Child Care News
SIDS danger: Some babysitters, carers unaware of safe infant sleep practices
The Courier Mail - Jackie Sinnerton - April 6, 2018A STARTLING number of infants who die in their sleep are being looked after by relatives and babysitters who place them in unsafe sleeping positions. A new study shows babies who are not with their parents are often put down to sleep on their stomachs or in dangerous locations, such as couches...
Teachers distressed by 'demise' of play-based learning in era of NAPLAN testing
ABC News - Nadia Mitsopoulos and Emma Wynne - April 5, 2018Parents and early childhood educators have voiced their concerns about what they see as the decline of play-based learning in schools. They blame NAPLAN testing and the pressure to succeed for making modern-day school unnecessarily stressful for young children...
Play alone not answer to solving kids' maths, says expert
The Advertiser - Martina Simos - April 4, 2018PLAY alone is not enough for young children to learn mathematics, an academic says. Edith Cowan University early childhood studies senior lecturer Dr Marianne Knaus says that instead basic concepts such as counting, shapes, sorting and matching should be taught explicitly and introduced...
Australian dads are staying at home to raise kids more than ever before, new study reveals
The West Australian - Dylan Capron - April 5, 2018Australian dads are staying home to raise their children more than ever before, new research by the Australian Institute of Family Studies to be released today reveals. The study, using 2016 census data, found about 80,000 Australian families have a stay-at-home dad at the helm, rising from...
Advent Partners to test buyer interest in $400m-odd after school care provider
Financial Review - Sarah Thompson, Anthony Macdonald & Joyce Moullakis - April 5, 2018Private equity firm Advent Partners is considering launching a sale of its outside school hours care business Junior Adventure Group. Street Talk understands Advent has spoken to potential sale advisers about running a two-stage auction for the business, following a number of approaches from...
Blue Sky auditor EY in spotlight
The Australian - Ben Butler - April 5, 2018The long-time auditor of under-siege Blue Sky Alternative Investments also worked on the audits of collapsed childcare outfit ABC Learning and two funds run by failed Gold Coast financiers Octaviar and LM. Paula McLuskie, a partner at big four firm EY, was part of the team that audited...
G8 Education hit by further fears of childcare glut, analysts cut earnings forecasts
The Courier Mail - Laim Walsh - Aprl 4, 2018FEARS that an oversupply of new childcare centres would squeeze the number of children attending facilities helped weigh down industry giant G8 Education on Wednesday. Shares in Gold Coast-based G8, which has 516 centres and whose brands include Penguin Childcare and Kindy Patch Kids...
Folkestone expands footprint
The Australian - Ben Wilmot - April 4, 2018The listed Folkestone Education Trust has expanded its footprint in the growing childcare centre real estate market after securing nine Queensland assets for just over $63 million. The properties form part of a portfolio of 13 assets offered for sale in late 2017, following Avenues...
Federal Government reveals the 'dodgy' Townsville childcare centre which had its funding cancelled
Townsville Bulletin - Olivia Grace-Curran - April 4, 2018At the same time Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal had temporarily shut the centre following a spate of incidents, including the smacking of a child, hygiene issues, incomplete records, safety concerns, a lack of appropriately qualified teaching staff, Blue Card...
G8 Education's former chairwoman faces 25 years in jail
Sydney Morning Herald - Colin Kruger - April 3, 2018Jenny Hutson, the former chairwoman of childcare provider G8 Education, faces up to 25 years in jail after being charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice following an ASIC investigation of G8's takeover bid for Affinity Education Group in 2015. It is the most serious...
Africans head dodgy daycare centres
The Australian - Rick Morton - April 3, 2018More than two-thirds of family daycare operators who had their taxpayer subsidies cancelled or suspended late last year were born in a handful of countries on the Horn of Africa and most of these were from one nation: Somalia. Education Minister Simon Birmingham will today...
More than a dozen Western Sydney childcare centres shutdown in massive crackdown
Daily Telegraph - Kylar Loussikian - April 3, 2018MORE than a dozen NSW childcare centres have been forced to close in just three months as part of a massive crackdown on providers faking paperwork to claim taxpayer subsidies. And almost all of them were in Western Sydney. The federal government's national audit of family daycare...
Dodgy Victorian daycare centres shut down after being caught out in rort
Herald Sun - Rob Harris - April 2, 2018DOZENS of dodgy daycare providers have been shut down after being caught rorting taxpayers' money by making up records and pretending to care for non-existent children. Victoria accounts for 27 of the nation's 53 family daycare providers that have been subjected to serious...
Ken Henry says spending surge makes talk of tax cuts absurd
The Australian - Adam Creighton - April 2, 2018Dr Henry acknowledged progress on reform of childcare payments, which collapse into a single streamlined childcare subsidy from July. He was "surprised", however, that family tax benefits A and B, which provide about $18bn a year to families, hadn't been reformed...
Dutton saga fortifies bid for au pair visa
9News.com.au - April 1, 2018The business lobby and nanny agencies have seized on the controversy surrounding Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and the au pair detention saga to bolster their case for establishing a special visa category. The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and au pair...
