The Woods Kindy Kickers

ACA Queensland President’s Report

Welcome to the 2021 Early Edition Spring Issue!

We hope all our members and early childhood educators across Australia had an incredible Early Childhood Educators’ Day with their team, children, and families! We would like to take this time to thank YOU for the difference you make every day to the children in your care and education. Your wonderful efforts in giving our young children the best start in life never go unnoticed. We would like to thank everyone who participated in this momentous day. It was wonderful to see the cheerful and heart-warming photos spread over social media in support of our incredible educators, teachers, and amazing early childhood support superstars – cooks, cleaners, and administration staff. We were delighted to see Early Childhood Educators’ Day receiving news coverage to help spread the word with a big thank you to ACA Qld Vice President Jae Fraser and The Scholars Group for help making this happen. It was fantastic to see all the support and involvement once again by early learning services, departments, and all sides and levels of government. We would like to thank Cargo Crew for once again providing us with this year’s incredible Early Childhood Educators’ Day merchandise, it was great to see many of you rocking these during the week. Planning for the ACA Qld 2022 National Conference is well underway. I encourage you to clear your calendars for the weekend of Friday 3 to Sunday 5 June 2022 for yet another incredible weekend of learning and networking. With other events in the early learning sector facing the unfortunate decision to postpone, we were lucky enough to hold the 2021 National Conference which was another success thanks to the stand-out presenters, exhibitors, and of course costumes! Thank you once again to the ACA Qld committee and team for organising such an amazing event and we can’t wait to see what 2022 has in store.

We have continued to meet with the Department of Education on many issues, including the end of the transitional arrangements for ECTs on 31 December. We welcomed the clarifications made recently by the Regulatory Authority and are eagerly awaiting clarification from the section of the Department that manages QKFS funding. We are confident there will be some welcome measures to mitigate the impact of the 31 December changes. Also, on the subject of ACA Qld’s advocacy, over the last few weeks, our CEO Kate Tully and I have met with several Members of Parliament, particularly about funding issues and workforce shortages. These include Hon Di Farmer, Minister for Employment & Small Business and Minister for Training and Skills Development, Senator Susan McDonald (Senator for Queensland) and Mr. Garth Hamilton MP (Federal Member for Groom). Our AGM is on 18 October 2021. (Yes, I know we just had one in February, but that was the postponed 2020 AGM!). Multiple Management Committee positions will be vacated, with some current members standing for re-election while others will retire. If you’re interested in nominating for a position, look out for the Call for Nominations which will come out later in September. We are also proposing a number of amendments to the Rules to ensure they are contemporary and reflective of the way we manage ACA Qld. Our heartfelt sympathies go out to colleagues and early learning services in NSW and Victoria who are doing it tough with the current lockdown restrictions down south. Please stay tuned for the latest advice from ACA Qld if we are to face any further restrictions in the future. Please be assured that ACA National is in continuous communication with the federal government to ensure viability in our sector.

Have you ordered your ACA Qld 2022 Diary yet? What are you waiting for! Only $22.50 for members and $32.50 for others, the ACA Qld Diary is made by the sector for the sector and is the Diary for everyone operating in an early learning service. A reminder that ACA Qld members must be signed into the ACA Qld website to receive member rates. You can order your copy by visiting the ACA Qld Shop

qld.childcarealliance.org.au/shop.

Lastly, I would like to thank the committee past and present for the last five years of my time as ACA Qld President. It has been an amazing opportunity to be a part of such an incredible team and to support and advocate on behalf of all ACA Qld members.

Majella Fitzsimmons ACA Qld President

ACA President’s Report

The landscape has changed dramatically for our sector.

Over the past month, the landscape has changed dramatically for our sector. Whilst Queensland’s restrictions easing on Friday 27 August, the whole of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria remain in hard lockdown and the impact on attendances has been swift.

Whilst the Victorian Government has placed formal restrictions on attendance in Victoria (Victorian early learning services are open to authorised workers only plus vulnerable children), the NSW Government has recommended that children stay at home where possible. Under both scenarios, service providers quickly experienced drops in attendance levels and it became clear that in the absence of any government support, service providers in the affected areas would be facing a financial crisis much like 2020. ACA’s ongoing monitoring of the situation allowed us to keep the Federal Government informed on this matter and strongly advocate for flexibility and financial support. We are extremely relieved and grateful for the recent introduction of the new Business Continuity Payments (BCPs), coupled with the recent allowance for service providers in declared hotspots to waive the gap fee to families during this period. However, the support payments will be contingent on a number of conditions. Eligible services must anticipate, or be experiencing, attendance levels below 50 percent of the reference period, agree to waive gap fees for all families whose children are not attending, maintain staffing levels, agree to a fee freeze for the duration of support and refrain from accessing other Commonwealth Government funded supports. ACA is in ongoing discussions with the Department of Education, Skills & Employment (DESE) about the finer details of the package, and we continue to advocate for mechanisms that will work best for the sector.

Whilst the financial support will not be available to all services, the new package is still a welcome relief after months of uncertainty, particularly for those services in NSW.

We are heartened that there is now a funding mechanism in place which applies to all approved providers across Australia and can be implemented quickly in future lockdowns, should the need arise. On a more positive note, Wednesday 1 September was Early Childhood Educators’ Day, which provided a wonderful opportunity to let our valued teams of staff know how much they are appreciated during what has been another unpredictable, challenging year. ACA is extremely proud of our sector, and the important role of our educators.

On behalf of our Executive Committee, I would like to say a huge thank you to our early childhood educators for continuing to provide a safe and nurturing environment for the children attending their service and giving these children the best start in life.

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful day or even week of celebrations and positive team spirit. If you haven’t already, you might like to peruse the photos of celebrations on the Early Childhood Educators’ Day website – www. EarlyChildhoodEducatorsDay.org. au. There is also an overview of this year’s event from early learning services on page 16.

Paul Mondo ACA President

The Woods Kindy Kickers

Shani Cai > Early Childhood Teacher at The Woods Early Education Centre

Swimming in childhood has a number of long-term benefits. Swimming enhances personality development, leads to increased enjoyment, health, and development of the ‘whole’ child. According to research, early swimmers also perform better socially and intellectually.

At The Woods Early Education Centre in Ashgrove, we believe it is crucial that children are aware of both the fun and danger associated with the water. As a result of this, last semester the Kindergarten Children at The Woods began weekly swimming lessons at Stanford Swim in Everton Park. We believe these lessons are the building blocks toward a better future for our children in the water. When we initially began our swimming journey, the children were very excited, but also very cautious and had to develop their knowledge around pools, swimming and safe risk-taking skills. As they gradually built up their trust with the swimming instructors and their confidence around the water, the children’s abilities and self-confidence increased, allowing them to celebrate their achievements with each lesson. Now that we have been attending for over 15 weeks, the children absolutely love getting on the bus, giggling and chatting away excitedly before arriving at swimming. The warm, friendly, experienced, and qualified instructors at Stanford Swim have been more than accommodating, building relationships with each child, and assessing their strengths and abilities.