped us to understand current research and make further changes within our services. [In 2011 the preschool won the 2011 Sprout Award for ‘Connecting with Nature’ as well as first prize in the City of Botany Council’s Garden competition for School and Community gardens.]

The journey never ends ‘There is always room for improvement or things we can do differently. We discovered this when we looked at Quality Area 6. Collaborative Partnerships 50 | Rattler: Focus – NQS July 2013

with Families and Communities.

At John Brotchie our documentation is digital and posted online so families can access children’s journals at home or in the office. However, we realised that not all parents have a computer or internet access at home. So we set up a documentation station here at the preschool where families can access a computer to check their child’s digital journal. It also means we can share activities from that particular day and not at a later date (sometime days later) online. We also looked at Quality Area 2, (2.1.2) that “each child’s comfort is provided for and there are opportunities for sleep, rest and relaxation”.

Being a preschool program, we don’t have sleep time or beds provided but we reflected on the need for children to have a quiet space in our environment where they could lie down, listen to music, read a book or have a sleep if they wished.

While change and the introduction of Standards can be overwhelming, it’s wonderful to see services embracing change and trying new practices.’

Photography: Rebecca Andrews

Top left: Educator, Kris Nomarhas in sandpit. Top right: School Learning support officer, Trish Niblock. Bottom left: Early Childhood teacher, Kath Wetenhall. Bottom right: Environmental educator, Leesa DiCampli. Below: Children climbing at John Brotchie Nursery School in Botany.

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When

Rattler first spoke to four NSW services—a community-based preschool, council-run long day care, a private long day care and a council-run family day care service—they had just completed their Quality Improvement Plans. While each service faced challenges, the message was clear: continuous reflection and quality improvement was reshaping the sector. As the services prepare for their assessment visit, questions are flying: what is the visit going to be like, what will they say about my service, what does it mean for the future?

By Camille Howard.

52 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

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T

wo years ago Forbes Preschool was struggling, with low enrolments forcing the closure of one room.

Now they are bursting at the seams, with a new preschool being built to cope with demand. It’s a busy time for the director, Amy Shine, who has just put the finishing touches on her service’s Quality Improvement Plan (QIP). ‘Things have changed dramatically at Forbes Preschool over the last two and a half years,’ she says.

With a relatively new team, Ms Shine says there has been a lot of staff training, both in-house and involving significant travel, in preparation for the National Quality Framework (NQF). ‘We’ve been meeting to talk about the NQF and reflect on what we’re doing and why, so nothing’s done without a lot of thought.

‘Even if it’s been something we think we are doing well, it’s been a way to reflect on why we think we’re doing that well, or what else we can do,’ she explains. ‘I keep saying to staff that we’re not running a program like this, or doing anything, just because of the National Quality Framework, or for our assessment visit. We’re doing it because we believe in it.’

With over a decade in the industry, Ms Shine has also been a part-time TAFE teacher for about 10 years, which she says ties in nicely when reflecting on her QIP. ‘It gives me the opportunity to really reflect on what I’m doing, and to always be learning. Then I can bring that back and teach to the staff as well.’

Reflecting as a team has been a big benefit of the process so far. ‘Everyone’s ready to learn. We’ve got a pretty dynamic staff. We’ve got young, old, Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal staff, a range of educational backgrounds, and everyone’s pretty supportive of each other.’

This supportive attitude was vital in creating her QIP, which began by encouraging a lot of discussion between her staff and committee. But she admits with all the busyness surrounding the building of the new premises, she would have liked more time. ‘Ideally, if we had more time I would have I would have liked to have a lot more communication with families,’ she says.

That said, she plans on ensuring communication with families is ongoing, so she and her team are constantly talking to parents to communicate what they are doing in the service, and why.

Overcoming challenges Putting the QIP together has presented difficulties, such as costing Ms Shine about a week off the floor. ‘With all the focus on the NQF, it’s harder to focus on the day-to-day.’

