The Federal Minister for Early Childhood Education and Minister for Youth will talk to educators, and others involved in Early Childhood Education, at the next Conversations Evening.
The Honorable Dr Anne Aly will be talking at ECA NSW’s conversations evening on Thursday 8th June, via zoom at 7 pm.
Great news, applications for the 2024 NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarships are now open. The NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarships provide an excellent opportunity for school-based educators to collaborate with other professionals in your chosen subject area and inspire positive outcomes for students in NSW schools. The scholarships are open to current temporary or permanent teachers in NSW government and non-government schools, TAFE NSW campuses and early childhood centres. Successful applicants will be eligible for a grant of $10,000 to $15,000 for a five-week study tour to be completed in Australia or internationally.In 2024, there are eleven NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarships available across a range of key learning areas, with one specifically available for early childhood teachers:
The ECA Reconciliation symposium will be held in Hobart 9-10 June (The start of the long weekend)
ECA NSW has generous scholarships to pay for registration, airfares and accommodation.
Facilitators Catherine Hydon and Jo Goodwin.
Why should I attend?
1. Advance Reconciliation in our sector
ECA events are known for bringing together the best thinkers and experts in the early childhood sector and the ECA Reconciliation Symposium is no exception. It is a unique opportunity to learn, share and be inspired to work together towards reconciliation, no matter what part of that journey you’re on personally or professionally.
2. Gain practical ideas
The ECA Reconciliation Symposium offers insightful and practical ideas that will help you embed reconciliation in your practice with children and their families, irrespective of where you are in Australia or how diverse your community is.
3. Improve communication
The symposium focuses on creating understanding and raising awareness of the nuances of communication, including the importance of words, actions and gestures in cultivating positive relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous Australians.
4. Invest in your team
Our people are our greatest investment. Commit to continuous improvement by investing in yourself and your team.
5. Be part of a brighter future
A highly interactive event, the ECA Reconciliation Symposium delivers an atmosphere of dialogue and engagement, and generates ideas and action to address reconciliation.
The ECA National Reconciliation Symposium, Advancing reconciliation in early childhood education and care, will be held in Hobart, Tasmania on 9 -10 June 2023.
To support our NSW members, the ECA NSW Committee is offering six scholarships to join the the symposium in-person. The scholarships will help pay for registration, airfares and accommodation. The scholarships are open to educators currently teaching in a long day care services, preschools, or other early childhood settings. The applicant must be working with children or involved in the early childhood education.
The scholarship will cover full registration, part of the accommodation and travel costs, up to a limit specified by the ECA NSW Committee.
If you would like to apply, please submit your application on or before 09.00am on Friday 12 May 2023.
No late applications will be considered. Successful applications will be notified as soon as possible.
There are 6 scholarships available. We are looking for diverse scholarship applicants.
Educators from a regional or remote location
Educators with CERT III (Early Childhood)
Educators with Diploma qualification (Early Childhood)
Teachers with Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood)
Educators from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background
ECA NSW members and friends are warmly welcomed to join the NSW Election Forum on the Early Years and Early Education, hosted by ECA NSW Committee at the Sydney Masonic Centre.
The confirmed panel includes: Minister for Education and Early Learning, the Hon. Sarah Mitchell MLC (NSW Nationals), and Shadow Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning, Ms Prue Car MP (NSW Labor).
Hear the candidates outline their policies and election commitments relevant to young children, families and early childhood educators. Limited seats available, register now: https://lnkd.in/guQcqS9VActivate to view larger image,
We are very pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 SPRouts award. SDN Owl’s House wins $1000 to put towards their continued environmental sustainability program. There were ten excellent applicants.
Below is part of the SDN Owl’s house application:
All changes start from small actions. We embed the principles of Education for Sustainability through the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle initiative, the examples include but not limited to:
• Owl’s Market, as a part of our waste management, encourages children and families to collect and sell used clothes/toys/books at a reasonable price so they can be reused instead.
