Rattler magazine issue 118, 2016

INCLUSIVE PRACTICE VALE JOHN KAYE COUNCIL’S ROLE IN ECEC EARLY START INITIATIVE COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS + MORE

COMMUNITY CHILD CARE CO-OPERATIVE QUARTERLY JOURNAL 118 WINTER 2016

courage WITH

LET US ALL COMBINE

Rattler is published quarterly by Community Child Care Co-operative Ltd. (NSW) and funded by subscriptions and sponsorship revenue.

CEO, Community Child Care Co-operative Diane Lawson Editorial Committee Lisa Bryant, Marie Deverill, Nathalie Dupavillon, Camille Howard, Eddy Jokovich, Diane Lawson, Gerard Moon, Wendy Shepherd.

Managing Editor Eddy Jokovich (02) 9310 4955 Journalist/Assistant Editor Camille Howard Art Director Deborah Kelly Production ARMEDIA Printing Pegasus Print Group Contributors Rebecca Boland, Camille Howard, Sarah Reilly, Fran Molloy, Eddy Jokovich.

Contributions: By publishing a range of opinions, Community Child Care Co-operative Ltd. (NSW) hopes to stimulate professional development and discussion. You can contact the CEO or Managing Editor to discuss your ideas or send in an outline of your article.

Copyright is normally held jointly by the publisher and the author. We reserve the right to edit submitted material.

Copying: Please email for permission to copy or reproduce any article or part thereof.

Subscriptions (02) 8922 6444 Annual subscription to Rattler $80.00 (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.

Registered by Australia Post Print Post Publication No 100001554 ISSN 0819-9132 ©2016 Community Child Care Co-operative.

Disclaimer The opinions expressed in Rattler 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 Facebook www.facebook.com/

RattlerMagazine Twitter @RattlerMagazine ABN 81 174 903 921 2 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

editorial T

his issue of Rattler invites us all to explore inclusion and what it means for us at work and on the personal level.

At its heart is the idea that everyone should be able to take part in our society and all it offers and enjoy the same experiences. We all know, sadly, this is not always true.

Hopefully the articles will challenge our readers to reflect on their own practice and identify strategies for change where this is required, or networks to support their endeavours.

I have spent the past six years living and working in England and the Middle East, managing workforce and social care projects.

Working as a consultant in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, I have experienced first-hand the challenges of trying to fit in with a culture that is unfamiliar and not being able to participate fully in workplace or community activities. There are feelings of inadequacy when relying on colleagues to facilitate engagement, and fear that translation may not be delivering the intended message (or tone).

I will always be grateful for the generosity of my colleagues when challenging concepts were misunderstood and found that humour, respect and kindness (and sometimes sharing food) can be bridges to enable understanding and acceptance. It didn’t go so well all the time—the camel burger and SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) for example—but those are stories for another day…

As the new CEO of this highly influential organisation, I am proud to join a long list of extraordinary people committed to achieving excellence in education and care for Australia’s children and families. I have met many stakeholders and members during my first few weeks and have been thrilled to hear how many view working for Community Child Care Co-operative as a professional goal. We have a great team and much to offer the sector and I will do my best to carry forward the proud legacy of the organisation.

I am looking forward to immersing myself in the new challenges presented by the early education and care sector. I am on a steep learning curve but am already wedded to the Community Child Care prime directive: is this what is best for children?

I will be working closely with the board, executive leadership team, staff and contractors and seeking input from our members to identify new opportunities to grow the organisation’s success, and look forward to sharing more about this in the future.

Diane Lawson CEO, Community Child Care Co-operative Cover: Amal Qalloosh, 11, at Zaatari refugee camp, near the Syrian border. Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP

in this issue THE LOWDOWN

4

VALE, JOHN KAYE

11

Your guide to what’s up, who’s where, and why.

Farewell Greens MP John Kaye, friend to the early and public education sectors.

OPENING UP TO REFUGEES

12

How your service can prepare for refugee children and their families.

COUNCIL CAPERS

16

While local government’s focus on education and care is changing, it’s not all bad news.

FACE2FACE

19

SO LONG, FAREWELL

20

HEAD START

22

Rattler 118 Winter 2016

VOX POP

26

NQS SPOTLIGHT

28

We ask educators and advocates what advice they would give their younger selves.

Clarence Town Preschool explains how connections with their local community are not just about the people.

Fun at Early Start, Wollongong

BEYOND THE FENCE 6

Visit the Sydney preschool breaking down barriers and opening up to opportunities for inclusive practice.

MAIN PHOTOGRAPH: CAMILLE HOWARD

Meet Tracy Mackey, NSW Department of Education’s new executive director for Early Childhood Education.

We say goodbye to Children’s Services Central.

Step inside Wollongong University’s pioneering early childhood education initiative, Early Start.

Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 3

THE

who

Lowdown why

what

GREEN THUMBS

UNITE

Planet Ark is once again calling on schools and individuals to get involved in its national tree planting campaign.

The Schools Tree Day, 29 July, and National Tree Day, 31 July, encourage participants to reconnect with nature and plant trees, shrubs and edible plants across the country.

Now into its 21st year, this year’s campaign is themed ‘Grow More – Just Add Nature’, “[Which] highlights how we can use the power of nature to help us reach our full potential in all aspects of our lives,” says Debbie Agnew, National Tree Day manager.

Last year nearly 300,000 people took part at over 3,500 sites across the country, planting more than 1.2 million native trees and plants.

To find out more visit www.treeday.planetark.org or call 1300 885 000.

Australia fails children: REPORT

A study into the rights of Australian children has found that despite two decades of consecutive economic growth, successive governments have failed our most vulnerable children.

The Australian Child Rights Progress Report, from the Australian Child Rights Taskforce, found one in six Australian children still lives below the poverty line and more than 70,000 received assistance from specialist homelessness services, with no view of a long-term solution.

The report marks 25 years since Australia ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, whereby our governments agree to a set of standards and obligations for all children. The report finds our most vulnerable children—Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) children, children from rural areas, children with disabilities and children from migrant backgrounds—are still more likely to experience poverty, discrimination, social exclusion and disadvantage.

“This report makes it clear that … successive Australian governments have consistently breached the CRC and show every intention of continuing to do so,” Alastair Nicholson, chair of Children’s Rights International, writes in the report. “This is an unacceptable situation and one about which all Australians should be concerned.”

Download a copy of the report from www.tinyurl. com/child-rights-report Image source: Australian Child Rights Progress Report 4 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

what’s on

CONFERENCES AND EVENTS BEYOND TOMORROW 2016

19 August Melbourne Convention Centre www.tinyurl.com/beyond-tom (run by Early Childhood Management Services)

ECIA BIENNIAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE

7 – 10 September Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre www.ecia.org.au

EARLY CHILDHOOD AUSTRALIA CONFERENCE

5 – 8 October Darwin Convention Centre, NT www.ecaconference.com.au

COMMUNITY CHILD CARE CO-OPERATIVE IGNITE CONFERENCE

4 – 6 November Glenworth Valley, NSW ccccnsw.org.au/igniteconference

Sad state for early learning

A new report into early education has found that one in five children are developmentally vulnerable when they start school, and this number doubles for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

The State of Early Learning in Australia Report 2016 was launched recently as part of the Early Learning: Everyone Benefits campaign to highlight the direct link between investing early education and Australia’s future prosperity.

Launched by education advocate and former governorgeneral Dame Quentin Bryce, the report also shows that Australia has a low participation rate of three-year-olds across all, at 66 per cent compared to the OECD average of 74 per cent.

Despite the link between early learning and later educational outcomes, Australia ranks in the bottom third of countries in the OECD (27 out of 39) for participation of three-year-olds, behind the UK, New Zealand, Japan and Denmark.

Read the full report at www.tinyurl.com/state-ofearly-learning

BOOK CORNER Out, by Angela May George and Owen Swan, RRP: $24.99 Published by Scholastic Press “I’m called an asylum seeker, but that’s not my name.”

This moving picture book follows the journey of a little girl and her mother, who flee their homeland and make the treacherous journey by boat to seek asylum.

Aimed at children over four years, this is a story that highlights the strength of the human spirit, while giving readers an insight into some of the challenges faced by refugee children and their families.

Winners are grinners! (L-R): Senator Sarah Hanson-Young with Josique Lynch, Yuki Takahashi-Braybrook and Benjamin Kikkert.