She feels a bit ‘snowed under’ with all the paperwork that is tying her to the office. ‘I’m away from the team and away from the children a bit more at the moment.

‘I have to make myself go out at nine o’clock to say hello to families, otherwise I’m in my office and no one sees me. And that goes against everything I’ve written in our Quality Improvement Plan.’

Training around the NQF has been frustrating, too. As a regional service, getting to some face-to-face training required extensive travel, which meant hiring additional staff to cover this. To ensure her whole team was accessing training, Ms Shine arranged in-house training, at additional cost to her preschool. ‘I strongly believe in keeping our staff up-to-date and I like the fact that if we have in-house training all staff can attend.’

Although she found the Department of Education and Communities very supportive when she called with questions, they often weren’t able to help. ‘The difficulty was that they had

not yet been trained and had as little experience as me in the whole process.

So the information was not always as much as I wanted or needed.’

Fear of the unknown Because the NQF and assessment process is so new, Ms Shine admits there is some apprehension. ‘We’re happy to be one of the first services assessed because we believe we offer a pretty good program, but of course we’re going to be apprehensive as well,’ she says.

‘What are our assessors after?’

Despite this nervousness, Ms Shine is looking forward to her first assessment visit. ‘I’ve really enjoyed the process.

We’re really passionate about what we do, so I hope that’s reflected in our assessment,’ she says. ‘I don’t for a minute think there is no room for improvement but for where we are at the moment, we’re pretty happy.

‘If there’s something we can improve on then we will improve on it, we’ll work as hard as we can.

‘We’re looking forward to seeing what it’s all about, then talking to other services about our visit,’ she says. ‘There are some really exciting conversations in early childhood at the moment and I’m excited about that.’

Amy Shine, second from right, and her team reflect on their QIP. Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 53

Photography: Ingrid Maack

1 Focus on learning

‘I’ve really enjoyed the process. We’re really passionate about what we do, so I hope that’s reflected in our assessment.’

2 celebrating strengths

W

hen director Deborah O’Rorke purchased Cow & Koala Professional Child Care in August last year, after working in the service four years, it set into action a significant cultural change. ‘We haven’t had a team like this that works so well together for a very long time.’

As a non-teaching director, coming from a training background helped Ms O’Rorke better understand what the NQF set out to achieve. Despite this, the process of reflecting on the service’s practices, while undergoing this cultural change, took time.

Her approach to the QIP, then, was systematic. She and the Nominated Supervisor each looked at key areas of responsibility before coming together to work through the QIP as a whole.

‘Then we would go away, leave it for a few days and then come back again,’ she says, ‘because it takes time for the cream to rise to the surface.

‘It was really easy to look at our practices and say, well I think we could do better, because it’s easy to criticise yourself. We both found listing our strengths to be quite difficult because we were shining a light on ourselves, and culturally we just don’t do that.’

Energy boost In putting the QIP together, Ms O’Rorke says it created a heightened level of energy and enthusiasm among her staff, which she is keen to maintain. ‘This is an emotional investment,’ she says. ‘You are putting “you” under that spotlight and that is daunting; that takes energy and strength to do that.

‘It has been really emotionally draining to put it all out there, on paper, to give it to complete strangers and say “come in here and judge us”. But the comfort is knowing we do do a great job.

‘To keep that energy level up is, for me,

going to be my biggest challenge. Not enthusiasm, just energy. I want this to work, I want this to be a success because the outcomes are positive for everybody.’

Getting staff to embrace the process has been positive, as it has allowed them to see how improvements to their dayto-day will produce tangible outcomes, even though it may not be immediate.

‘That’s the beauty of the QIP: maybe in two, three or six months time, the impact will be felt,’ Ms O’Rorke explains.

‘That’s the role of leadership and management in the service—you don’t need to know it all but you need to know: have you made a positive difference to a child today; what tools can I give you to make that positive difference?’

