Child Care News

Exercising with boys is making girls fatter
The Daily Telegraph - Evelyn Yamine - November 22, 2011

BOYS and girls should be separated for sport activities and exercise as early as preschool to fight obesity in children from the youngest ages, health experts recommended yesterday. Sports teachers in primary schools and a greater diversity of exercise routines...

Plea for kinder delay rejected
The Age - Elisabeth Tarica - November 21, 2011

THE federal government has ruled out extending the 2013 deadline for a national scheme mandating 15 hours of kindergarten for every four-year-old, despite claims that many Victorian preschools will not be ready. Federal Minister for Early Childhood Peter Garrett said...

NSW childcare has a fee dummy spit
The Sunday Telegraph - Laura Speranza - November 20, 2011

NSW CHILDCARE centre operators will increase their fees by as much as $10 a day next year - and warned they will keep on increasing fees every year until 2020. When the second stage of the federal government's new staffing laws come into effect on January 1, 2012...

Childcare reforms to cost struggling parents
The Australian - Natasha Bita - November 19, 2011

RISING costs will force kids out of daycare as parents struggle to pay for expensive quality reforms, the Productivity Commission has warned in a report that will fuel childcare workers' demands for higher pay. Deadlines for childcare centres to start hiring more...

The most important job in the world
ABC Radio Melbourne - Penny Johnston - November 18, 2011

Let's be clear, I'm not in a hurry to pay higher childcare fees but I do want the people who do the work of caring for my child to be paid well enough to want to put their efforts into the childcare industry. It's not fair to use the enthusiasm of people who love children...

Cost fears over childcare staff changes
The West Australian - Jane Hammond - November 18, 2011

Changes to daycare regulations from early next year could push the cost of child care beyond the reach of many parents, the Childcare Association of WA has warned. The changes mean most centres will have to take on additional staff...

NSW rejects speed zones for kindergartens
Ninemsn - November 17, 2011

A senior NSW road safety bureaucrat has rejected a call for 40km/h speed limits outside kindergartens and childcare centres. Since 2003, motorists outside all NSW primary and high schools have been required to slow down during peak morning and...

Childcare staff join pay race with $2bn pitch
The Australian - Natasha Bita - November 16, 2011

CHILDCARE workers are demanding a 30 per cent pay rise that would cost taxpayers $2.2 billion a year, escalating a wages breakout in the low-paid service sector. The United Voice union yesterday revealed it had seized on a $7000-a-year wage increase backed by the Gillard...

Childcare operators warn of cost jump
The Age - Jessica Wright - November 16, 2011

CHILDREN will be forced out of quality childcare and early learning institutions and into unregulated backyard care if the Gillard government fails to compensate families for higher costs as a result of its childcare reforms, according to peak body the...

Infants suffer if speech problems not fixed before school, study shows
Sydney Morning Herald - Adele Horin - November 16, 2011

CHILDREN with speech difficulties that are not addressed before they start school face a higher risk of being bullied and falling behind in learning by early primary school, a new study shows. The study, based on tracking thousands of children, has prompted a call for...

Childcare centres closing their doors
Herald Sun - Jessica Marszalek - November 16, 2011

TWO Melbourne childcare centres have blamed government changes to care ratios for their imminent closure. Hampton and Sandringham childcare centres will begin a progressive closure from January, finally shutting their doors in December 2013...

ABC Learning rebranded ahead of new standards
Lateline Business (ABC TV) - Ticky Fullerton - November 15, 2011

VIDEO INTERVIEW - Goodstart Early Learning's chief executive officer Julia Davison has responsibility for the 650 former ABC Learning Centres following that company's bankruptcy...

ABC Learning gets new name
Sydney Morning Herald - November 15, 2011

ABC Learning Centres are no more and will be rebranded as Goodstart Early Learning centres. Goodstart Early Learning, a not-for-profit syndicate, from today will rebrand 650 ABC Learning Centres, which have been owned and operated since 2009...

Daycare kids can fight off infection at school
The Australian - Natasha Bita - November 14, 2011

KIDS in daycare fall sick more often than children cared for at home but will grow up to be healthier than their non-daycare classmates at school. New research, based on the federal government's longitudinal study of 10,000 Australian children...

Kinders warn three's a crowd
The Age - Elisabeth Tarica - November 14, 2011

A CRISIS is looming for three-year-old kindergarten programs across Victoria as preschools adapt to a national scheme mandating 15 hours of kindergarten for every four-year-old by 2013. Preschool operators say a shortage of teachers and classrooms...