CCCC members sweep awards

Community Child Care Co-operative members came up trumps at the recent Australian Family Early Education and Care Awards, securing several of the national awards this year.

Josique Lynch, from Joondalup Early Learning in WA (a member since 2006), took home the coveted Nestle NAN Toddler Early Childhood Director of the Year award, while Yuki Takahashi-Braybrook, from Devonshire Street Children’s Centre (members since 2005), was named Springfree Trampoline Early Childhood Educator of the Year.

Rainbow Station Early Education Centre, Casino (members since 2015), was NSW/ ACT state winner of the MyLife MySuper Early Childhood Service of the Year award.

Community Child Care is also a proud sponsor of the awards, sponsoring the National Rising Star Award category in partnership with Educational Experience.

This year’s winner Benjamin Kikkert, from Discovery Early Learning Sacred Heart in Tasmania, took home a $5,000 professional development grant to support his continuous improvement goals.

Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 5

fence Beyond the

After identifying a gap in their inclusive practices and community engagement, a preschool on Sydney’s North Shore opened up to an opportunity for improvement that came from right next door.

By Camille Howard

I

f you look through the fence from the outdoor area at Christ Church St Ives Preschool Kindergarten, you look straight into the outdoor area of Sir Eric Woodward School (SEWS), a K–12 school for students with mild, moderate and severe intellectual and physical disabilities, complex needs and/or an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in both face-to-face and distance education (DE) classes.

Children from either school watch and interact with the children from the other school as they play outside. Despite the proximity, though, until recently the interactions didn’t reach much further than those shared through the fence.

In 2014, preschool director, Lauren Kelly, and SEWS Principal, JoAnne Gardiner, decided to breach the divide and extend upon the relationship between the school and the preschool. “It was about bridging that invisible divide with that little community that sat next door to us for so long,” Kelly says.

Although her predecessors had made

inroads into establishing relationships between the two schools, Kelly recognised there was more to be done to foster inclusion within the preschool.

“It was something I really wanted to do to advocate for our children and also the children next door,” Kelly says.

“I found that it was a good way for the children to learn a bit more about difference and disability, as well as seeing how similar they are.”

The children from the preschool had already shown an interest in the children from SEWS, noticing the extra equipment that accompanied them, such as walkers and wheelchairs, so Kelly and her team decided to extend on discussions about the physical differences the children could see.

They also decided to put names to the faces they saw each day. “It was about bringing that sense of community and trying to learn a bit more about the people we see almost every day.”

Kelly met with JoAnne Gardiner, SEWS principal, to touch base and learn a bit more about what she is doing in her school. “We were both really wanting this to happen.”

They talked about how the two schools could merge their communities, and Kelly worked with the K–2 teacher from SEWS to work out the best way forward.

Bridging the divide

Celebrating its 50th birthday this year, Christ Church St Ives Preschool Kindergarten is a 40-place preschool catering to children aged three to five years, with two groups of 20 children enrolled in either two-day or three-day sessions. (Children aged four-to-five years attend Monday to Wednesday, while children aged three-to-four years attend on Thursdays and Fridays.)

Kelly and the teachers at SEWS came up with a plan to engage in reciprocal fortnightly visits, where children from the preschool’s four-to-five years group 6 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

Children from Christ Church St Ives Preschool Kindergarten and Sir Eric Woodward School come together each fortnight at group time, for singing, dancing and storytelling.

would visit SEWS one fortnight, and K–2 students from SEWS would visit the preschool on alternate fortnights.

“Sometimes they will bring up to five students to visit us, sometimes there are only two, if students are away. The idea was to lock it in place, though, so we could ensure that it was a frequent as possible.”

Only 10 preschool children will visit SEWS at one time, so as not to overwhelm the children from the school, and each term they would switch between the preschool groups, so all children have the opportunity to be involved in the visits.

As well as the regular visits, there are additional visits between the school and preschool, such as for Aboriginal performances at Harmony Day, musical performances, or the living eggs program. “This is about sharing resources. So rather than having the same incursions, we worked out how we could do these together, without anyone missing out.”

“With families from a non-English speaking background coming into the centre, for example, educators could transfer some of those skills used to communicate with students who are non-verbal, to communicate with children for whom English is a second language.”

Kelly is heartened by the way the children have welcomed the visitors into their preschool, as well as their excitement from visiting their neighbours and experiencing the program available to students at SEWS. “It is really lovely to see the children who have really opened up their arms and welcomed the new children into their environment. They love showing them around,” she says.

“We often do the group time around a music group time, where there is dancing or movement or action songs, so everybody can participate. Children are excited about having visitors and about sharing our resources when they came to visit us, and likewise when

we go to visit them they are intrigued about the different resources available to children from SEWS.” Children from the preschool also formed a sort of buddy system, so when students visited from SEWS there was at least one child or a small group who linked with each student from SEWS during visits. “That’s where we saw some really lovely relationships start to blossom,” Kelly says.

Because communication can be difficult with the students from SEWS who are non-verbal, Kelly has enjoyed seeing the preschool children adapt.

“Some of our children can’t stop talking, so it was nice to see when they were with a child who was non-verbal, Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 7

Taking a bow: preschoolers and students from SEWS act out The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Roles are handed out for the three billy goats, a couple of trolls, and the sound effects team who use musical instruments to create the soundtrack for different parts of the story.

Everyone has a part to play in the performance.

8 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

they had to use all their other senses to try and communicate with their friends. There were some really lovely relationships that came with it.”

Each student from SEWS attends with a teacher and Student Learning Support Officers (SLSOs), who facilitates communication between the children.

“That helped our children to learn more about their friends and then, after a visit to SEWS, they would go and discuss what they had learnt.”

The visits have opened up a forum to discuss how we are all different and the same, celebrating diversity. “Even when we weren’t doing the visits, [our children] were talking about their experiences. Or they would find in our resources, say, a doll of a child who uses a wheelchair, and would mention the name of one of the students from SEWS. That child would then form part of the play within the dollhouse area.”

Kelly has also noticed the preschool children seem to make friends a little bit easier and participate in a group environment more easily since the visits have been running. “There was a little bit more of a sense of community within our little preschool.”

Lessons for the educators The visits have also provided a learning experience for the preschool educators,

who learnt not to go into the program with preconceived ideas of what the visits may or may not be like, and not assuming what children can or cannot do.

“Not unlike the children, sometimes we adults see difference and don’t know really what that might mean. For me, it meant talking to my educators about respecting the difference and acknowledging the differences in others, and respecting that each child is unique, is individual, and to treat them that way.”

In the lead up to the visits, the teachers from SEWS met with preschool staff to talk about each of the students who would be participating in the visits. “So we learned a little bit more about each of their students and how, as educators, their role may be different each day in teaching their students.”

Kelly says she has seen changes in educators’ overall practice since the initiative was introduced, in a range of areas, including settling in new children and families.

“With families from a non-English speaking background coming into the centre, for example, educators could transfer some of those skills used to communicate with students who are non-verbal to communicate with children for whom English is a second language.”

Community connections

When developing the preschool’s Quality Improvement Plan, it was clear that community engagement was an area that needed improvement.

“We’ve been side by side with this school for so long—we have been on this premises for over 10 years, and the preschool was originally onsite at SEWS while it was being built—but there was like a wall that kept us from acknowledging who was over the fence.

And when the children asked us about it our answers were limited because we didn’t really know who was over the fence.”

And given the somewhat isolated location of the preschool, on a parcel of land at the end of a long residential street, Kelly says it didn’t make sense that there was no relationship between the school and the preschool. “I knew none of our children were going to go into that school—they are not a feeder school—so we needed to make an effort to bridge that gap.

“This has all been about broadening our awareness of inclusivity,” Kelly says. “For other services, it might mean going into the local community with an ‘inclusive’ hat on, whether

Children from both the preschool and SEWS benefit from sharing each others’ resources.

that is children with additional needs or children with English as a second language, and exploring the different cultures within that community.”

Beyond SEWS, and the preschool’s links to Christ Church (a few kilometres

away and home to the original preschool building), there is still a work to be done to build wider connections.

“We’re not a place that people just drive past, so we’re trying to make ourselves more known in the community.” ✹

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VALE, JOHN KAYE Early education has lost a friend of the sector, after NSW Greens MP, Doctor John Kaye died in May after a struggle with cancer. Eddy Jokovich reports.