Putting the QIP together has also provided the impetus for more regular reflection. ‘We all get so busy in the work, doing what we do every day, we don’t take the time to take that one step back and reflect,’ she says. ‘This is a great tool to assist you in running a business.

In a way it’s been given to us on a plate—they’ve even done the hard work of doing the template for me!

Work in progress As a small regional centre, training proved problematic, with five hours

‘It has been really emotionally draining to put it all out there, on paper, to give it to complete strangers and say “come in here and judge us”.’

54 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

travel required to get to some face-toface training venues. And now that her QIP has been completed, Ms O’Rorke says there are still some questions regarding the NQF. ‘The National Regulations seems to be, and rightly so, quite broad, but it’s obviously left open to interpretation.

‘So when we get the assessment visit, yes, there’s a sense of trepidation because of the broadness of the regulations and therefore the interpretation that can be made, but also this is a brand new system and we’re all feeling our way in the dark, to an extent.’

But Ms O’Rorke sees the assessment as a greater learning experience. ‘I see this as a really positive thing; as something that will hopefully open up services, open up lines of communication between the regulatory bodies.

‘I only hope we can convey strongly enough that we are proud of what we do, we love what we do and we do do a good job. And it is nice to be told that every now and then.

‘Since putting in our QIP, the supervisor and I are talking and I’m actually doing some other things that need to go in the next Quality Improvement Plan. It’s an organic document; it’s never going to stay the same. Yes, there’s the big goal, the big plans, but when they come and visit us in a few weeks time, the document is going to be very different. I take heart from the fact that what I said I was going to do 12 weeks ago is not what I’m actually doing today.’

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3 best practice approach

F

or Lynne George, manager of Children and Family Services for Marrickville Council, the rollout of the NQF has been a big undertaking.

Marrickville Family Day Care (FDC) service provides education and care for up to 165 children from homes located throughout the Marrickville local government area. Currently there are 26 approved FDC educators, most of whom have English as a second language.

‘The service has been preparing for the NQF rollout for some time,’ she says. To start, questions that reflected on policies and practices were given to all educators and co-ordination staff to work through during home visits, with the service’s educational leader providing mentoring and leadership in the development and implementation of a curriculum based on the Early Years Learning Framework and individual programs for each child.

Putting together the QIP also required a team approach from co-ordination staff and management, starting with a review of an existing improvement plan. ‘We incorporated individual and service issues and strengths identified by families in the annual parent satisfaction surveys completed in November last year. We also accessed 10 hours individual service support with Nicky Cocksedge from Children’s Services Central.

‘Different staff members were allocated different quality areas to prepare and bring back to the team for review and finalisation,’ Ms George says.

This prompted careful review of all policies and procedures, to promote best practice among staff and educators and to build on individual educator’s strengths and support improvements where needed. ‘More regular home visits have been conducted according to individual educator’s needs,’ Ms George adds.

Room for improvement For Marrickville Council, the biggest benefits of creating the QIP have been identifying meaningful and achievable improvements for the service, as well as becoming more familiar with the standards. ‘It helped us to focus on and really assess what we were currently doing in some areas and plan for

‘No training was provided to inform us how best to undertake the QIP. Throughout our region the feeling of uncertainty was the same.’

improvements to meet the needs of all involved,’ Ms George says.

‘We continually review our practices and liaise with other schemes in the region to share ideas and keep current with new practices. Marrickville Council provides training for permanent staff and encourages professional development on an ongoing basis. Staff recognise the value of imparting this culture with educators and families, and undertake such as an important part of our role.’

In terms of challenges faced, Ms George says ‘lack of time’ was a key concern: ‘Especially when support during home visits around this crucial time is so valuable to the educators; and some of our training relevant to the National Quality Standards and NQF had not been completed. Our QIP had to be realistic for our service.’

