Teaching children to have respect and appreciation for our natural environment is an important part of early childhood education.

Many child care services take pride in offering a range of experiences designed to enhance learning and understanding about environmental awareness and sustainability and increasingly parents are looking for services which have an eco-friendly business model.

Child care service providers have a unique opportunity to offer young children environmental experiences and to instill in them a love for the natural world.

If you are looking for some new ways to help children learn about and experience the environment then keep reading…

Child care professionals share a commitment to improving society by creating dynamic and nurturing care environments for Australia's youngest learners. This month we feature an interview with Katrina Dyson.

What is your name?

My name is Katrina Dyson, a lot of the children just call me mum, as I have children that attend the centre and they call me mum. The children call staff members Mrs, Mr or Miss.

Which centre do you work in?

I work at Oceantides Child Care in Busselton WA, we have six staff members, and the centre is licensed for 30 children.

What is your professional background and career experience?

I became a nanny when I was 17, after I had had my first three kids I became a family day care, after having my fourth child I went to TAFE and studied my Diploma. When I finished my Diploma I opened my own child care centre, as we had too many children of our own which impacted on my ability to provide care to families on my waiting list. The centre was opened in October 2004, I went on to do my Advanced Diploma in Children's Services, I enrolled in a double Bachelor of Psychology and Children's Services and had another baby. As the media kept talking about the coming need for centres to have an Early Childhood Teacher I switched Majors to Early Childhood Teaching and had another baby. Last year was a disastrous year, what with staff sickness and all of the changes within the industry I had to give something up in order not to have a break down/burn out, and my study was the only thing that I (reluctantly) could let go.

Are you interested in influencing future qualifications requirements for the early childhood education industry? If so make sure you read the article below and click through to leave your feedback.

The Community Services and Health Industry Skills Council (CS&HISC), the organisation responsible for developing the qualifications and competency standards for the early childhood education sector, is currently reviewing and updating the Certificate III and Diploma qualifications for early childhood educators in line with the National Quality Framework.

Major changes include aligning the core learning units to the National Quality Framework areas, and development of new competencies around early childhood development and practice.

The second and final draft of the Children's Services VET qualifications are now available on the CS&HISC website and you have until 8 March to review the draft documents and provide feedback.

Your feedback and comments will be used to help develop the final qualifications, which are scheduled for endorsement and release on training.gov.au in July 2013.

For more information, please contact Emma Richards, Training Packages Industry Partner, CS&HISC on 02 8226 6615.

Did you know you can publicise your service's National Quality Standard rating before ACECQA starts publishing all available ratings in April/May this year.

This is a great opportunity to promote your service’s achievements and Quality Improvement Plan.