J

ohn was a strong advocate for public education and was a regular guest at Community Child Care Co-operative election forums, public debates and political campaigns. He advocated for direct funding to community-based early education and care services, in the same way government funds public schools.

Although he was a candidate in the 2004 federal election (narrowly missing out on a Senate seat by 0.5 per cent), he entered the NSW Parliament after the 2007 election. As the NSW Greens only has a small representation in the Parliament, John had portfolio responsibilities for Treasury, Finance, Education and Training, Energy, Health Services, Science & Medical Research, Water Utilities, Fair Trading, Gaming and Racing, Infrastructure and Commerce.

While this was quite an onerous task, it did allow John to speak and act on many of his broad interests, including sustainable energy and greenhouse issues, but especially public education.

His first appearance at a Community Child Care event coincided with the rise of corporate operators in the sector (such as ABC Learning Centres), and he was a key advocate for reform of the funding system that would divert government funds away from such entities.

At the 2004 Federal Election Forum, John said that the Coalition Government had worked against the common good, including the early education and care sector. “[The sector has] been under-funded and it’s been handed over to the profit-driven providers … we call on an incoming government to re-fund the community sector and re-fund that $300–$400 million we need immediately to raise the pay and conditions of childcare workers.”

At the time, he warned that

uncontrolled corporate behaviour within education and social services, (such as early education and care and further education) was a recipe for disaster.

And as the collapse of ABC Learning Centres showed, and the recent rorting of government funding by some private training providers, his warnings proved to be quite accurate.

In the lead up to the 2015 NSW Election, Community Child Care launched its Bigger Slice campaign, calling for the NSW Government to increase funding for early education and care, after the 2011 Review of NSW Government Funding for Early Childhood Education found that NSW spends less on the sector than any other state or territory in Australia.

Although the launch was held on the steps of NSW Parliament, John Kaye was the only MP to attend, only too happy to promote the value of quality early education, and the value of well-funded public education.

His final appearance at a Community Child Care Co-operative event was at the March 2015 NSW Election forum.

“Quality preschooling is critical, and the more of it, the better,” he told the audience. “No child is going to go backwards by having two years of preschool education, and most children are advantaged by this. But it’s not just preschooling, it’s got to be quality preschooling.

“There needs to be a level of collaboration within politics, but I will continue to be thorn in the side of whoever is in government and will be pushing for what we all know is necessary to be done for the sector.”

John was re-elected to the Legislative Council at the March 2015 election.

His actions and his voice in the sector will be long remembered. ✹ Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 11

refugees

OPENING UP TO

12 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

Australia is committed to welcoming additional Syrian and Iraqi refugees, including many children, and early childhood education and care services will play an important part in the resettlement process. Camille Howard explores how services can be open to and prepared for refugees in their community.

L

PHOTOGRAPH: AMANDA JAMES

ast September, the Australian Government pledged to resettle an additional 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees, on top of its annual humanitarian intake. Many of these refugees will be children, and an important focus on the resettlement will include looking after families’ emotional wellbeing. To this end, early childhood education and care services will play a significant role in helping children and families that have experienced trauma cope with the transition of resettlement.

Aside from the enormous trauma refugees may have faced in their home country, the transition itself is traumatic for families and communities, because they have become displaced in their own or other countries, or they have been moved between detention centres.

Some of these challenges include feelings of loss for family or other support groups they have left behind, feelings of isolation in their new community, with language barriers presenting a major challenge. Early education and care services can offer refugee families structure, enabling them to make links with the broader community and learn resilient behaviours. And given the early years are optimal for intervention and to help children build resilience, our sector plays a vital role in improving outcomes for refugee children.

To be effective, services need to ensure they adopt a trauma informed approach to practice, which means understanding and responding to the impact of trauma

TRAUMA INFORMED PRACTICE

Trauma Informed Care and Practice is a strengths-based framework grounded in an understanding of and responsiveness to the impact of trauma, that emphasises physical, psychological, and emotional safety for both providers and survivors, and that creates opportunities for survivors to rebuild a sense of control and empowerment. (source: Blue Knot Foundation)

on the lives of children and their families. Trauma can be experienced by many children in your service, not just refugees, so understanding its impact, and adopting strategies from a traumainformed perspective, will help all children in your care, and their families, settle more easily.

We asked experts at STARTTS (NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors) about how services can be more open to and prepared to accept refugee families into their communities, as well as how to prepare to work with families that have suffered through trauma. The key message: there is no one-size-fits-all-approach, but there are key skills or strategies to adopt when working with families that have experienced trauma.

“This is particularly true in light of the fact that each refugee community has had different contextual and political and trauma experiences,” says Rosemary Signorelli, senior early childhood counsellor/project officer at STARTTS. “Each family will also have had specific experiences that will influence the child’s development.”

The most important first step, Signorelli adds, is to build trust with each family, building a relationship with them as far as is possible. Asking the families about popular songs and games will help families feel respected and help the children feel safe and fit in.

“For refugee families, they are faced with enormous cultural transition,” Signorelli says. “They need to experience respect for their own culture, as well as gentle assistance to learn about the new culture and environment.”

Every culture will, for instance, have lullabies and clapping songs services can learn. “And many of them will be familiar with hopscotch,” Signorelli adds.

“Hide and seek and peek-a-boo seems, from my experience, to be familiar activities, and are vital in helping a child cope with separation issues.”

Strategies for educators Children need to be supported to develop resilience from as early as possible, and educators need to be equipped with strategies specific to the needs of refugee children coping with cultural transition. “Trauma, any trauma, will change the structure and function of the brain in children aged from birth to five years, critical stages of brain Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 13

For many refugee families, our early childhood support system is totally unfamiliar to them. In some countries or cultures, there is no such thing as childcare or playgroups.

—Rosemary Signorelli

RESOURCES

Help for education and care services working with refugee families: n Ethnic Community Services Co-operative offers bi-cultural support to children from refugee and humanitarian backgrounds (plus CALD, Aboriginal and children with disabilities) and their families. They are also running a PD course on Working Effectively with Refugee Children and Families.

Visit www.ecsc.org.au to find out more. n STARTTS (www.startts.org.au) provides the latest culturally appropriate psychological treatment and support to help people heal the scars of torture and refugee trauma and rebuild their lives in Australia. n Refugees and asylum seekers: Supporting recovery from trauma, by Professor Louise Newman and Amanda Harris, for the Australian Child and Adolescent Trauma, Loss and Grief Network (www.tinyurl.com/refugeerecovery), focuses on the traumatic events that face refugees and asylum seekers from the point of fleeing their country through to resettlement in a new country, and how these traumatic events may affect children and young people.

14 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

development,” Signorelli says.

“Refugee children have been exposed to many kinds of trauma, including in utero when their mother was very stressed or traumatised. The good news is that early intervention can help to reverse these changes, and help the child to catch up in their development.”

Because of this, developmental expectations and learning strategies need to be adjusted. Behaviour management strategies, for example, will not be appropriate for children recovering from trauma. “Anyone who

is overstressed or traumatised tends to go very quickly to fight-or-flight mode.

This is a normal response to stress and trauma, not a behaviour problem as such. When in fight/flight or fright mode, our language and cognitive centres in our brain switch off so the person can focus on survival. So some behavioural strategies, or talking to the child at that moment, won’t help at those times.”

Instead, Signorelli suggests children need strategies to reduce their stress to a manageable level (within their “window of tolerance”), when they can think better and understand what you are communicating.

“You may need to use sign language for words such as stop, wait, listen, no, come here, and so on.”

Physical activities and repetitive patterned rhythmic activities, such as dancing, drumming, music shakers, running and jumping, will also help children use up the excess energy and stress hormones that go with the fight/ flight/fright response, Signorelli says.

You may also find refugee children struggle with your service’s routine, and need additional support to feel comfortable. Signorelli suggests services use music activities when transitioning from one part of the day’s program to another, to help children cope with the stress of transition.

Using visual schedule boards with pictures showing children what activities will be done at different times of the day can also be helpful, so children learn when one activity is finished and another is starting. “Likewise, I tell children at the end of a session ‘the toys are sleeping now and will wake up when you come back’. This often helps them to separate from toys.”

