Case Study: What Would Early Childhood Be Like if We Didn’t Undertake Documentation?

Make a Difference and Save Lives with Water Safety Curriculum

Emma Lawrence > Kids Alive

ACA Qld Patron Laurie Lawrence, founder of ‘Kids Alive Do the Five’ Drowning Prevention Campaign, is dedicated to the welfare of Australian children and educating the community on children’s water safety.

Early learning childcare educators have an opportunity to help save lives by increasing water safety awareness to the most vulnerable under-fives.

Emma Lawrence water safety advocate and Managing Director of Kids Alive said she wanted to help educators incorporate water safety into the regular curriculum.

“Educators are in a unique position to impart on children information that could ultimately save their lives,” Emma said.

“Making water safety fun and engaging is our passion at Kids Alive and there is a wonderful opportunity for educators to share this with children and make water safety part of everyday learning.” The need to reach children has never been more dire with Royal Life Saving Society reporting drownings in the underfives increased by 108% last year, and for every toddler drowning death approximately eight children are admitted to hospital as a result of a non-fatal drowning.

“There is a need to help families understand the dangers around their home, pool, at the beach and farm areas.”

“We have all sorts of resources available including dances, songs, puppet shows, concerts and of course books. Reading is a particularly important element of our program as it is so impactful.”

Kids Alive conducted research that proved 72% of parents and carers who read water safety books to under 5’s were more likely to keep water safety top of mind and modify their behaviour to act more safely around water and children.

“Reading about water safety with kids is just one part of the water safety education process but it has a big influence on both parents and kids. It is also something that can be done all year round,” Emma said.

To make it easy for educators to provide water safety education, Kids Alive created an online training program specially for early learning childcare educators. Emma created the material in conjunction with industry experts and it includes curriculum guides and class activities to follow. The training was updated in 2021 and separates learning components for children aged 0-3 years and 3-5 years. The Kids Alive online training shows early childcare educators how to incorporate water safety into lessons, providing a step-by-step guide across four location-themed lesson plans, including Beach, Pool, Farm and Home. Each lesson plan includes:

• An Activity Description and Intentional Teaching

Strategy – including fun ways to bring the water safety messages to life through costumes, stories, and videos.

• Resources – the nitty gritty of what items might be needed for the lesson plan. • Link to National Quality Standards – how the lesson will enhance learning and development, health and physical activity, relationship building and collaborative partnerships. • Learning Outcomes x5 - including how the lesson will benefit Identity, Connecting, Involved Learning

Processes, Physical Learning and Language and Literacy. • Extension Ideas – suggested books and other activities to be incorporated following the lesson. • Children’s Ideas & Interests (Spontaneous) – a suggestion to note down ideas that come from the children throughout the lesson. The training is delivered online via video modules, with access to downloadable course and resource materials relevant to the industry. Each module takes 30 minutes to complete. The free training can be accessed via the Teacher Hub page on www.kidsalive.com.au. Jae Fraser Managing Director of The Scholars Group participated in the training along with his educators.

“At Little Scholars we are passionate about ensuring children are prepared for all areas of life, with water safety being an extremely important part of growing up in sunny Queensland,” he said. “As part of this commitment, we offer weekly swimming lessons;

taking a huge load off parents’ shoulders when it comes to preventing accidents! Meanwhile in the classroom, we incorporate the Kids Alive early education program to reinforce the learning that the children do in the pool!” Kids Alive is calling on educators to take the challenge and ensure they are water safety trained by the end of Summer 2022. The training also aligns with the Australian Water Safety Strategy 2030 by supporting the availability of education to the at risk 0-4 year old.

“Resources are tight for water safety, especially in regional areas, so this training is open to everyone and enables a community to take charge with educating children via a variety of channels.”

“Our work will not stop until there are zero child drownings, and we are constantly seeking new ways to reach children and parents and developing new resources to meet this goal. We know that early, targeted water safety education programs can help save the lives of children under 5. We hope to see more and more uptake of the Kids Alive trainings and more families aware of the dangers and how to combat them. We look forward to seeing more teachers take up the training in 2022 and be leaders in this space.” As part of its commitment to providing free water safety resources to the community, Kids Alive will again distribute over 50,000 free water safety packs to education services, libraries, schools and swim schools.

Contact the team today phone. 07 3274 3900 croftcare.com.au

Case Study: What Would Early Childhood Be Like if We Didn’t Undertake Documentation?

Vicki McKinnon > Building Futures

Have you ever wondered what it would be like in Early Childhood if you didn’t undertake documentation?

Building Futures Montessori at Forest Lake (Queensland) wondered just the same thing. So in true Montessori style, they decided to experiment and observe the outcomes. This service is lead by Hannah Jordan (Director/Manager) with Mandy Lauderdale (Educational Leader) and provides education and care for children aged from six weeks to school-aged. Its seven class spaces are utilised by one Nido, three Infant Community rooms, a transition and two Casas. The team of around forty educators includes experienced Montessori Directresses, Early Childhood teachers, as well as Trainees and Apprentices in the process of studying early childhood and Montessori.

The Experiment

For a period of two weeks, the classrooms operated normally (with some COVID adjustments in place) and the educators undertook to not document the educational program, with the exception of a ‘week in review’ communication they called a ‘learning story’. At the end of the two weeks a reflective exercise was undertaken, with the educators writing an open-ended paragraph in response to “Please write a short paragraph letting us know how the 14-day document-free fortnight went. Share your thoughts, what did you witness, what were your likes/dislikes. Should we do this again? Any other thoughts?”

The Responces

There were 28 responses which overwhelmingly supported the idea of repeating the experience. There was a level of adjustment with one educator noting that:

“I found it a struggle to get used to for the first few days and old habits had me continuing to take photos and taking notes, but afterwards I enjoyed it.

It allowed me to bond and get to know, not only the children, but the other educators in the classroom.” (Another two educators also commented about appreciating the staff in the classroom more). Another educator wrote that they were feeling “a little lost at rest time”.

Classifying the reflective responses led to considering two main themes. Firstly, the experience for the educators and secondly, the outcomes for the classrooms. The comments related to the educator’s experience are collated in the word cloud below: