Guidelines for school playgrounds: playground safety management

Opportunities for play must be nurtured if children are to develop physically, emotionally and socially. While playground designs have recently become more complex, they do so against a background of increased community expectations of safer environments. Fortunately, research has shown that a substantial number of accidents can be prevented and the severity of injuries reduced if greater care is taken in the design, repair and maintenance of playgrounds. This can be achieved with little conflict between the goals of maximising constructive play and minimising injury. These Guidelines are primarily written for principals, teachers and school council members. It is generally the responsibility of the building and grounds subcommittee of the school council, in consultation with the principal, to develop a school policy on school playgrounds. It is generally the task of the delegated school playground coordinator to be responsible for ongoing implementation. While this information is written for all schools, the majority of students who actually play on play equipment are primary students. The aim of these Guidelines is to improve students’ safety, while reinforcing that the primary objective of play equipment lies in its value for play and adventure. Schools are encouraged to assess the safety, quality and diversity of the recreation environment available to students. These Guidelines are intended to help schools set up a comprehensive system for the installation, maintenance, management and audit of play equipment and associated areas. Processes are provided for identifying risks and minimising playground injuries.&nbsp

Early years workforce strategy

This report sets out a vision agreed by all governments in Australia to build and support the early childhood education and care profession both in the short term and into the future. The Australian Government has worked with states and territories to develop the national Early Years Workforce Strategy. Focusing on the skills and attributes of high quality early childhood educators, the Strategy complements, and builds upon, existing Commonwealth, state and territory government measures aimed at improving the supply and quality of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce. The Strategy builds on Investing in the Early Years—A National Early Childhood Development Strategy, which was endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in July 2009. The vision of the ECD Strategy captured the aspirations of governments that by 2020 all children will have the best start in life to create a better future for themselves and for the nation. This Early Years Workforce Strategy reflects a commitment by governments to address the immediate priorities for the ECEC workforce, and at the same time work towards a long-term broader strategy for the workforce with  a focus on supporting more integrated ways of working across the ECD sector. The ECEC workforce comprises educators working in education and care services including long day care services, family day care services and outside school hours care as well as in preschools and kindergartens

Preliminary report on findings and recommendations

These are recommendations from the Early Childhood Education Study Committee regarding the best structure for coordinated early childhood services provided to children from birth to age 5 currently operating across multiple systems and funding streams for the purpose of improving the delivery of services, maximizing the number of children served, ensuring that all children are ready to enter school, and delivering cohesive high quality early childhood education, care and parental support to all children in South Carolina

Connecting a Community through a Family Literacy Project and Virtual Writing Collaboration: University Students Facilitate Access to Literature during the Pandemic

The importance of accessing and sharing children’s literature took on new meaning as educators pivoted to remote and online learning models over the course of the past school year. In light of the pandemic, College of Education pre-service educators enrolled in a Fall 2020 Language and Literacy Development course (which is usually scheduled to meet face-to-face twice a week) was re-structured as hybrid, where a group of students were scheduled to meet partially face-to-face and partially online on a weekly basis. I planned to adapt my family literacy project collaboration with a local community center, an academic service learning assignment that I incorporate each semester as part of the course. A second community literacy project embedded in the course involved reading and discussing Look both ways: A tale told in ten blocks (Reynolds, 2019), short stories that detail experiences of middle school characters on their walk home from school. My original plan was for both middle school students and pre-service educators to draft personal place-based writing short stories- inspired by the mentor text- and participate in writing conferences. Instead, Zoom sessions were conducted in which both sets of students virtually conferenced about their writing pieces when schedules allowed. In this manner, authentic conversations about writing were being cultivated through a virtual approach