Slow start to resettlement

Although the Australian Government announced its commitment to resettling 12,000 Syrian and Iraqi refugees in September last year, only around 300 refugees have been welcomed so far (exact figures haven’t been released by the government).

At a press conference with Premier Mike Baird in March this year, Christian Porter, federal Social Services Minster, commented on the slower than expected timeline. “That was in large, if not exclusive part due to the on the ground conditions that we were experiencing and the rigour with which we undertake health and security and other relevant checks was simply taking longer than we expected.”

At the same time, he acknowledged it might take a number of years to resettle the refugees, adding that 9,000 were currently under “active assessment”, and the process is “starting to accelerate”.

Cultural awareness While trauma-informed practice is vital, Signorelli says, so is an awareness of refugee families’ cultural background.

“Both these things will impact on service utilisation and the understanding by the parents of what you are aiming for with their children.

“For many refugee families, our early childhood support system is totally unfamiliar to them,” Signorelli explains. “In some countries or cultures, there is no such thing as childcare or playgroups. Some will be familiar with services similar to preschool, but from four years of age.”

For many families, Signorelli adds, the notion of play is also different. “Parents have not been accustomed to playing with their children, so they may not understand the social, emotional and learning benefits of play.”

Explaining the benefits of early education and care to families will be made more challenging given language barriers. “Many children, especially in the newer arrival families, won’t have a grasp of the English language although they will learn it very quickly. Some parents will be able to speak English to varying degrees, depending on where they were living, but some won’t.”

Using an interpreter to talk with and collaborate with families will be vital, particularly in ensuring you can communicate effectively with the parents about their perceptions of the child’s progress, and their understanding of their child’s experience at the service.

“I have observed that many children become emotionally and behaviourally dysregulated towards the end of sessions, as they face transition away from the room, and separation from the environment and the toys,” Signorelli says. “This may be an expression of implicit (sensory, non-verbal) traumatic memory of the previous transition experiences.

“Staff will need to help the parents understand that the separation issues are likely to settle quickly.”

If a child is struggling with separation and settling into a service, the family may need referral to a service such as STARTTS for sessions with a counsellor or therapist. “They can help the child overcome this issue, and help the parent to cope with their own distress when they see their child’s distress,” Signorelli says, “bearing in mind that the child’s

crying may trigger traumatic memories for the parent who has been through disaster, bombardment, or witness to acts of terrorism.”

If a parent is struggling, services need to take as much time as possible to build relationships with families. Overcoming language barriers through interpreters will enable services to communicate with and build connections to families.

But this will take time.

“[Services] may experience resistance from parents who don’t understand our Early Years Learning Framework, as it is culturally unfamiliar to address those goals outside of the home or extended family,” Signorelli suggests.

Explaining your program and ensuring each family’s culture is respected is essential, she adds. “Families and communities are often afraid their children will lose their culture.” ✹

The NSW Government has pledged to resettle more than 4,000 of the Syrian and Iraqi refugees in NSW. More recent figures suggest this number will be closer to 6,000.*

As part of NSW Government’s commitment to refugee resettlement, Premier Mike Baird appointed Professor Peter Shergold as NSW Coordinator-General for Refugee Resettlement. He is working with all levels of government, community organisations, businesses, schools, universities and other education providers to ensure that NSW is prepared for the intake of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

“These are people, fleeing unimaginable horrors in the Middle East, who have so much to contribute but will need some basic assistance to ensure the significant experience and abilities they bring with them can be recognised here in Australia,” Professor Shergold says.

“The work Peter is leading on behalf of the NSW Government will improve the current system for refugees who settle in NSW from all over the world,” says a NSW Government spokesperson.

“NSW role is to provide immediate access to specialist services in areas such as health and education and assist the successful longer term resettlement of refugees. A number of NSW universities have pledged funds for scholarships and financial support for refugees. Principals from primary and high schools across the west and south west of Sydney have also met to discuss preparations for the arrival of new students from Syria and Iraq,” the spokesperson adds.

Universities across NSW have come onboard, offering scholarships and tertiary education programs targeting refugees.

“We know that education is the key to unlocking potential, opportunity and jobs. Many refugees have been forced to abandon their studies, and this support from across the state will enable them to rediscover and pursue their dreams,” Professor Shergold says.

The government is also working with corporate Australia to reduce barriers to employment for refugees. For example, Clubs NSW has recently announced they will provide training and employment support for new arrivals throughout their network, with a new pilot program to provide up to 30 long-term employment opportunities at clubs in Greater Western Sydney.

Premier Mike Baird has also announced he will create at least 100 public sector jobs for refugees over the next 12 months.

The NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet has formed collaborative partnerships with charities and NGOs, and has a working group that meets regularly to discuss new challenges and how they can be approached.

There is also a web page called ‘I Can Help’ (www.nsw.gov.au/icanhelp) that co-ordinates offers of assistance from the community, which are matched with the most appropriate refugee support providers based in NSW. “These expressions of interest are passed onto relevant government and nongovernment/charitable organisations to follow up. We have been really heartened to see the 700-plus offers of support coming through so far,” says the department spokesperson. * At this stage, there are still questions about where refugees will be settled, across Australia, as well as what support will be available to help refugee families to access early education and care. This information is not publicly available at this stage. We will keep services updated as more information becomes available.

Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 15

council Local government’s role in early education Council involvement in early education and care can be traced back to the reforming days of the Whitlam Government.

But as Sarah Reilly explains, times are a changing, with service closures, sales and a focus on the bottom line.

16 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

W

hen the Whitlam Government started direct funding of community groups to establish childcare centres in the 1970s, there was a caveat that the organisations funded must be legally incorporated or have the backing of a council. This saw many councils in NSW funded to establish childcare centres. Ever since then, local government has been integrally involved in the provision of education and care within NSW. But is it getting more difficult for education and care services to continue to be provided by councils? Will economic rationalism and changing times see the end of large-scale provision and support of education and care by local government? And will this mean communities lose the benefits of council provision of this vital service?

Change of focus In addition to planning for education and care, NSW local councils are major education and care service providers for their local communities. A 2013 study commissioned by Community Child Care Co-operative and Australian Community Children’s Services (‘Childcare, Roads, Rates and Rubbish’) found that around 70 per cent of councils in NSW directly provide education and care services, and around 58 per cent lease premises to other providers, including to notfor-profit providers, at a subsidised fee.

According to ACECQA, there are now around 76 councils delivering more than 300 local government children’s services.

However, because most new education and care centres are now provided

through the private market, and there has been an increasing focus by councils on making a profit from their services and facilities, some councils are questioning their continuing role in education and care.

In fact many councils are considering selling their services, leasing facilities at commercial rates to for-profit providers, or now have, at the least, expectations the services will break even or make a profit. For many councils, education and care services are no longer part of the community services management area, but are instead located within properties, assets or corporate services.

(For example, Sutherland Shire Council recently placed their education and care services in the commercial operations directorate, with review of their costs against commercial suppliers.)

With recent council amalgamations announced by the NSW Government, this questioning of the role of local government in education and care provision is likely to be intensified, particularly for councils amalgamating with others that have different community service delivery agendas. For example, some local councils have raised concerns over the recent amalgamations, suggesting they will affect education and care service quality, prices for parents, staffing levels, and result in fewer education and care options for local families.

Locally focused services are identified as helping create community: will bigger entities have the focus required to support service provision such as early education and care?

While amalgamations between

capers councils with long traditions of education and care service provision are likely to result in continued support for council-run education and care services, other amalgamations may not.

“All councils are currently facing financial sustainability issues and are looking at how they can get money back to fix and maintain their assets without raising rates etc. So looking for more income is a natural path for them to follow. It is not always palatable but it is a reality,” one NSW local council explained in ‘Childcare, Roads, Rates and Rubbish’.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a number of councils getting out of education and care. There are also increasing numbers of councillors questioning their council’s involvement in education and care. Some councillors see education and care (or ‘childcare’) as something that should be provided by the market, rather than a core community service that delivers social and economic benefits for their communities.

In 2015, Hornsby Council resolved to close its education and care centre and community centre at Asquith, with the money from the land sale to be used on local community development. At the same meeting, Council resolved to seek tenders from private business to operate its other three centres at Cherrybrook, Hornsby and Somerville Park.

“The ultimate question is whether childcare is a business Council needs to be involved in,” Mayor Steve Russell said.

(Not everyone agreed, with Hornsby councillor Nick Berman opposing the move, arguing that education and care is a community service.)

