Child Care News

New campaign challenges body image language for preschool girls
Herald Sun - Brigid O'Connell - August 9, 2017

SHE is pretty brave, pretty talented and pretty kind. It's a subtle language change, but one national campaign is helping Australian parents make to better teach their daughters to value their skills and inner qualities, rather than their looks. With research showing more than half of preschool-aged girls...

Enforce 'no jab, no pay' at schools: AMA
News.com.au - Greg Roberts - August 9, 2017

The Australian Medical Association has suggested stripping funding from schools that do not actively promote vaccinating students amidst a potential measles outbreak. The West Australian government issued a citywide health alert last week when an unvaccinated high school student returned to Perth...

A Postcode Should Not Shape A Person's Destiny
Huffington Post - Andrew Leigh - August 9, 2017

But over the past generation, we have seen the opposite trend. Since the mid-1970s, real wages have grown by 72 percent for the top tenth of workers, but by just 23 percent for the bottom tenth. If child care workers and cleaners had received the same wage gains as financiers and solicitors, they would...

Strong demand continues but concerns about interest rate hikes rising
Financial Review - Su-Lin Tan - August 8, 2017

Commercial property continues to sell on tight yields, despite investor concerns about tighter lending and potential interest rate hikes, the latest commercial auctions show. At the Burgess Rawson auction on Tuesday, childcare properties continued to dominate. A Gymea childcare...

Helping directors keep ahead of the fast pace of change is the name of the game for the AICD, Dr Roger Sexton says
The Advertiser - Cameron England - August 8, 2017

Dr Sexton said last year David Chiem, founder of MindChamps, spoke at the Fellows' Dinner about what he was doing with early childcare centres in Singapore, the Middle East and the Philippines, and how he was educating children for the job market in 2030. "The job market in 2030 is going...

Why a Perth childcare centre lets kids to sleep outside, even when its rainy
Yahoo 7 News - August 7, 2017

A WA childcare centre has raised eyebrows by taking children to sleep outside during nap time, even in drizzly conditions. Little Learners in Perth, which cares for babies to five-year-old children, believes an outdoor sleeping policy benefits the kids and reduces absences by the common cold...

Australians are paying more for childcare than mortgages and food, leading to calls for action
Daily Telegraph - Lanai Scarr - August 6, 2017

CHILDCARE costs are driving Australian families to breaking point with an exclusive survey for News Corp Australia finding close to 40 per cent are paying more than or equal to their mortgage in out of pocket payments each week. Close to a third are paying double their grocery bills - after...

Teachers need more training to deal with problematic sexual behaviour
Sydney Morning Herald - Alexandra Smith - August 6, 2017

Children as young as five are displaying worrying sexual behaviour at school, prompting concerns that teachers are ill-equipped to differentiate between whether students are victims of sexual abuse or are imitating what they see in music videos or internet advertising, new research reveals...

Childcare centres locate 'outdoor' play centres inside due to space constraints
Herald Sun - Susie O'Brien - August 6, 2017

CHILDCARE centres are ­offering outdoor play spaces that are located inside, ­contributing to "nature deficit disorder" among children, education experts say. The Education Department has confirmed three Melbourne childcare centres have been granted ­exemptions from national standards...

Childcare costs are crippling families. Time to step up and fix a broken system
The Mercury - Lanai Scarr - August 6, 2017

We often lament that there are not more women in the workforce but how are we supposed to even begin fixing that when our childcare system is fundamentally broken? Even when the government's legislated childcare changes come into force in July 2018, families on a combined household...

Most Perth children not active enough: University of WA research
Perth Now - Regina Titelius - August 6, 2017

FEWER than a third of Perth preschoolers are active for at least three hours a day, a new study measuring childhood body movement shows. University of WA population health researcher Dr Hayley Christian said the "alarming" revelation should prompt the introduction of activity guidelines at...

Meditation a winner for some young
Sydney Morning Herald - Amanda Phelan - August 5, 2017

There is a push to get mindfulness meditation on the school curriculum across Australia by 2020, says Dr Addie Wootten, a clinical psychologist and chief executive of the non-profit meditation program, Smiling Mind. "Our mental health is as important as our physical health," Dr Wootten says...

The anti-vaccination danger
Herald Sun - August 3, 2017

Digital access has enabled the spread of the anti-vaccination movement and its manipulation of information to confect false theories dressed as fact and aimed at scaring vulnerable people. In response, the Australian and Victorian governments have adopted policies to encourage misinformed or negligent...

Childcare costs worry families as cost of raising kids becomes more expensive
Herald Sun - Aneeka Simonis - August 2, 2017

New data shows many one-parent families are struggling to keep themselves afloat. They experience "very high" levels of child poverty, have low home ownership rates, which are continuing to decline, and are being hit with expensive childcare costs. The bleak snapshot of family life across the...

Retirement a more distant dream and childcare costs a key issue
The Australian - Pia Akerman - August 2, 2017

For people still working and raising young children, childcare remains a key issue. Household spending on childcare has doubled for single parents and grew nearly as much for couples in the years since 2002, despite limited rises in the number of hours used. Report author Roger Wilkins said the...