Early Childhood Development Workforce

The Productivity Commission’s report - Early Childhood Development Workforce – released 1 December 2011, finds that many more workers will be required in preschool and long day care. Full implementation of the reforms will require an estimated 15,000 more workers than would otherwise have been the case. On average, the level of workers' qualifications will also need to increase. The wages of workers in those early childhood education and care roles that require relatively high level vocational education and training or university qualifications would be expected to rise as a result. The Commission considered that Government timelines for reform appear optimistic, with implementation due to start in January 2012. The supply of the most highly qualified workers, particularly teachers, is likely to take some time to respond. The report notes that to sustain the benefits of higher levels of qualification, access to ongoing professional development and support for staff will be very important - including in relation to training in the expanding integrated early childhood development centres. The report indicates that early childhood development services for children with additional needs, and for Indigenous children, are not meeting the standards commonly available to other children. It is essential that early childhood development workforce requirements for children with additional needs and Indigenous children are given priority, so that the gap between these groups and other children is minimised, not exacerbated. In addition, alternative child care subsidy structures, emphasising targeting to the most disadvantaged children and families, could help ensure access to services for those who would benefit most. The report is the second in a series of three Commission studies covering the workforces of Vocational Education and Training, Early Childhood Development and Schools.early childhood development; ECD workforce; early childhood education; vocational education and training; childcare; long day care; additional needs; disadvantage children

IMPLEMENTASI PEMBERDAYAAN KELUARGA MELALUI PENDIDIKAN ANAK USIA DINI PADA POS PEMBERDAYAAN KELUARGA DI DUSUN SAMAN DESA BANGUNHARJO KECAMATAN SEWON KABUPATEN BANTUL

This study aims to describe: (1) Implementation Process empowering families through early childhood education at Posdaya, (2) The benefits of early childhood for the Saman’s people, (3) supporting and obstacles factors in the implementation of early childhood through Posdaya in Saman village. The approach in this research uses a qualitative approach, with managers of Posdaya early childhood education, early childhood educators, and students parents as the subjects in this study. The data was collected using observation, interviews, and documentation. The researcher is the main instrument in conducting the research, supported by the research questions, interview guidelines, and documentation. Techniques used in data analysis are data reduction, data display and making conclusions. Triangulation performed to explain the validity of the data using the data source. The results indicated that (1) The process of implementation of empowering families through early childhood education on Posdaya recruitment of students, recruiting teachers, the interaction between educators and learners is good enough, the communication in learning, educators as a motivator and friend in playing, the material provided covers all aspects of child development, the learning strategy applied is a strategy that focused on teachers, teaching methods used are lectures and practice. (2) Benefits of empowering families with early childhood through Posdaya is that the citizen have the awareness about the importance of education started from early age, since the parents can see the talent of children from an early age; children can learn to socialize with their surroundings, mentally training, and development of children's intelligence. (3) The supporting factors of the Posdaya motivation program implementation of Saman’s community, the liveliness of village officials, educators, and managers in promoting Posdaya programs especially in Saman village early childhood education. The enthusiasm of Saman’s early age children in following early childhood learning is enormous. While the inhibiting factor is the lack of awareness in the community to participate the Posdaya activities, also the inadequate infrastructure and facilities to support early childhood education implementation Keywords: Implementation, Empowerment, Family, Early Childhood Educatio

A philosophical anchor for creating inclusive communities in early childhood education: anti-bias philosophy and Te Whāriki: Early childhood curriculum.

The basic premise of this paper is that inclusion in early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand is a worthy focus of early childhood education curriculum and that an anti-bias philosophy assists in developing curriculum that is inclusive. It is claimed that the early childhood curriculum in Aotearoa New Zealand is an emancipatory one, and arguments for activism and anti-bias principles in support of curriculum implementation are made. Drawing on anti-bias principles, the current curriculum statement (Te Whāriki: Early Childhood Curriculum) is examined to ascertain what support for anti-bias foci exists. Teaching strategies based upon discussion, critical thinking and an awareness of diversity themes/difference are considered in support of active anti-bias work in early childhood education

Early Childhood Education: Frozen Funding Leads to Cracks in Foundation

Early childhood education is the cornerstone of our educational system. With benefits that include higher academic achievement, higher earnings as adults, a more productive civic life, high quality early childhood education is a proven-to-work strategy for all children. Yet, New York State's investment in early childhood programs and specifically in the Universal Prekindergarten (UPK) program has decreased over the years

Early education's big dividends: the better public investment

Public investments in projects like new stadiums never achieve returns equal to those from early childhood education—which several small studies have assessed at 7 percent to 20 percent. Now Minnesota is testing whether scaling up can produce the same results.Early childhood education ; Early childhood education - Minnesota