Child Care News
Parents denied 'free' childcare as operators warn JobKeeper workers are refusing to come into work
NEWS.com.au - Samantha Maiden - May 27, 2020Childcare centres are refusing to care for kids despite the Prime Minister's "free" childcare pledge leaving parents in the lurch. Angry parents have revealed that some childcare operators have told them to keep their kids at home until the current arrangements run out on June 28...
COAG preschool review highlights 'adverse' effects of funding uncertainty
The Sydney Morning Herald - Fergus Hunter - May 26, 2020A confidential report for Australia's education ministers has urged the federal government to lock in five years of funding for preschools or face a system compromised by inefficiency and high staff turnover. Short-term renewals of a national partnership on preschool funding every year...
University childcare services axed and outsourced to private operators
Sydney Morning Herald - Anna Patty - May 26, 2020The University of NSW is closing one of its early childhood centres and outsourcing three others because of budget pressures arising from lost international student revenue during the coronavirus pandemic. The university faces a $600 million revenue shortfall this year...
Adelaide preschool owner who 'exploited' two underpaid workers fined four times money owed
ABC News - Ben Nielsen and Eugene Boisvert - May 26, 2020The operator of two Adelaide preschools has been fined $23,000 after she was found to have exploited workers for financial and business gain. Kerry Black, the director of the now-defunct Accademia di Montessori, was found to have seriously contravened the Fair Work Act after systematically...
Meryl Swanson: State Matters | Government must start supporting early education
Cessnock Advertiser - Meryl Swanson, Federal Member for Paterson - May 26, 2020Who would have thought at the age of 50 I'd still be learning lessons from my Kurri Kurri preschool? Yet this is the situation I found myself in last week, speaking with Nicci, the director at the preschool. Nicci was keen to impress on me that to make the child care sector viable...
The best preschools and childcare centres in Whittlesea
Herald Sun - Rebecca David, Whittlesea Leader - May 26, 2020Early learning is not just child’s play any more, with some Whittlesea preschoolers tackling subjects once limited to university students. Marymede Early Learning Centre is offering youngsters an introduction to maths and science through subjects such as robotics and coding...
Predictions that more than a third of parents will cut down days on return to CCS
The Sector - Freya Lucas - May 26, 2020Results from a survey conducted by advocacy group The Parenthood have indicated that at least 44 per cent of parents with children currently enrolled in education and care services have had their income reduced since measures were brought in to combat COVID-19...
Uniting expresses concern about ECEC transition from Government COVID-19 supports
The Sector - Freya Lucas - May 25, 2020One such provider, Uniting NSW.ACT, has written to Dr Roslyn Baxter, Deputy Secretary Early Childhood and Childcare for the Department of Education, Skills and Employment (DESE), sharing concerns about funding continuity and the future of its services. Uniting NSW.ACT Early Learning...
Learning through play ? classroom examples
Teacher Magazine - Amy Berry, Kellie Picker, Rachel Parker - May 26, 2020The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has been working with the LEGO Foundation in Denmark to understand the role and impact of learning through play at school beyond the early years. In this update, researchers Dr Amy Berry, Kellie Picker and Rachel Parker discuss...
Free Childcare and the Education System
ABC TV - Q+A - May 25, 2020As family day care providers struggle to stay afloat with partial government funding, Georgie Dent suggests it might be time to include early childhood in the wider education system...
Phoebe and 100,000 kindergarten kids are ready to start school (again)
The Sydney Morning Herald - Jordan Baker - May 25, 2020Over her school career, Phoebe Love has spent as much time doing lessons at home as she has in her classroom. The kindergarten student was just seven weeks into her first term at Thirroul Public School when remote learning brought the process of making friends...
The best preschools and childcare centres in Wyndham
Herald Sun - Rebecca David, Wyndham Leader - May 25, 2020A childcare centre that rose from the ashes of a devastating fire is now one of Wyndham’s top early learning providers. Kool Kidz Tarneit was razed when a driver, whose car was on fire, ploughed into the building after a police chase in the early hours of June 3, 2017. But the owners ...
Uniting expresses concern about ECEC transition from Government COVID-19 supports
The Sector - Freya Lucas - May 25, 2020As speculation about the next steps from the Federal Government, in relation to how the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector will be funded in coming months, continues following indications by the Prime Minister that a return to Child Care Subsidy (CCS) is imminent...
The old broken model & the interim 'free' childcare arrangement are not the only options
Women's Agenda - Georgie Dent - May 24, 2020A national survey of Australian parents last week revealed that at least 44% of families with children currently enrolled in early childhood education and care (ECEC) have had their income reduced since COVID19. In a whopping 17% of households both parents have either lost their job or income...
Free child care leaving family day carers feeling 'disrespected, struggling, heartbroken'
ABC News - Rhiannon Stevens - May 23, 2020Hidden behind fences in suburban lots across Australia are childcare professionals who look after children in their own homes, often at all hours of the day and night. Known as family day care, they are the child carers shift workers turn to, and during the coronavirus pandemic they have provided...