Child Care News
Violent tantrums can signal mental illness in toddlers, study shows
NEWS.com.au - Natasha Bita - October 11, 2013TODDLERS who hit, kick or break things when they throw tantrums have a higher risk of mental illness, new research reveals. But some kids diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder or Oppositional Defiance Disorder may just be too tired. Violent toddlers are being expelled from...
Application virtualization drives efficiencies for childcare centres
Computerworld - Rohan Pearce - October 11, 2013Goodstart Early Learning boosts application responsiveness with virtualization. National day care not-for-profit Goodstart Early Learning has completed an overhaul of its software setup across its 650 or so centres across Australia. Goodstart provides education services for some 73,000...
Financial Markets Foundation supports University's leadership in children's developmental mental health
The Age - Elizabeth Brumby and Joe Fennessy - October 10, 2013The environments into which children are born and grow up become key components of early brain development, setting children on a developmental pathway that impacts health and wellness across their lifespan and across generations. The origins of many mental illnesses - including depression...
Never mind the parents' payday, children simply need better care
The Australian - Judith Sloan - October 8, 2013HERE'S my advice to Tony Abbott. Forget your souped-up paid parental leave scheme; focus on the cost and availability of childcare. Last month, my older daughter received an email from a nearby childcare centre. She had placed her baby son's name on the waiting list when he was born...
Review call after baby's death
The Australian - Rosie Lewis - October 7, 2013MEMBERS of Australia's childcare sector are calling for a national review of industry procedures after the death of a West Australian toddler who was due to be in care but was instead left in the back of his father's car. The tragedy, which police are treating as an accident, unfolded last...
Tony Abbott broadens childcare review
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - October 05, 2013MAJOR childcare reform will be delivered after the 2015 budget, with the Abbott government revealing it is now looking at including new elements into its broad-ranging Productivity Commission review. The nation's largest childcare provider, Goodstart Early Learning, has also confirmed it...
SA Public Teaching Awards honour state's educationists
The Advertiser - Jordanna Schriever - October 4, 2013PARENTS are being urged to take more control over setting their local school or kindergarten's teaching hours to better suit their community's needs. The push from politicians and the peak school parents' group follows a successful program which school leader of the year Kerryn Jones...
Little brains suffer with too much screen play
Sydney Morning Herald - Lucy Battersby - October 4, 2013Too much time in front of the screen playing the wrong kind of computer games can delay a child's development or lead to serious damage in adults, according to new research on the impact of media and technology on the brain. Lecturer at the Institute of Early Childhood at Macquarie...
Major child care provider underpaid workers more than $2.5m
Brisbane Times - Kristian Silva - October 3, 2013National child care provider Camp Australia has been ordered to pay $2.6 million to staff that were underpaid for more than two years. The Fair Work Ombudsman on Wednesday ordered the out-of-school hours care provider to pay the 3,251 current and former employees by the end of October...
Staff praised for attempts to save baby
The West Australian - Tayissa Barone and Phoebe Warne - October 3, 2013The general manager of a daycare centre in Helena Valley where a child was found dead in a father's car has praised workers for attempting to resuscitate the child. The 11-month-old boy was found in the back seat of a dark-grey Honda Civic being driven by the baby's father about 4pm...
Baby found dead in car outside daycare centre in Helena Valley
ABC News - October 3, 2013Police are interviewing the parents of an 11-month old boy whose body was discovered in a car outside a day care centre in Perth's eastern suburbs. It is understood that the child's father arrived at the LadyBugs Day Care Centre in Helena Valley to collect the boy at about 4:00pm (AWST)...
Children of working mums do better at school
Sydney Morning Herald - September 29, 2013Denmark has invested heavily in its childcare system, which has become internationally renowned for high quality, easy access and low cost. This first-class childcare seems to have been a factor in the superior academic results achieved by year 9 students with working mothers. There's an...
Libs seeks to claw back childcare millions
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - September 28, 2013THE Abbott government has ordered a month-long review of whether it can claw back $300 million allocated by Labor for pay rises in the childcare industry. Assistant Minister for Education Sussan Ley has set a deadline of the end of next month for an independent report on whether the...
Study backs childcare rebate for babysitting to help mums
Herald Sun - Evonne Barry - September 27, 2013BABYSITTING should be covered by the childcare rebate to help mothers get back to work, a new report has recommended. The first major study into the working hours of mothers using childcare has revealed the extent of the juggle facing Australian families. It found almost 40 per cent of...
Social skills 'key to good start at school'
BBC News - Hannah Richardson - September 27, 2013Childcare workers are calling for more play in the early years after a survey suggested social rather than academic skills were key to school readiness. The survey of more than 2,000 UK childcare workers, parents and teachers rated social skills and independence more highly than...