Blacktown Council also recently attempted to sell its 21 long day care centres. As one of the largest education and care services operations in NSW, Blacktown Council directly operates 24 centres (three preschools and 21 long day care centres). The attempted sale failed after widespread protest from families and unions.

In October and November 2013, the council received a large amount of media coverage about its decisions about early education and care provision. Council had received findings from a consultancy that recommended demolishing and converting education and care properties, which spurred parents and staff to rally in opposition.

On 7 November 2013, the education and care centres were saved from privatisation when the council committed itself to the ongoing provision of early education services.

Not all bad news While some councils are pulling out of education and care, there are others that are continuing to provide services or are increasing the provision for the following reasons: 1. Councils provide higher quality care than for-profit providers The ‘Childcare, Roads, Rates and Rubbish’ study showed that NSW local government provides much higher quality service than other providers, as shown by their ratings under the National Quality Standard (NQS): ◆8 7 per cent of rated council services exceeded or met the NQS and 13 per cent were working toward the NQS. ◆6 7 per cent of all rated not-for-profit

community based services exceeded or met the NQS and 33 per cent were working toward meeting the NQS. ◆ 2 9 per cent of rated for-profit services exceeded or met the NQS, 70 per cent were working toward meeting the NQS, and 0.2 per cent (two services) required significant improvement.

2. Councils provide high quality care in disadvantaged areas where lower quality for-profit care providers are increasing provision.

Liverpool Council has recently committed to stay involved in the provision of early education and care, to ensure that low-income and disadvantaged children in their area have access to high quality care, to give them a good start in life and to their education. Their services are high quality, focused on reducing social and economic inequity and also are required to break even. All Council services rated to date have received a rating of Exceeding the NQS, whereas 50 per cent of for-profit services in the Liverpool local government area (LGA) rated to date have received a rating of Working Toward the NQS. Many of these for-profit services have vacancies, whereas Council services are full.

A study of services provided

by Holroyd Council (now part of Cumberland Council) also showed that council services enrol much higher numbers of children with disability and on low incomes than for-profit providers. Cumberland Council also delivers multiple other activities for children through their services, including inclusion support, Paint Holroyd REaD Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 17

(a reading encouragement program), Triple P Parenting programs, Protective Behaviours training networks and transition to school programs. These council services also break even and 100 per cent of services have been rated Exceeded the NQS, compared to zero per cent of for-profit services in the LGA. 3. Councils provide education and care in areas where it isn’t being delivered by the market, either because it is not seen as profitable, or demand is too high.

The City of Sydney brought forward $55 million of expenditure to fast track the construction of six new education and care centres for their residents and workers after a 2013 study identified a gap of around 3,000 places by 2031, which was not being met fast enough by the market.

“Demand for childcare in the inner city continues to grow. More families are moving into our community, with an estimated 45 per cent increase by 2031,” said Lord Mayor Clover Moore.

“The City is making a serious investment in much needed childcare places for parents living and working in our community,” she added.

“Currently the NSW and Commonwealth governments’ funding to address childcare is through subsidies to parents and to preschools, which has left investing in new childcare centres and infrastructure up to local councils and the market.”

Bega Valley Shire Council (BVSC) has remained in education and care as a gap service provider. Services in the area have much greater enrolments of children from low-income and Aboriginal children (including a 18 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

high number of referrals from the Department of Family and Community Services) than other services in the Shire, and are located in geographical areas that the for-profit sector does not view as profitable to open services.

BVSC services also have much higher enrolments than other education and care services within the Shire, with 100 per cent utilisation rates across most services.

Where to from here?

In a recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald (February 2015), United Services Union, which represents local government workers, expressed fears that more cash-strapped councils will exit early education and care due to the cost of service provision, with general secretary Graeme Kelly reported as saying hundreds of services are at risk.

“Local government has always been about providing essential services that meet the needs of local communities, which for decades has included quality, affordable childcare,” he said.

“With childcare costs surging and a shortages of places across Sydney, local government should be expanding these services to support working families, not cutting them.”

There are also concerns that forced amalgamations will further result in a reduction in the number of local government early education and care services.

Organisations such as Community Child Care Co-operative believe that education and care provision is a long term, economically sound investment in a community. NSW local councils can have a key role in education and care provision, and where fiscally possible,

direct provision of education and care services by council can be viewed as provision of an essential community service.

There are many reasons why local government should stay in the business of education and care including: ◆m eeting their obligations to plan for children under the Local Government Act—72 per cent of councils surveyed for the ‘Childcare, Roads, Rates and Rubbish’ research said the main reason for directly providing education and care is a commitment to families and children within the LGA ◆ s etting a benchmark for the provision of high quality, affordable and accessible education and care ◆d elivering long-term social and economic benefits: the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study showed that a state receives as much as a $17 return for each $1 investment in preschool programs (www.highscope. org/file/EducationalPrograms/ EarlyChildhood/UPKFullReport) ◆b uilding local community capacity and connections between children, families and councils ◆ r educing disadvantage, particularly for children who are not always served by for-profit services.

Councils have long been part of early education and care provision in NSW. In Finland, local councils are responsible for ensuring there is enough childcare within their local areas. Since 1996, each Finnish child has an entitlement to a childcare place from eight months of age until school entry. The councils are funded by the national government to provide the childcare, either directly or by sub-contracting not-for-profit or for-profit providers. This enables the local government to control the quality and the cost of care in those centres while still ensuring sufficient places for all children.

Could this work for Australia? Would this be one way of ensuring that demand matches education and care supply, while enshrining the role of local government in the provision of our country’s education and care provision?

Maybe it’s time for a radical increase in early education and care provision by councils! ✹ * Sarah Reilly is director of Cred Consulting, a social planning and community engagement consultancy.

Tracy Mackey

Rattler caught up with , the recently appointed executive director for Early Childhood Education (NSW Department of Education), to find out how she is engaging with the sector to help improve outcomes for children.

You have a long history in the public sector.

How has it prepared you for this role?

Over the past 20 years I’ve enjoyed positions spent in local, state and federal government working across the social policy spectrum. The learning and experiences I’ve had provide a depth of knowledge to draw on, especially in relation to my responsibilities in Early Childhood Education, for the regulatory authority, programs, funding and policy. I understand that as the need of families and communities evolve so too must our approach to ensure the best possible outcomes for children.

How has your personal experience, as a parent who used early education, impacted your role?

We have three daughters (now 19, 12 and 10 years) who all attended family day care, long day care and preschool. Our moves around the country mean we’ve experienced early childhood education in NSW, Queensland and the ACT. Our three girls are all very different and as a parent I know that a quality early childhood experience can make a real difference to the outcomes for children. I’d encourage all parents to visit a number of services and find the one that suits their family best.

We understand you’re talking with a lot of stakeholders in the sector.

Why is this important?

Visiting services, talking to providers, hearing from stakeholders and engaging with parents are all really important to ensure we have a contemporary understanding of practices and issues across the state. Collaboration is a must in my role and one I relish—bringing together people with differing views and experiences provides a good foundation to build a brighter future for our children.

I relish opportunities to explore ideas and challenges with stakeholders. Bringing people with differing views together is my preferred way to tackle complex issues.

What are some of the different characteristics in NSW around early childhood to other states?

In NSW, we’ve got a really diverse early childhood education sector spanning community preschools, long day care and other early education settings. With more than 5,500 services there is a lot of knowledge and experience in service delivery across the state. We are also seeing continued growth in the number of both new services and additional places coming to the market.

How is NSW progressing with implementing the NQF? The sector has worked hard to embed and embrace the National Quality Framework standards. At the heart of the NQF is continuous improvement. There are experienced and committed staff in the sector and the Department working hard to improve aspects of the NQF. Take, for example, the Quality Improvement Plan: by working in partnership with the sector we have acted on feedback by revamping the QIP, making it easier to navigate and, most importantly, focusing it on driving improvement. I find many services are really proud to talk about their QIP when I visit.

What are you currently reading?

I’m enjoying the case studies in As One (by Quigley and Baghai) as they explore the interplay between individual action and collective power—there’s lots of take-outs for the workplace. And, I do love unwinding with a good book. I’ve just finished Mothers and Daughters (by Kylie Ladd). It’s Australian fiction at its best, beautifully written, taking the reader on journey with the characters.

