Child Care News
One child, multiple childcare centres
Gold Coast Bulletin - Jessica Elder - September 20, 2013BUSY Gold Coast parents are being forced to book their children into multiple chilcare centres across the city in a bid to secure a week's worth of care. The city's childcare centres have been operating at capacity for years with parents forced to put their children on waiting lists years...
Affordable childcare tops list for Ley
The Border Mail - Nigel McNay September 19, 2013SUSSAN Ley will get down to the business of government straight away. As assistant minister for education, the member for Farrer will receive her first departmental briefings today. "I'll be meeting with my senior Minister Christopher Pyne in the next couple of days and we had our first...
Logistical challenge of ECE shift from 'care' to 'education'
Australian Teacher Magazine - Rachel Flottman - September 18, 2013OVER the past decade, children's learning, development and social participation in the years before school have been increasingly recognised as critical — not only to the child’s own success, but also to broader social and economic prosperity. Education systems internationally have responded...
Parents turn to day care as WA teachers strike
WA Today - Aleisha Orr - September 18, 2013Parents and schools are scrambling to ensure they have plans in place to cater for students when teachers strike on Thursday morning. Almost 14,000 West Australian teachers and other school staff will strike on Thursday morning over planned cuts to the education system, which would see...
Lend Lease squeezes Barangaroo
Sydney Morning Herald - Nicole Hasham - September 18, 2013Lend Lease is pushing to limit space for childcare centres, recreation facilities and art galleries at Barangaroo, further "chipping back" the public benefit of developing the prime waterfront site, critics say. The City of Sydney council has opposed the plan, saying James Packer's planned...
Cabinet announcement lacks detail, substance
Financial Review - Laura Tingle - September 17, 2013According to Abbott, he still has to work out with Education Minister Christopher Pyne just how exactly the workload in the education portfolio will be divided between Pyne, his assistant minister Sussan Ley and parliamentary secretary Scott Ryan. Ley will be responsible for early childhood...
Unions push for aged-care increases
The Australian - Ewin Hannan - September 16, 2013The union also backed a report in The Australian that the new government separately faced having to spend $300 million promised by Labor to increase the wages of childcare workers or face legal action from providers who had been given "conditional offers" of funding. A spokesman for prime...
Kids free to get into the swing of things at top-rating childcare centre in Brisbane
Courier Mail - Ellen-Maree Elliot - September 16, 2013SWINGING to new heights as one of the best childcare centres in the country, Karana Early Childhood Education Centre is focused on putting the youngsters first. The Karana Downs centre, in western Brisbane, is one of just four childcare providers in the country to have achieved the...
Under pressure to educate babies
Sydney Morning Herald - Rachel Browne - September 15, 2013Exercise classes that promise to help a baby's brain development, language programs to foster a child's lifelong love of learning, music lessons and DVDs of classical music to enrich and entertain your newborn. Today's parents are being bombarded with messages that they must have their...
Childcare agencies struggling to find staff in Australia looking offshore
NEWS.com.au - Natasha Bita - September 14, 2013CHILDCARE centres and nanny agencies are being forced to recruit offshore for qualified staff, because they cannot find enough Australians to do the job. Official data reveals that 775 foreign preschool teachers and childcare centre directors applied to work in Australia last financial year...
Nan and Pop willingly rise to the care challenge
The Australian - Rick Morton - September 14, 2013JOHN and Anne Cotterill are grandparents and on-call childcare agents, a doting symbol of Australia's national crisis where working parents are pitched into weekly battles with inflexible, expensive care options. But these loving grandparents are not necessarily reluctant heroes...
Childcare plan binds Coalition
The Australian - Patricia Karvelas - September 13, 2013THE Abbott government faces having to spend all of the $300 million promised by Labor to increase the wages of childcare workers or face legal challenges by up to 85 providers who have been given "conditional offers" of funding. The Australian has learnt that all of the $300m included in the...
Clive Palmer's United Australia Party to create websites comparing living expenses
Courier Mail - Rose Brennan - September 12, 2013THE Queensland branch of Clive Palmer's political party will create websites where people can compare living expenses ranging from childcare to petrol. United Australia Party's Carl Judge told state parliament on Wednesday night the websites would drive competition and reduce prices...
SA preschools are among the nation's first to be rated 'excellent'
The Advertiser - Jordanna Schriever - September 11, 2013THREE South Australian preschools are among the nation's first to be rated as "excellent" under a new framework. Swallowcliffe Preschool at Davoren Park, Wandana School Based Preschool at Gilles Plains and Allenby Gardens Child Parent Centre all received the highest possible rating...
The power of quality childcare
The Drum (ABC) - Robyn Seth-Purdie - September 11, 2013Research continues to show that the first five years of life have a significant impact on lifetime health, emotional resilience, learning and earning capacity. Robyn Seth-Purdie asks: Where is the political commitment to early childhood education? Evidence-based policy is critical for early...