Also, she says, they were initially overwhelmed because Marrickville FDC was to be one of the first services assessed under the new standard. ‘In addition, at the time we were notified to lodge our QIP, the assessment and rating tool had still not been published so we felt apprehensive as to the expectations against which we were to be assessed; and whether the new system would truly be less focused on “ticking all the boxes” and genuinely examine our approach, vision and practices as demonstrated by our staff, educators and documentation.’

Knowing how to present the QIP was problematic, she adds, in terms of understanding what information was required. ‘No training was provided to inform us how best to undertake the QIP. Throughout our region the feeling of uncertainty was the same.

‘However, as we continued to work on the QIP and reflected on our strengths and areas for improvement, we came to a better understanding of the progress we had already made.’

Ms George says there was also ‘acceptance’ of the need for continuous

improvement in the quality areas. ‘Our overarching goal always is to deliver the best possible outcomes we can for children and families. And we believe and trust that this also is the overarching objective of the NQF. ’In family day care there is, I think, a little more anxiety about the assessment visits because we don’t know which of our educators will be assessed; and we know they feel quite anxious and a great deal of responsibility to the service as a whole for their “performance” during the assessment visits.’

While there is some trepidation about the visit, Ms George is hopeful of a positive outcome. ‘We have devoted an enormous amount of time preparing our educators for the assessment.

We have identified educators who may have needed extra support and provided extra home visits and training both individually and in some small groups. We’re hoping that the assessors recognise the uniqueness of each individual educator and what their service offers.’

Educator Marie Manacos role-playing with children.

Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 55

4 becoming proactive

A

fter Carss Park Narani Child Care Centre received the letter from the Department of Education and Communities advising them of the deadline to complete their QIP, Marisa Rodriguez breathed a sigh of relief.

As manager of Children’s Services for Kogarah City Council, she had been working towards it for 18 months. ‘We already had an initial draft, so we just worked through that systematically.’

Carss Park Narani had in place its own series of annual quality improvement surveys, but now, Ms Rodriguez says, these will be conducted twice a year to be more inline with the QIP. ‘We constantly evaluate our practices—what we’re doing, how we’re doing it—it’s just not necessarily documented. In documenting it we can therefore be less reactive and more proactive.

‘We’ve used the tool that is on the ACECQA website,’ Ms Rodriguez says.

‘The way the template is designed helped the way that we think through what we’re good at and where we need to improve. And the information on the ACECQA website is really good.’

To create a complete plan, all educators were asked for their input on areas of improvement, which Ms Rodriguez says was initially confronting.

‘It had to be very personal, to look at areas where they can improve,’ she explains. ‘We also had to make sure that it made sense to us and to someone who doesn’t know us.’

56 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

‘Everyone was trying to find what the Department’s “formula” was. That was a difficult thing to get across, that there’s no magic formula.’

On top of that, Ms Rodriguez found that there needed to be a shift in educator’s thinking about this process as one that is ongoing and evaluative.

‘Getting [them] to understand that there’s always going to be room for improvement was difficult,’ she explains.

‘It took a very long time for staff to think analytically. Rather than thinking, “we’re the best and if we’re the best, why do we need to improve?” now they’re saying, “we do these things really well, how can we do them better?”

Another challenge proved to be working towards compliance within a price-conscious environment. ‘We’re concerned for the impact on price point,’ she says. ‘What we consider is going to have a cost impact, such as changes in ratios, we are looking at that now.’

This long-term planning, Ms Rodriguez says, is another shift. ‘We’re being more proactive than we normally have been.’

One size does not fit all Over the last 18 months, the teams in Kogarah City Council’s three education and care services attended about three or four training sessions, as well as the Department’s Sydney-based information sessions. ‘That helped people understand that it’s a process, an ever-evolving process, and that we’re all starting from the same base line,’ says Ms Rodriguez.

‘It seemed, in the early stages, that everyone was trying to find what the Department’s “formula” was,’ she explains. ‘That was a difficult thing to get across, that there’s no magic formula.’