• Children developed Owl’s Library and designed a library tag system as maintenance. It helps reduce families’ expenditure in book purchasing and builds a bridge between home and the service through an early literacy experience.
• We cut down wastage through loose part play while promoting open-ended play. The Recycle Art Corner is designed to collect recycled materials (boxes, catalogues, fabrics, bottle lids, natural materials) for creative art making. Plastic bottles and containers are collected by all stakeholders to be reused in dramatic play to build on the children’s emerging knowledge of sustainable practices.
• We reviewed the existing outdoor/indoor environments and identified the need to add more natural elements. Our children developed vegetable gardens to share responsibilities. They collect fruit and vegetable scraps for our worm farm. We also teach children the importance of saving water and using the water from our rainwater tank for watering plants and outdoor water play.
Reflective practice, as a part of our service’s philosophy, plays a significant role in our sustainability program.
• OneNote is used as a reflection tool for the team to share knowledge about sustainability. We believe holistic thinking is vital in identifying the current challenges in sustainability and encouraging people to explore the solutions creatively.
• Children are encouraged to think about how to reuse items to reduce landfills. We demonstrated how to reuse cardboard to make costumes/signs and reuse dried-out markers as watercolour substitutes by soaking the tips in jars of water. Children become aware that items can be
repaired and reused. We also purchase less by reusing the existing plastic resources until the end of their life.
• We listen to and value children’s voices through daily conversations. For example, children discussed how human waste impacts ocean life. A parent invited our children to the UNSW Environmental Lab to explore further. During Children’s Week 2022, children raised awareness through collective artwork that all children today and in the future should all deserve their right to quality of life.
We have also developed partnerships with external communities to promote Education for Sustainability.
• We registered as a Community Collection Hub in partnership with TerraCycle in 2021, to invite more local people to help collect writing instruments, cleaning products containers, and dental care products. This project was also shared on UNSW campus during “Early Learning Matters Week 2022”.
• Ongoing relationships with the local Bunning’s Warehouse and a flower shop support our natural environments through donations and incursions. Children are encouraged to think about how to reduce landfills.
• We had a sustainability campaign on the UNSW campus to celebrate Earth Day 2022. Children and families prepared and shared hand-made paper, sealed glitter jars and recycled poster during the excursion.Congratulations to all nominees. The applications were all outstanding.
We are looking forward to the last ECA in Conversation live webinar for the year!
Catharine Hydon speaking with Fay Hadley on Tuesday 29 November 4pm AEDT on the opportunities for action and advocacy that come with the reforms around child care subsidies and kindergarten funding.
Join the conversation as Catharine and Fay discuss how to use data and evidence to support continuous quality improvement and outline how early childhood professionals can actively engage in advocacy for reform.
Free for ECA Members ($25 for non-members).
To register free as a member, login to your account on the ECA Shop before checking out.
Everyone is invited to join the ECA Learning Hub for a free live webinar TODAY Monday 17 October at 5.00 pm to discuss the importance of Early Learning Matters Week and how to use this as a platform for advocating for the early years. Please follow and share – this link to register for the webinar. SHARE, RECOGNISE and CREATE through social media or in your setting
SHARE the Early Learning Matters Week digital assets across your social media channels or download a poster to display from the resources page.
RECOGNISE the efforts of the early childhood educators and teachers in your life. Take photos with a short message of support to post on social.
CREATE your own Early Learning Matters Week messages of support and share your photos, artwork, signs or posters in your service or across channels.
Remember to tag ECA and use the hashtag #EarlyLearningMatters.
How will your networks celebrate? Please encourage your peers, friends, family and wider community to let us know how they are celebrating Early Learning Mattes Week, and to send us photographs (with permission to share them). Simply email earlylearningmatters@earlychildhood.org.au to share news and updates! For more information and to get involved
Visit the Early Learning Matters website for resources and information.
Subscribe to the Early Learning Matters mailing list for the latest updates.
NSW Early Childhood Australia Branch 