Child Care News
Kay Turner announced as new CEO of SDN Children's Services
SDN Children's Services - Press Release - July 21, 2017SDN Children's Services has announced Kay Turner as its new CEO, following the retirement of long time CEO Ginie Udy. Kay has been SDN's Deputy Chief Executive since 2015, and has had a long career in early childhood education, early childhood intervention, and family support work...
Introducing use-it-or-lose-it leave for fathers would make life fairer for mothers
ABC News - Nicola Health - July 20, 2017It is still the prevailing view in Australia that child care is a woman's responsibility. We have the baby, take maternity leave, and if we go back to work it is usually part time. When a man becomes a father, his working life goes on unchanged. These gender roles feel entrenched, but a simple...
When should your child start school? Study finds parents struggle with answer
ABC News - Alison Branley - July 20, 2017A growing number of parents are choosing to delay when their child starts school but the decision is also causing them stress and anxiety, a major Queensland study has found. Psychologist Dr Amanda Mergler from the School of Early Childhood at Queensland University of Technology studied 224,000...
It All Adds Up podcast: Are kids a luxury or a social necessity?
Sydney Morning Herald - Matt Wade & Jessica Irvine - July 20, 2017The federal government will spend more than $43 billion subsidising childcare over the next four years. But Martin explains why some economists – including him – question whether that huge expenditure is really justified. "The traditional argument is that society needs children and therefore these...
Childcare sector joins campaign to stop the lowering of the school starting age
The Mercury - Helen Kempton - July 19, 2017A HIGHLY visual campaign has been launched in Tasmania as the childcare sector tries to stop legislation passing to lower the school starting age. The legislation, to reduce the compulsory school starting age by six months meaning children could start kindergarten at 3.5 years, is due to go to the...
Early childhood education with a difference teaches toddlers how to play with fire
Sydney Morning Herald - Julie Power - July 19, 2017Sixty children aged from six months to five were taught at a Newcastle childcare centre how to play with fire, powertools and knives – everything most modern parents avoid. Far from resulting in burnt fingers or broken bones, the researchers found exposing toddlers to "risky play" such as access to open...
Philanthropy Gets Behind Connecting Aboriginal Children With Extended Families
Probono Australia - Rachel McFadden - July 19, 2017Leading Victorian childcare agencies have secured philanthropic support to complete a pilot program designed to connect Aboriginal children in out-of-home care with siblings and extended families. The family and child care agencies said there was an urgent need for a more systematic approach to...
Prep students pushed 'too hard, too fast' says former Queensland primary school teacher
ABC News - Jessica Hinchliffe - July 18, 2017A former primary school teacher of 30 years believes prep students are being "set up to fail". Kathy Margolis resigned from teaching 18 months ago after experiencing and disagreeing with changes to the education system. She now heads the Protecting Childhood group, whose members believe...
Children's literacy study links hearing words to reading ability for first time, researchers say
ABC News - Alison Branley - July 18, 2017Researchers from the Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders have for the first time demonstrated the link between hearing words and being able to read them. Using special eye-tracking technology, neuropsychologist Signy Wegener has established that when children hear...
Prepping for Prep: Should children play or study to get set for Prep Year?
Brisbane Times - Tony Moore - July 17, 2017Parents should read more to their children at home and let them learn by playing, rather than enrolling them in businesses providing "prep for Prep Year", two pre-school lobby groups say. However, a private agency that has provided classes for young pre-Prep children in Queensland for four years...
Global survey shows Australia rates poorly for funding early education
The Australian - Olivia Caisley - July 17, 2017The number of Australian children enrolled in early childhood education is far below the global average, prompting calls for increased funding to avert a possible hit to the economy in future. An OECD report places Australia 30th of 35 countries in spending on childhood care as a percentage of gross...
Kindy teachers sending reports directly to schools before child starts Prep
Courier Mail - Emmaline Stigwood - July 17, 2017PREP teachers will be forewarned of children's behavioural and learning issues under changes which will see end of year kindy reports sent straight to schools. The shake-up comes as the number suspensions of Prep students doubled in the past three years to 1028 in 2016, compared to 572 in 2013...
Scrap kids TV content quotas: Patricia Edgar
The Australian - Stephen Brook - July 17, 2017Children's television content quotas should be scrapped and the ABC should junk one of its two children's channels because the system for guaranteeing quality children's television no longer works, the architect of the original children's C classification says. Instead, a new independent online service...
State government to use $98.4 million pledged to girls' education on every kindergarten initiative
Herald Sun - Monique Hore & James Dowling - July 15, 2017ALMOST $100 million pledged to kindergarten initiatives to improve girls' eduction won't just be spent on girls.The state government boasted in its Gender Budget Equality Statement that it wanted to make "women and girls safer and more socially connected". It said $98.4 million would be spent...
Mega merger concern: Not all fun and games at Camp Australia
Financial Review - Carrie LaFrenz - July 14, 2017But they're worried a mega merger by the sector's two biggest players could scuttle their growth ambitions. Camp Australia, which is the biggest out of school hours care operator in the country and is now owned by US private equity group Bain Capital, has agreed to buy Junior Adventures Group...
