Child Care News
Catholic and independent schools support lower school age in Tasmania
The Mercury - Jessica Howard - September 22, 2016TASMANIA'S Catholic and independent schools are preparing to adopt changes to starting and finishing ages should the State Government's Education Act pass Parliament. After two years of consultation and more than 1000 submissions, the Education Bill 2016 was tabled in Parliament...
Tasmanian Government seeks Upper House support for major education overhaul
ABC News - Richard Baines and Rhiannon Shine - September 21, 2016The bill includes a lower voluntary school starting age of four and a half, as well as increasing penalties for truancy. There is also an option of starting children at kindergarten at three-and-a-half years of age. The Government was faced with strong opposition to the plan, but Premier Will Hodgman...
RBA says the future of work lies in non-routine 'thinking' jobs
Financial Review - Jacob Greber - September 21, 2016Warning that the biggest threats will come in jobs that can be copied by technology, the central bank suggests the most safe sectors are in "non-routine cognitive" jobs, such as child care or architecture. By contrast, there appears to be trouble ahead for what have been dubbed "routine cognitive"...
Plan to lower school starting age in Tasmania to face parliamentary test
ABC News - Georgie Burgess - September 21, 2016Reforms including a lowering of school starting ages and higher penalties for truancy are set to be debated in Tasmania's Parliament. The Government will table a new Education Act today, but it is not guaranteed a smooth passage, with Labor and the Greens already flagging opposition. Under the changes...
Early childhood educators protest being paid as little as $20 an hour
Sydney Morning Herald - Anna Patty - September 20, 2016Early childhood educators who earn as little as $20 an hour, half the average wage, are underpaid according to a new ReachTEL poll. The poll, commissioned by United Voice, the union representing the early childhood sector, surveyed 2302 people around the country and found most...
Balance work with having a life and we all benefit
Brisbane Times - Conrad Liveris - September 20, 2016More and more senior men are coming out and saying that the big gigs aren't all they are cracked up to be if they take them away from their families. They are learning from the mistakes of their own fathers and that of men who went before them. They want a career but also to be an active...
ACT election: Labor promises $70m for new and expanding schools
ABC News - September 19, 2016ACT Labor has pledged more than $70 million towards building a new school in Molonglo and expanding two others in Gungahlin. The funding is part of Labor's education policy, focusing on growing areas such as the Molonglo Valley, Gungahlin and West Belconnen areas, for next month's territory...
Kindy Camps: Children as young as four going on overnight trips
Herald Sun - Elissa Doherty - September 19, 2016KIDS as young as four years are going on overnight "kindy camps" in a creative new way to get them out off their screens and into nature. A child care service has taken the idea of bush kinders to new levels, with orienteering, nature walks and boomerang painting among the activities on...
Grandparents provide regular childcare support
ABC Radio National - September 15, 2016Have you ever been cared for by a grandparent? Maybe you're the grandparent doing the caring. A study released on Thursday by the Australian Institute of Family Studies has found that grandparents are still a valued source of childcare in Australia. But how might this be affecting...
Mason's law: Grandparents weep as new child protection laws pass Queensland Parliament
ABC News - Allyson Horn - September 15, 2016Mason's Law makes it mandatory for childcare workers to report suspected cases of child sexual and physical abuse. Townsville grandparents John and Sue Sandeman petitioned both sides of Queensland Parliament to change the law after the death of their grandson Mason Parker in 2011. The...
Funding targets children in need
Daily Liberal - September 15, 2016But just $30 million of the funding is earmarked for long day care, where an estimated 70 per cent of children access their preschool education. Warren Bright from Goodstart Early Learning, which operates centres on Wheelers Lane, Cobra Street & Baird Drive, told Fairfax Media "we are disappointed...
Nest full again as grandparents move in to help out with childcare
The Australian - Rick Morton - September 15, 2016The grand childcare plan for Australian parents involves grandparents stepping in at least one day a week for half of families and even living with them in three-generation homes to help lighten the load. A study of 8000 children by the Australian Institute of Family Studies - using longitudinal...
Talking Point: Playfully reach for prosperity
The Mercury - Elaine Stratford - September 15, 2016OUR economic future and our children's future can be significantly improved by expanding high-quality early childhood education programs, such as pre-K education - so wrote Timothy Bartik in a 2014 book, From Preschool to Prosperity. The Economic Payoff to Early Childhood Education Prosperity...
Upward pressure on childcare costs despite NSW government preschool funding boost
Sydney Morning Herald - Kelsey Munro - September 14, 2016The cost of childcare to the bulk of NSW families could actually increase after the government's multi-million dollar funding boost to the early childhood sector, industry sources say. That's because of the $115 million announced by Premier Mike Baird and early childhood minister Leslie...
Childcare assets are a top choice for investors
Financial Review - Su Lin Tan - September 14, 2016he $2.3 million sale of the childcare centre leased to ASX-listed childcare provider G8 Education in West Hoxton at the Burgess Rawson auctions in Sydney on Tuesday was just shy of taking out the record of being the lowest yielding childcare asset in the country. At 4 per cent, the property will...