Even with the training, Ms Rodriguez realised there was a feeling of going in blind. ‘It was all new,’ she says. ‘All the people that gave us information and training said, “this is as much information as we have right now; we’ll keep everybody posted and updated”.’

What added another level of confusion for Ms Rodriguez during the process was the growing number of businesses set up to profit from services’ uncertainty of the assessment process. ‘You have a lot

of people on the periphery of childcare, not necessarily working in services, who develop their own business models and market them to services as tools to do their assessment,’ she says.

But she says information from the Department and Community Child Care Co-operative has been very good at highlighting how services need to develop their own ways of doing the assessment. ‘Because we had that background, staff are becoming a bit more scrutinising of what they see. But still, some of these people who market their product are very good at it; they know exactly where the anxiety is and they target that.’

Waiting game Not knowing much about the impending assessment, Ms Rodriguez is keen to get a clearer picture of the logistics. ‘How much notice are we going to get? Who will they need to see? We need to make sure we maintain staff ratios and ensure everything is running smoothly when they come out. And do they want to see parents?’

Although she got a lot out of the overall process, Ms Rodriguez is keen for answers to these questions and for greater communication overall from the Department. ‘They have everybody’s email addresses,’ she says. ‘They could just send an email saying, “this is what we’re expecting the process is going to be”.* So, are you ready? ‘We’re as prepared as we can be for it,’ she says. ‘It’s up to someone else to come in and say “we’re doing the right thing”, or “this is where you need to improve”. And we welcome that feedback.

‘I like this process better than the accreditation process,’ she says. ‘I think this is a nice way to combine quality with regulations.’ * DEC has recently taken steps to address concerns within the sector, including emails to keep services informed of DEC’s approaches to NQF requirements.

nqF CASE STUDIES

This page and opposite: Indoor and outdoor play spaces at Carss Park Narani Child Care Centre. Below: Educator Maureen Yum reads to children..

Some politicians and education and care services want to slow down NQF reforms. Children deserve the best right now.

Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 57

DEBATE : In this our qualitythemed edition, Rattler asks practitioners from the field: What are the most important aspects of Quality in early childhood and care? Relationships, Environments and Intentional Teaching top the list.

Kerry Bradley Family Day Care Co-ordinator, Leichhardt City Council: ‘My cultural, professional and life experience leads me to believe the most important aspect of quality is relationships. I’m also passionate about environment and aesthetics, but really it’s all about people!

We spend our whole lives negotiating relationships.

Quality early childhood is determined by the relationships between educator– child, educator–family and child–family.

When each of these relationships support the individual needs of a child to grow and learn in a respectful, joyful, and fun environment then we have quality.

Belonging Being Becoming, to me, is about developing the relationships that build children up to face the world. Our community is also built on relationships. So to ensure children feel like they belong to the community, we must ensure we have the best role models in the ECEC profession (it’s not just a job!).

We need people who relate to their communities, who continually work on their relationships with children, families and team members.

58 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

Services need to live and breathe as a community by listening, questioning, debating, informing, guiding and resourcing. And communities need to be amazed and inspired by the development of these young developing community members—be in awe of their questioning and possibility.’

Toni Warburton Director Thornton Preschool: ‘I think that the environment we provide for children indoors and out, is one of the most important aspects of quality in our sector. The environment actually encompasses a whole range of aspects from aesthetics, provision and functionality.

We would all like to have lovely, beautiful natural environments for the children to explore and learn in, but you still need to work with what you have.

The environment that we provide is so important, as it can tell children “I respect you and your ability to make decisions and learn”. It can help children to regulate behaviour by providing spaces for them to be excited and loud in and quiet areas to sit and reflect in. A quality environment should provide children with the resources to guide their learning.

A quality environment that is inviting will engage children in their learning and in turn lead to a quality educative program. A quality environment that functions and flows, and importantly has caring, attentive educators—educating, interacting and engaging with children—will always be important.’

