Child Care News
$10,000 grants available for ECEC services to help them get children moving
The Sector - Freya Lucas - July 21, 2022The Heart Foundation will offer ten grants of up to $10,000 each to early childhood education and care (ECEC) providers, as well as other select groups, to help fund new, innovative projects that get more people moving. Falling under the Active Australia Innovation...
COVID vaccines for children under 5 are almost here. Here’s what parents need to know
The conversation - Daryl Cheng and Margie Danchin - July 19, 2022The vaccine has been approved for children aged six months to five years. However, we need to wait for advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) to provide further scientific advice and recommendations around an immunisation...
$11 million in NSW Budget allocated to support ECTs through scholarship program
The Sector - Freya Lucas - July 19, 2022Thanks to an almost $11 million NSW Government investment funding scholarships, 439 aspiring early childhood teachers (ECTs) from across the state are set to receive a cash boost to complete their studies. The scholarships are being awarded across the state to attract...
Educator crisis impacts the OSHC sector as vacation care demand peaks
The Sector - Freya Lucas - July 19, 2022Families in the nation’s capital are struggling to care for their children during the winter school holiday break as a shortage of educators in the outside school hours care (OSHC) sector impacts. While the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector is already facing...
Pandemic life has affected our kids and their behaviour. This is what we can do.
MamaMia - Laura Jackel - July 16, 2022After over two years of stress and disruption to our lives from the COVID-19 pandemic, a cohort of children has started daycare, pre-school and primary school without spending much time in the company of others. During lockdown, parents looked after kids, often while...
Andrews government splashing $1m to woo New Zealand teachers
Herald Sun - Susie O'Brien - July 15, 2022The Andrews government will attempt to steal qualified early childhood educators from across the ditch to help fill kindergarten staff shortages across Victoria. Early Childhood Education and Pre-Prep Minister Ingrid Stitt on Friday unveiled a new $1 million program aimed...
ACTU says ECEC is the key to filling record number of job vacancies
The Sector - Freya Lucas - July 14, 2022Job vacancies have doubled since before the pandemic, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has remarked, and access to affordable quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is one of the key ways in which the country can boost workforce participation...
Preschool program must cater for Indigenous children in their own language
The Australian - Stephen Lunn - July 12, 2022The Albanese government is looking to improve outcomes from a key government-funded early learning program for disadvantaged preschoolers by offering more services in First Nations languages. The $30m-a-year Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters...
Early childhood teachers offered $50k bonus to relocate
Herald Sun -Susie O'Brien - July 12, 2022Qualified early childhood teachers are receiving bonus payments of up to $50,000 for taking up hard-to-fill jobs in Victorian preschools. With the new kindergarten reforms creating demand for 6000 early-childhood educators, incentive packages starting at $9000...
RACP latest organisation to partner with Thrive by Five and call for reform
The Sector - Freya Lucas - July 12, 2022The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) has lent its support to calls for early learning reform being made through the Thrive by Five campaign, noting the correlation with goals of its own Kids COVID Catch Up Campaign, which aims to support children...
Story of Bogong moth feasts brings Indigenous language into schools
The Age - Jack Latimore - July 5, 2022A children’s book about an annual trip to Victoria’s high country to feast on Bogong moths is introducing an Aboriginal language that has not been spoken fluently since the 19th century into schools and kindergartens in the state’s north-east. Bijil Ba Wudhi Deberra: Bijil...
Fix the economy? It’s as easy as child’s play
The Sydney Morning Herald - Danielle Wood - July 4, 2022Making childcare cheaper has always been good policy – but in the current economic environment it solves problems with all the deftness of a busy working mother. First to the cost of living. Almost all households are feeling a squeeze from higher prices for food...
WA announces special incentives for local governments to attract and retain ECEC staff
The Sector - Freya Lucas - July 4, 202214 regional local governments in Western Australia have been awarded grants to support them to attract and retain early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals in light of ongoing workforce shortages which have particularly affected regional and rural areas...
Nicola Forrest challenges Anthony Albanese to take charge of early education overhaul
Sydney Morning Herald - Jordan Baker - July 3, 2022Labor has promised to lift the maximum childcare subsidy rate to 90 per cent for the first child in care for all families earning up to $530,000, which would reduce both the cost and employment disincentives for women. It has also signalled it wants to expand the system...
Prepare to pay more for childcare, industry experts warn
The Australian - Christopher Harris - June 30, 2022Childcare fees are already increasing by between four and eight per cent with one industry expert warning that every single childcare service in the state will increase fees in the next six months and they face rapidly rising costs. Australian Childcare Alliance NSW...