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

We travel at every opportunity. My favourite thing is the excitement and anticipation from the whole family as we head off on another adventure. It’s so wonderful to share new experiences and view the world with your children. *Tracy Mackey replaces Ruth Callaghan, the former general manager, Early Childhood Education and Care, NSW Department of Education. ✹ Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 19

(from left) Alma Fleet with Catherine Patterson and Katey De Goia, Macquarie University

Outgoing CEO, Leanne Gibbs with CCCC Chair, Wendy Lindgren

Anthony Semann, Semann & Slattery

Anita Jovanovski (left), NSW Family Day Care Association 20 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

Christine Robertson and Leanne Gibbs (left), with Tima Carden and Jaini De Silva (NSW Branch, Department of Education and Training)

The Children’s Services Central consortium (Community Child Care Co-operative, Contact Inc, Ethnic Community Services Co-operative, Network of Community Activities, NSW Family Day Care Association, and Semann & Slattery) was formed in 2005, and was funded continuously from 2006 until June 30 2016.

Vivi GermanosKoutsanadis, Ethnic Community Services Co-operative

Alma Fleet launching Engaging with Educational Change

Children’s Services Central managers through the years (left to right, from the most recent): Wilma Murdoch, Carolyn McGuiness, Leanne Gibbs, Michelle Hilton

SO LONG,

farewell

With the government’s removal of the Inclusion and Professional Support Program, Community Child Care Co-operative came together with long-time partners, friends and supporters to celebrate the end of Children’s Services Central’s role as Professional Support Co-ordinator in NSW.

Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 21

start head

A pioneering early childhood education initiative within the University of Wollongong is breaking down barriers to improve outcomes for children across Australia. Fran Molloy reports.

Open wide: Children take a ‘tour’ of an inflatable digestive system at the Early Start Discovery Space.

22 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY EARLY START, UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG

T

he University of Wollongong’s Early Start initiative is an innovative program that is breaking down barriers between research, teaching and professional and community engagement to improve early childhood outcomes.

Launched in 2013, Early Start was developed in response to the overwhelming research confirming the critical impact of education on children’s health, development and life outcomes.

The underlying aim of the program is to drive real social change through worldclass research and teaching programs, using the latest technologies to connect disadvantaged, regional and remote communities.

This is done through three key elements: the multidisciplinary Early Start Research Institute, the Discovery Space children’s museum, and a network of 41 early childhood ‘engagement’ services across NSW and the ACT brought on board to enable research to be tested in practice.

Early Start CEO Michelle Kellaway says that by integrating these three early childhood education elements, each is spring-boarded, allowing better outcomes individually and together.

“Our students here on campus studying early childhood or primary education or even public health or social work, often volunteer within the Discovery Space to get hands-on engagement with families and children,” she says.

“Academics often integrate their subjects into the centre, so students might read to the children in the Discovery Space during a literacy exercise, and then give us feedback on the effectiveness of the experiences there, how they deliver literacy and numeracy outcomes.” That feedback helps determine future programs, Kellaway adds.

The Early Start centre itself is a three-storey building on campus, which was built after the university received $31 million from the Australian government’s Education Infrastructure Fund. The centre houses more than 130 researchers and students—including more than 100 PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and academics—all with the goal to deliver evidence-based, real-world solutions to address the issues of disadvantage and social inclusion, which are core to the Early Start mission

of transforming lives through education.

Professor Sue Bennett, deputy director of the Early Start Research Institute, says researchers come from a variety of disciplines, including education, nutrition, health, psychology and arts.

The ultimate aim is to conduct evidencebased research that drives government policy and assists industry professionals in making informed educational decisions for policy and practice.

“I see it as a wonderfully integrated opportunity. Usually universities

are completely separate or they are integrated in an ad-hoc fashion, but ESRI ties the research into practice and into things like the discovery centre, all our outreach programs, our engagement centres and even into the training program for Wollongong’s early years degree.”

“We have an ongoing relationship with the [engagement] centres as partners, and try to fit research into the centres which makes sense to them,” she says. “Everybody is a stakeholder, we all

ENGAGEMENT IN PRACTICE

Melinda Wren is director of The Basin Preschool and Long Day Care Centre, a 40-place service for two- to five-year-olds at Sanctuary Point on the NSW south coast. It is also one of the 41 Early Start Engagement Centres across NSW. “We were really fortunate to be one of the project pilot centres,” she explains.

Part of the deal included a technology package and support for a smart board, smart table and iPads.

Because the engagement centres are spread across NSW, technology is an important tool for staying connected.

“We would never be able to afford these resources if it wasn’t for the university and because we are in a regional, low socio-economic area, it’s been such an enormous asset to our program and what we have to offer for the families down here.”

She says that many of the children who come to the service have additional needs, ranging from autism spectrum to behavioural management issues to vision impairment, and the technology allows the preschool to introduce all kinds of extra supports.

Visitors to the preschool show presentations on the smart board to help children understand topics like water safety, and the centre can use the technology to link smaller groups of children in the preschool to services that suit specific needs.

“Some of our Aboriginal kids are learning some traditional dances by linking with other Aboriginal services from our region over the video-conferencing platform,” Wren explains.

There are moves in place to link by Skype with an Arabic-speaking bi-cultural support officer for other children, too.

“The technology brings down those distance barriers and also makes it easier and cheaper for kids to see what’s out there,” she says.

Using the smart board video-conferencing platform, the preschool has already had several virtual ‘tours’ of the Early Start Discovery Space, too.

“We do quite a few excursions, but going anywhere with a bunch of two to five year olds, you can’t go too far and it’s an exhausting day,” Wren says. “Virtual tours are a good way to go.”

Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 23

We’re building on the longstanding professional research of some of our members, to develop an effective PD approach that is foundational and based on changing practice in a way that we know is beneficial for kids.

—Professor Marc de Rosnay

want to get traction; we want to make sure that it works.”

Research base According to Marc de Rosnay, Professor of Early Start, the initiative is already building up a body of knowledge that translates into better outcomes, through professional learning or practice. He suggests that much of the literature is lacking, because of a strong tendency to focus on big longitudinal projects.

“One of the tragedies of big longitudinal projects is that you’re documenting your failures. You’re showing again and again for which children you are failing to change things.

That’s why I always focus on real time: what are you doing for this child, today?”

De Rosnay says that Early Start programs showing good results include a field study on effective early learning and the Jump Start program (including ‘Standing Preschools’), headed by Professor Tony Okely, which looks at children’s physical health and activity.

“The broad thing that the longitudinal studies have shown is that a highquality early years environment for very disadvantaged children makes outcomes much better for them,” de Rosnay says.

“So we want to put the tools for bringing about those changes in the hands of educators and their organisations. If I am an educator working with a disadvantaged group of children in a remote area, I know what I have to do to understand where those children are at and to be effective with those children, which is not easy.“ There’s currently no systemic approach for these situations, de Rosnay

says, and educators work hard to deliver outcomes, but they need the research and tools to back them up.

“These are tough kids to work with, so you need to know where they’re at, you need to know how to work with them, and you need to know whether you are being successful. That infrastructure doesn’t exist in early education right now.”

De Rosnay says that Early Start is also establishing effective professional development (PD), which will then be widely accessible to early childhood educators.

“What we want in the future is to move to a place where educators are themselves engaging with the university more. That’s a wide zone, and it’s a funding base issue,” he says.

“We haven’t already taken that step because the last six to nine months have been about building an effective PD approach,” he says. “We’re building on the longstanding professional research of some of our members, to develop an effective PD approach that is foundational and based on changing practice in a way that we know is beneficial for kids. Then you add to it, with specific expertise around the details like numeracy, or digital literacy or whatever.”

De Rosnay says Early Start’s approach to PD will be different to what’s currently available, which is largely devoted to improving specific skills.

“The thing that will distinguish our PD, and hopefully into the future as well, is that it’s foundational. It changes practice in a way that you know is beneficial for kids, and then you can add to it. You can add specific expertise around numeracy, or around digital literacy.”

Explore and discover Another part of the Early Start program is the university-operated Discovery Space, which was built thanks to a $7 million philanthropic gift from the Abbott Foundation (the largest single donation the university has ever received). It is now Australia’s only dedicated children’s museum, designed as a destination for preschool and school groups and for families with young children to join together in an exciting, learning-through-play learning space.