Vicki Olds Outback Mobile Resources Unit, Broken Hill: ‘In a mobile children’s service situation, quality is about service

delivery, relationships and being responsive to family wants and needs. I do say families because while we are an early childhood service, we are as much a service for the mothers and fathers as we are for the children. Our service area is extensive. Tibooburra is 350 kilometres north and Wentworth is 250 kilometres south.

In our mobile unit, you cannot take quantity into consideration. Sometimes, we can have a two-day trip to conduct a five-hour session with only two children but as long as we can get out there to those communities, I think we are doing our jobs well!

Parents will travel up to 150 kilometres to a town or property to meet with us.

It is an opportunity for them to network with each other while we care for the children—and this is quality in our eyes.

As well as our usual meet-ups, we also do gymkhanas and will soon be doing a bush fire training day. We will look after the children while the parents do their training. We are so flexible it’s ridiculous, and we have that kind of relationship with our families.’

Michelle J Seldon Mia-Mia parent and Education student: ‘I must confess I wear two hats.

Firstly, I’m a mother with a child in care and secondly I’m an educator. Wearing my first hat, my initial response is my child’s happiness and safety. However the focus is ‘quality’.

Attached to this word is a mental list such as wonderful creative play, outdoor environment, nurturing interactions, nutrition, ratios. The list goes on. But for me, all roads lead to the quality of the people attached to the centre. These people will possibly spend more waking hours with my child than I do. The thought paramount in easing a parent’s mind is always: “I feel I have quality staff surrounding my child”.

OPINION

What are the most important aspects of Quality in early childhood and care?

I wear my educator’s hat when I say that quality staff for me takes the form of leadership from trained teachers in early childhood that have insight into how my child ticks. If she is drawing a pattern, I may see an artwork but a trained teacher will see a child’s early steps towards mathematics and know how to guide her to the next foundational step.

Knowing that my child is spending some of her most productive learning time with someone that is not only nurturing quality connections but actually knows how to build on them is a gift to me as a parent. My child has access to a facility that has the professional knowledge to create a supportive, nurturing and educational web around her. The presence of qualified teachers should be a community expectation and a child’s right.’

Fiona Harris Director at KU Wombarra Preschool: ‘There are so many facets which must work together for quality to blossom; genuine relationships within the team and amongst our families and their children are fundamental. I also think having a good understanding of what is important in your community, [connecting] with families around curriculum matters and welcoming family involvement provides a footing from which to develop curriculum.

Our curriculum is rich with possibility. We teach about sustainability in all facets from our veggie garden and frog pond to paper-making and whale watching. We celebrate the artistic nature of our community within the seasonally changing atelier (studio) and invite local artists and musicians in to work with us.

Carefully planned environments which offer opportunities to explore a wide range of materials, revisit favourite experiences, spend time alone or with

small groups and take into account the changing interests within the group are also important. We consider the environment the 3rd teacher, and play spaces speak for themselves.

We also ensure that the total environment is aesthetically arranged and have created beautiful learning environments both indoors and out. We are fortunate to have the Pacific Ocean tumbling by our door and a big bush garden with many native animals living in our grounds.’

Neville Dwyer Director Griffith Child Care Centre: ‘Quality is intentional teaching, but what is intentional teaching? The E4Kids research study (www.e4kids.org.au) has helped me answer this question.

On Sunday (Jan 8, 2012) a report hit the headlines on the quality (or lack of) in early childhood settings.

The headline in the Sydney Morning Herald read: “Preschools Flunk the Test”.

What the news reports focused on were the results, which found that the Instructional Support quality area was low (a mean average of 2.05 on a scale of 1–7.) Language modelling scored relatively highly, but concept development and activities that promoted children’s thinking and understanding did not.

It [reveals] what is happening or not happening in early childhood settings and that is around the “intentionality” of what we do. Some of the intentional teaching happens through the questions we ask. Do we ask superficial questions or harder questions that require us to really listen to children, interpret their thinking and extend on this? Do we have expectations about what children should know? If so, we have to plan and make intentional decisions about how this knowledge will be developed.