Some of the experiences currently available include a ‘shop,’ with trolleys and products on shelves, a mysterious diamond-studded cave, and the HMAS

24 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

Discovery—an eight-metre long ‘ship’ structure where children can take the helm, or load and unload ‘cargo.’

Children can also climb through an inflatable digestive system, where they imagine becoming a piece of food that travels through inflatable walls complete with heart-beat, breathing and digestion sound effects, and can learn about how digestion works, the role of stomach acids and gut bacteria, and why healthy food is important.

“Our public health students and academics helped us design a public program to help get the best outcomes for children so that when they are coming through the inflatable tummy tour, they learn really useful things about digestion,” explains Kellaway.

“So we might take children around the tummy and talk about healthy eating, then they go and play in the supermarket, and there’s a direct connection made through their play.”

The Discovery Space was modelled on children’s museums found in the US and Europe, where young children and adults go through play-based learning together, but the centre also consulted academics, preschools and community members. They also had children from several primary schools brainstorm and collaborate on ideas for the Discovery Space, from big concepts to small details.

Experiences were designed to be a fun connection between play and learning, they had to be multi-purposed (for example, the cave could be an old mine, a wombat burrow, or an ancient cave), accessible to children with a range of needs, and aligned to early childhood and primary school curriculums.

Building a digital network The Early Start Engagement Centres came on board in 2014 and are tied into the University’s research—as well as being connected to each other—using various technologies, underpinned by a support team including a learning technologist who also does outreach visits. This provides educators in these centres access up-to-date research, to help deliver best outcomes to disadvantaged children.

There are around a thousand children across the various early education and care services (preschool, long day care and ACFCs) who are in the target age group of three to five years, from areas of socio-economic disadvantage, and a third are Aboriginal.

“It’s quite different to typical education research projects where a researcher focuses on one particular area,” Kellaway says.

The centres stretch to Broken Hill in far west NSW, to Tweed Heads in the north, Eden on the NSW south coast. There are also a couple of centres in the ACT. Around nine centres are close enough to the university to make in-person visits to the Discovery Space.

“They’ve all been provided with a technology bundle as part of the Early Start relationship and we pioneer innovation with the centres through research and a range of other things,” Kellaway says.

The technology bundle includes access to a video-conferencing platform called Blue Jeans, with the cameras and computers to facilitate it, a smart board, smart TV, smart tables and an iPad set.

“We maintain the equipment and train the educators to use it. We use the video-conferencing, not just for virtual visits, but we do professional development with our centres using the equipment as well.”

A recent example is a series of professional development workshops on healthy lifestyles, delivered via videoconferencing for educators in remote centres. Another major PD

event for the centres was the Early Start Conference. Nearly 700 people attended the first professional development conference, held at the university in 2015, from 11 countries. A second conference is planned for 2017.

“We found that a combination of both face-to-face and technology-based professional development is important, because it’s about building those relationships and those connections with the centres and with Early Start. If you do this purely through technology then you don’t have that collegial interaction that is often required to make those networks work.”

Engagement centres are now connecting with each other, forming natural networks based on proximity and personal relationships, Kellaway says. And there are ongoing visits from academics who are siting various research projects within the centres.

Baseline research on the 41 engagement centres has assessed the children in the centres, the educators and the parents and, using a rapid responsive research model, the analysis is used to co-create programs that can be applied straight away. With this kind of immediacy, they are on track in meeting Early Start’s aim to give all children the best possible start in life. ✹ Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 25

VOX POPS

Lessons from our younger selves Rattler asked members of the sector what advice they would give their younger selves just starting out in early childhood education and care.

Tonia Godhard, early childhood advocate and Community Child Care Co-operative life member Lesley Hubbard, director, Beacon Hill Preschool Carol Lymbery, general manager, Cullunghutti Aboriginal Child and Family Centre, Nowra Lessons to my younger self: take your time, listen more than you talk and delete emails more often. Focus on achieving the outcomes you are passionate about, don’t get distracted by the dramas and have fun.

Remember, at the end of the day, your family is the most important family.

26 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

Always remember that the key to quality practice is the building of relationships with open, clear, nonjudgemental communication. Children need trusting, reciprocal relationships with people, places and things to empower them to grow, learn and become genuine community members.

Having their teachers telling them what they should be doing and thinking is not the way to do this.

Remember to view children in a holistic manner and take the time to find out what they already know. Never underestimate their capability. Family and community form an integral part of the child’s sense of self and this must be appreciated and celebrated in conjunction with their prior learning.

Finally, do not ignore your own learning. In order to provide quality learning for children build your own capacity, challenge your thinking, seek knowledge and strive to deepen your understandings. Resist the urge to do something just because it has always been done that way before.

Have confidence! Trust that you can do what is required of a new teacher.

If you make a mistake or are not sure how to do something, remember you are a member of a profession in which there are many people who are very willing to support you and from whom you can learn.

Try to be less anxious, with fewer self-doubts. This so easy to say and I wonder if this lack of confidence is more a female attribute or if it just that some people are more able to hide any lack of confidence they experience.

Remember, if you are offered an opportunity, take it if it feels right for you and stop thinking ‘why me, there must be others more deserving or able’. If you are offered something it is because that person believes you can do it, they are not setting you up to fail.

So, again, have confidence but also enjoy and have fun as early childhood teaching is a wonderful career choice.

Leo Prendergast, director Rainbow Children’s Centre

Wendy Baldwin, director Gwydir Mobile Children’s Services

Meni Tsambouniaris, co-ordinator, Bicultural Support, ECSC

My younger self was very confident and knowledgeable about children and children’s services and could not wait to get started in making a difference as an early childhood education teacher. My degree had included a lot about educational theories and lots of practicums, so I had developed very clear ideas about the sort of teacher and the sort of program I wanted to implement.

I would now tell myself to chill out a bit and recognise that there are lots of way to ‘cook the pot’, and recognise and acknowledge that someone who does things differently to me may be just as effective (or even, shock horror, more effective).

I would also say to take a lot more time to think about relationships: staffto-staff, staff-to-parent and not just teacher-to-child. Those relationships all intertwine and we all rely so much on each other in early childhood education.

I would remind myself to think about each child as an individual, surely, but also as the child of parents, as a member of a family, as part of an extended family and as part of a community, and remember all those elements play pivotal roles in the education of that child.

There are four things I would tell my younger self: 1. Consider teaching in rural and remote Australia, particularly on a mobile service. You will meet some amazing people and have stories to tell long into old age.

2. Do a conflict resolution course.

This will enable you to solve many problems. When you are in conflict, remember that very few people are your enemy. Many people are just trying to do the best they can with limited interpersonal skills.

However, never, ever accept abuse.

3. Do the best you can with what you have and then let go. You are not responsible for the world; you are responsible for the choices you make. The choice to be kind. The choice to be patient. The choice to listen without judgement.

4. Be kind to yourself. Take a break, laugh often, and if you think you are drowning, talk to someone. It’s a great world, enjoy it.

Dear younger Meni, As you embark on one of your greatest life journeys, working in the early childhood sector, you will meet many children, families and educators and will work through various frameworks and curriculums. You will learn and grow daily through your chosen profession.

Yours is a critical role in the future of children. You either just deliver good practice, or you can be a stand out who takes education and learning to a higher level. Aspire to make a difference, to be the best that you can be, to have a voice, to challenge, to plant seeds of knowledge, to enable, empower, lead, mentor and deliver with innovation.

You are a walking, talking ambassador for many things, especially that of inclusion and social justice. Be mindful of how impressionable your role is and that an inclusive classroom is a happy place, that potentially creates a happy community. Inclusive practice in early childhood creates inclusive children in the future.

Childcare is a busy place, where we easily get caught up in the day-to-day tasks, forgetting what really counts. Put yourself in the children’s shoes, look at childcare through their eyes and consider their journey when planning your curriculum.

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case study Quality Area 6

Collaborative partnerships with families and communities Element 6.3.4 The service builds relationships and engages with the local community

1 Community connections Community means more than just the people in your local area. As Clarence Town Preschool discovered, community also represents the physical environment beyond their fence line.

By Rebecca Boland.

W

hen we think about what ‘community’ means within the National Quality Standard, we tend to think about the people in our local area: our parents, neighbours, local businesses, nearby schools and service providers. But community also consists of a service’s physical surroundings, and how you connect and build relationships with this part of your community is an important part of Quality Area 6: Collaborative partnerships with families and communities.

This is what the community from Clarence Town Preschool, a community based service in the Hunter Region north of Sydney, came to realise when they decided to explore their links to the physical community surrounding them. Here is their story…

Each day we share our meals in our outdoor dining space. If we reach through the fence in this space we are touching the bush that borders our preschool—gum trees, native grasses and ground cover surround our service. We hear the songs of birds throughout the day. We see members of the community riding horses and walking dogs out along the bush tracks.

There’s also a mysterious shed you can see through the fence, 28 | Rattler 118 Winter 2016

which has often been a topic of conversation among the children.

Even though we had been looking at and discussing what lies beyond the fence for some time, it wasn’t until one lunchtime back in 2013 that the question came to us: why don’t we take preschool outside the fence and into this bushland? We have such a precious natural resource literally at our fence. This land is our community and part of what makes us who we are.

So this idea became a seed that we allowed to germinate. We had to consider how we would implement bushwalking into our program: what would that look like, and what risks would be involved?

We have always enjoyed the regular sightings of lizards, native birds, kangaroos, koalas and insects in and around our preschool, but when we started discussions about bushwalking, one creature always came up: snakes.

In the bush, snakes are a reality we cannot overlook. And while they posed a concern, we decided the program should not be shelved because of it, we just needed to find out more about the risks, and how to minimise them.

One of the fathers within our parent group is a trained

handler of snakes and reptiles. Our first task in starting our planning was to meet with him and talk through our concerns.

We knew we could find plenty of relevant information through internet research but there is something that the internet cannot provide: the personal knowledge and understanding that comes from living in an area.

Glen talked with us about snake habits and our specific local environment. He explained to us that although potentially dangerous snakes are found throughout our bushland, the colder months would be a safer time to be in the bush because the snakes were sheltered away in rocky formations and other covered spaces. Glen shared his ideas for safe bushwalking, reminding us of the best clothing choices that would reduce risks of snake incidents and also support overall safety.

Tapping into local knowledge

The knowledge of our local community members is vast and rich, which is true in any area. The challenge is to seek out this knowledge, and to really get to know our community we needed to ask questions. The results from opening this dialogue with families were twofold: not only did we get answers about the specific local information we sought; we also saw the growth of our relationships with our families. We learned about parents who had grown up in the area and had played in the bushland as children. We heard stories from one of our grandmothers who spent time riding her horse along the clay roads when her own daughter was a child.

Because our preschool staff are not locals, we don’t know about the extent of the bush road system beyond what we could see through the fence. Many parents took time to talk with us about where they walked with their children and the areas that were more, or sometimes less, safe than others. As

our project grew in momentum, we found we had a common ground that opened up conversation and allowed us to have a much more open relationship with our immediate and extended preschool families.

It was not until 2014 that we fully committed to the idea of bushwalking. It was very important to us that we had the confident support of all families. We began with an introductory letter to overview our idea and invited families to talk with us personally if they held any concerns. Bushwalking became a topic of excited conversation between children and their parents and also between parents who would spend time with us in the mornings and afternoons.

We then contacted the rural fire brigade to talk about our plan and gain any information that may help us to be safe and successful. Our local chief said she did not see any need to lodge walking plans and agreed with the plans we were forming in terms of snake and overall safety. (This conversation, in turn, lead to us welcoming the rural fire service and local police officers to visit the preschool for an exciting morning of safety talks.)

Managing risk

Our risk assessment became a lengthy document that covered an array of potential risks. To create this we worked closely as a team and also with our management to ensure we were covering all areas, as well as gaining perspectives outside of our own. Collaboration was also held with our parent reptile expert and the rural fire service. Once all ideas were collated we felt as though we had our official planning done. The most important planning was still to come and involved our most excited and willing participants: the children.

In that first year, and again in 2015, our conversations with Rattler 118 Winter 2016 | 29

AIMS OF THE PROJECT

✦E ncourage a sense of our greater environment: looking at our preschool from a new perspective. ✦T o be connected to the land, the plants and the creatures within. ✦D evelop an understanding of personal safety and procedures when in a different environment. ✦E xplore the impact of humans on the world: how we can limit our footprint as individuals and as a preschool. ✦E nhancing community involvement: parents and family members, primary school, high school, Aboriginal community. ✦E xtending the children’s interests using the bush as our learning environment. ✦ F or children to contribute to guidelines for bushwalking, taking increased responsibility for their own wellbeing. ✦E xplore how other living things survive, and their lifecycles: how the seasons impact on our environment, and transferring this knowledge to sustainable projects, such as vegetable gardens. ✦E ncouraging language and communication skills. ✦S hare, through documentation, our experiences with families and our wider community. ✦ F or children to develop a sense of wonder and excitement in their surroundings. ✦ To utilise a natural space free from toys and technologies.

children led to the formation of bushwalking rules, which are followed by all adults and children who attend our walks. We have a printed checklist that one of our children completes prior to each walk to ensure that the rules are being followed. With pen in hand, the chosen child marks off the criteria: “All people going on our bushwalk today need to have enclosed shoes that don’t slip, socks, long pants, a shirt/top that is safe in the sun, a sun hat and suncream. We need to have a backpack with water, first aid, emergency lists, telephone and suncream.”

Before each walk we work through the list. If anyone is unable to meet the guidelines we do not go on the walk. So far, though, this has not occurred, as we communicate clearly with our families to ensure that each child has the clothing they need, even if it is kept in their bag for just-in-case.

A fresh perspective

Leaving the fenced boundary of preschool is such a free and exhilarating feeling. While our first years of walks have been repetitive in their specific paths, looking down at preschool from within the bush never becomes dull for the children. Each walk brings excited voices: “Look, there’s preschool down there!”; “I can see the slippery dip! It looks little”; “I can see where we have lunch”; “I can see my bag!”; “Our yard looks huge!”

We can now see up close the mysterious shed that can be seen from our yard and has often been part of children’s conversations. Our bushwalks provide a whole new perspective of the structure, as we are able to see it from the other side!

Our first walks brought some initial confusion: is this another shed? It looks different to the one we can see from preschool.

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With time to observe the structure from the bush side, and then to reflect with photographs back at preschool, we were able to show the children that this was indeed the same shed.

Not knowing where the shed came from, or who may have built it, we looked to our parents for information. Some suggested teenagers might have built it. Another popular thought was that the shed had been built as shelter for the workers who originally built the community centre from which our preschool operates. Many parents told us that it had been there since they were children, although they had never really thought about it before. Other times children returned to preschool after being on weekend bushwalks or rides with their families, telling us how they had gone inside the shed (something we don’t do!).

Preschool bushwalks had ignited interest in the local area.

In 2014, our visits to the bush became more embedded within our program. We began to make predictions about what we might see, writing these down and looking back over our predictions upon returning. In the yard, after our walks, we provided media for children to reflect on their journey, using easel painting, clipboards with paper for drawing, water paints and collage to support the children to represent their ideas.

Photographs were a way for us to be able to share our walks with family members. We were grateful to receive donations of scrapbook supplies from a member of our extended community. With these we worked on a group Bushwalking Scrapbook project, where children were encouraged to document their own experiences on a page within the book. While educators were always there for support and encouragement, it was important that each page was unique and represented the child’s individual creativity. We noticed that children would bring their family members to the book and show them through it, often sitting on the lounge or the ‘comfy chair’. The conversations would flow and the time spent here was mindful and focused.

Into the future

As we move to our third year of our project we feel more confident in the whole process. This in turn allows us to be more adventurous, to explore additional routes, plan to extend our time spent in the bush, and to actively include our families and community in more of our adventures.

Our goal this year is to learn more about the Aboriginal history of our area, through hands-on experience with bush tucker and art, with a bushland focus. To do this authentically we will seek the knowledge and expertise of local Elders and members of the Worimi Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC).

We would like also to bring our local public school into our experience to build upon our relationships, which will also support the transition to school process for our children. With the majority of our preschool children attending the local school, involving the students will give the older children the opportunity to revisit the areas they walked when they attended preschool—our community relationships extend not only to the adults of our town but also to our past children. ✹ * Rebecca Boland is director of Clarence Town Preschool, which is run by Children’s Services Community Management (CSCM), a wholly owned entity of Community Child Care Co-operative.

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