Intentional teaching is also about the intentional decisions we make to sup-

port learning—how many staff in a playroom, how we set up play environments, how we develop children’s attitudes to the natural world etc.

Children won’t just learn be osmosis, it requires us to think, plan and make choices on their behalf. I think many [educators] struggle to engage deeply with children, and I would suggest the report highlights that some of our practice is pretty average.

It’s not an attack on early childhood, in fact the report has the potential to prove that good curriculum choices, changes to national regulations, introduction of the EYLF and the NQS will improve the quality and educational outcomes for children across the country.’

Emma Cullen ECT Abbotsford Long Day Care Centre: ‘There are many factors which impact on quality, but I believe the most significant of these to be relationships. I see partnerships with families, respectful connections with colleagues as well as meaningful bonds with children as the foundation of quality experiences.

Once you have established a meaningful relationship with a child you can then tap into their thoughts and interests, and begin to provide individually significant curriculum experiences.

Such intentional teaching can enrich a child’s learning, and strengthen developmental outcomes.

I also believe attention to the aesthetics of the environment is an important consideration. Children should have places and spaces designed for them that reflect the beauty, magic and mystery of the world. Unhurried time to play and explore, and to stop and wonder, is also important for children to make the most of the opportunities that such environments provide.’

Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 59

Dialogue &

Debate Renae Giles

With ACECQA’s Excellent rating criteria recently released, we talk to services that have already received an Exceeding National Quality Standard rating to ask: will you apply for an Excellent rating?

■ Renae Giles, Manager, Children’s

Services, Sutherland Shire Council: We had two services receive Exceeding NQS ratings and I would say they certainly warranted that rating, and it’s a rating they can sustain. In terms of applying for an Excellent rating, it’s not a conversation we’ve had with those services, given the draft criteria has only just come out. However, just talking within the management team, we would see it as a journey of continuous improvement.

We have a very strong view that these ‘centres of excellence’ across Australia should be very few and far between—there’s going to be very few services out there that can reach that level, due to a range of factors, such as resourcing, leadership, dynamics of staff. I know you can get an Exceeding NQS rating and not necessarily have exceeding in all areas and I’d be wanting to see exceeding in all areas for any of our services to go through.

■ Phillipa Maher, Director,

Valla Community Preschool:

Our preschool community was very pleased that we are considered to be Exceeding NQS. It doesn’t stop there though; we know that we must maintain a commitment to continual reflection and improvement if we truly embrace the responsibility of maintaining quality and further improvement.

Educators and the management committee discussed the opportunity for applying for an excellent rating and we chose not to apply at this time, for several reasons. Firstly, we have no extra places available and have a large waiting list, so we would prefer just to continue our quality improvement at this stage rather than trying to prove our excellence.

Also, the National Law and NQS are only new and the criteria for Excellent rating seems to be still undergoing some 60 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013

Phillipa Maher

tweaking—many services are still yet to be assessed, so it seems a bit premature to be seeking an Excellent rating at this time. We see the NQF as a positive step towards improving outcomes for children and families, but that does not mean that we want to become slaves to the processes involved.

At this stage, we believe that there is no benefit to the children and families of our service—in fact there is a cost to be assessed for an Excellent rating. We believe every child deserves exceptional education and care that improves outcomes for children and families, not just those in an ‘excellent’ service.

■ Donna Clark, Director,

Kid City Kindergarten:

We were absolutely thrilled to receive the Exceeding NQS rating. We put a lot of time, energy and love into our service and I really think, with the new standards and framework, it does reflect our service very well.

Going through all the new framework and standards, it was a big task, and now we can breathe a little. I haven’t even wanted to look at going to that next [Excellent rating] level. I might have a look at it in the future but right now I want to enjoy the children. As a non-teaching director there’s a lot of time in the office to get the paperwork ready—and there’s

Donna Clark

OPINION We are still enjoying the moment of achieving an Exceeding NQS rating and have not currently considered applying for an Excellent rating. I think we need to be a lot clearer on what the Excellent rating means for us first. Our assessment took place very quickly after the introduction of the NQF and for a FDC service this means having all 50 educators confident for assessment and rating. Right now it’s about continuing to maintain and reflect on what’s already being achieved.

Sandra Luvis

a lot of paperwork—to get my team ready on the floor, and to be ready to take that next step means I’m going to end up back in the office.

And I am very disappointed in having to pay for the chance to be assessed and show that we provide an excellent service. We should be offered that chance to apply as a ‘thank you’ for providing such a high quality service to families in the community. I understand there are always costs associated with change—and the early years is certainly going through some important changes—but to continue adding costs to services for administrative purposes is just getting too much.

■ Sandra Luvis, Manager,

Hastings Family Day Care: Educators and staff were elated the service had been awarded Exceeding NQS in the first round of assessment and rating. The result is testimony to the dedication and teamwork of the educators and staff.

We have been operating for 35 years now and attribute the success to maintaining the highest quality accreditation ranking over the past 10 years, great customer service and a network of dedicated FDC educators and staff. We are committed to continuing to provide a valuable service to families of the Hastings.

Tracey Sweetman

■ Tracey Sweetman, Family Day Care

Managing Coordinator, Port Stephens Council: We are ecstatic. Being in the first round of assessments meant we really didn’t know what to expect. To achieve an overall rating of Exceeding NQS in the first instance was a really rewarding feeling for the whole team and some well-deserved recognition of our commitment to quality childcare in Port Stephens.

National regulations currently allow a ratio in NSW family day care scheme of one educator to five children under school age, which the majority of our educators currently operate under.

To be told we are already Exceeding NQS at that ratio lends weight to the argument that the government imposed ratio changes (1:4) which will commence in NSW family day care in 2014, have not been adequately researched and considered. We will definitely aspire to achieve a rating of excellence in the future and believe it can be done with current ratios in the family day care sector.

■ Kim Chippindale, Director,

Pretty Beach Community Preschool:

We were over the moon—the staff, the families and the committee. We are all so dedicated to what we do here with the

Kim Chippindale

children and believe in it so strongly that it was really nice to have that recognition that we are Exceeding NQS in all quality areas. I think that if we hadn’t, after putting in so much work, we would have been disappointed and we would have sought feedback about it.

I’ve had a bit of a look at the Excellent rating criteria, and while I haven’t had a chance to talk to the committee I’m guessing they would probably be quite keen to apply. But if it’s a lot of work, I don’t know if it will be worth the effort. I think it would be good, but I just don’t know whether I’ve got the time and the energy at the moment after going through the whole other assessment process—I’m only in the office one day a week.

■ Wendy Shepherd, Director, Mia Mia

Child and Family Study Centre:

A rating of Excellent seems to be at odds with the notion of continuous improvement, which is and has always been at the heart of great practice.

My understanding of excellent is as a level for which there is nothing more to be achieved. And yet there is always something that can be done better, relationships that can be improved, and practice revised or theorised more comprehensively.

I agree with Finnish educator Pasi Sahlburg, who explained that excellence should be about social justice and equity and striving to ensure access to quality education as the right of every child.

Therefore if only some programs achieve an Excellent rating, then only a very few children will be so privileged.

Let us all be on the ‘journey’ of continuous improvement in our unique and diverse ways and uphold the rights of all children to access high quality education, regardless of their age or social demographic status. ★

Wendy Shepherd Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013 | 61

Community Child Care (NSW) advocating for children, their families and community-based children’s services.

For more information, call us on 8922 6444 or see: www.ccccnsw.org.au Like us! www.facebook.com/ccccnsw 62 | Rattler: Focus – NQS December 2013