Q&As from 'Inspiring Excellence' event

Sections in this page

Loading...

1. Do I need to do a planning cycle for children who only attend during vacation care (OSHC service)?

This is an interesting challenge for out of school hours care (OSHC) services to navigate, particularly for those who have children attending on an irregular basis. So, while the short answer is ‘yes’, the way in which this is done will likely differ to that of other services and service types, and will vary between states.

Your planning cycle is subject to a range of factors including how often a child attends your service, whether children attend the school upon which the OSHC service is located, etc.

The main thing to remember is that each child must be considered in, and captured by, your program planning. You need to show what you know about these children, and how you have planned for them to be at your service, regardless of how often they attend. 

Some examples of how to do this may include:

  • floor books
  • diary notes or photographs of activities they enjoyed the last time they attended
  • emailing a child’s family prior to their attendance to find out what activities they enjoy, etc.

2. How much documentation is too much?

Documentation practices should be reviewed regularly to determine whether they support children’s learning and development. An intentional feature of the National Quality Standard is that it does not prescribe levels and types of documentation; it is instead focussed on outcomes to encourage rich documentation that is relevant to each service. 

Documentation should be meaningful, manageable, and based on requirements to inform curriculum decisions. It should be based on quality, rather than quantity, and needs to work for your service.

School-aged children are also able to be involved in, and are often very good at, documenting their own participation and learning.

3. Should services be moving away from theme-based programming?

Neither Belonging, being and becoming: The early years learning framework (EYLF) nor the Guide to the NQF reference theme-based learning, and instead focus on child-centred programming.

The foundation of your program needs to be based on children’s knowledge, strengths, ideas, culture, abilities, and interests, which is difficult to ascertain if theme-based programming is used. There are some reflective questions in the guide which may help you to determine if a theme-based program will help to support you in meeting Element 1.1.2. Please refer to the 'Quality Area 1: 'Educational program and practice' on the ACECQA website for further information.

4. How can educators/services advocate for professionalism in the sector? AND how can OSHC services show stakeholders that they are not just a ‘babysitting’ service?

Educators can advocate for professionalism in the sector by:

  • incorporating professional language into their everyday work (including language from approved learning frameworks)
  • promoting educational programs
  • engaging in strategic workforce strategy surveys and ensuring practices are meeting Element 4.2.

Educators can also advocate for professionalism in the sector by promoting their specialised knowledge of children to stakeholders within the community. This knowledge is developed by completing ACECQA-approved qualifications that ensure high-quality programs are delivered to enhance children’s learning and development across early childhood and OSHC services.

5. Are services under-reporting serious incidents? What specifically should be reported and how is this information used?

The Education Standards Board monitors services that may be reporting unnecessarily, or under-reporting incidents. For further information on what is notifiable, please see Section 4 of the Guide to the NQF: 'Operational requirements: reporting information to the regulatory authority'.

6. How can services ensure that they are embedding practice and the planning cycle?

The planning cycle at a Meeting level will include ongoing observation, analysis, planning, documentation, implementation, and reflection for individual children.

Exceeding themes are not applied at an element level. So in order to achieve an Exceeding theme, services must show how their practices and concepts within the standard are embedded within their practice.

The ACECQA website has some great resources about Exceeding themes for Standard 1.3, including case studies and information sheets.

7. How many hours should managers/directors receive? And what salary is acceptable for this leadership role?

This is not regulated in the Education Standards Board’s remit and will differ between services. Having open and honest discussions with your approved provider about how much non-contact time is required to effectively engage in the NQS, based on the appropriate employee awards and conditions is recommended.

8. Could the Education Standards Board please follow-up on Professor Brinkman’s research on ‘child word count’ with some educator- and parent-friendly resources?

This is a great idea. Thank you for the suggestion. We will liaise with Professor Brinkman and her team once the research has been published to determine how they plan on distributing the information to the sector. We will post updates on our website and Facebook as they come to hand.

9. What is the role of an educational leader?

There are multiple resources available, which are great sources of information, about the role of the educational leader, including:

10. We have very strong leadership within our services with plenty of evidence to show. What do you want to see as evidence? What is the benchmark?

There is no ‘benchmark’ of evidence per se, except to say that authorised officers are looking for a triangulation of evidence to demonstrate elements within the standards, within the quality areas. Evidence should be a combination of ‘sight, discuss, and observe’, and should form part of a two-pronged approach encompassing both effective site leadership and approved provider governance. Educators are encouraged to take responsibility for sharing and discussing any evidence with an authorised officer during an assessment and rating visit.

11. What submission template is preferred by the Education Standards Board during the assessment and rating process? The self-assessment tool, or a QIP?

Authorised officers will ask for your service’s Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) as that is what is stated in the legislation.

Services are encouraged to use the different self-assessment tools available to support educators to understand the service’s approach to continuous improvement, particular areas of focus, and to document strengths and weaknesses of the service.

The Education Standards Board has created a compliance-focussed self-assessment tool, which can be used to self-identify and rectify issues of non-compliance within a service.

ACECQA also has a self-assessment tool with a quality focus which can be used to measure continuous improvement against compliance with the National Law and Regulations. These tools can be shown to authorised officers during an assessment and rating visit to support discussions.

The self-assessment tool on our website is only related to non-compliance and not quality. The self-assessment tool on the ACECQA website includes self-assessment to measure continuous improvement with a quality focus while also looking at compliance with Law and Regulations.

12. What measures are in place to assess the quality of care in new services? How much time is given before they slip under the radar?

The National Law and Regulations state the minimum standards that all services must meet, and the National Quality Standard builds upon that. Services must be given the opportunity to develop and establish practices, and to build relationships within the community before they are assessed and rated. All services must, however, meet the regulatory standards from their date of operation.

As such, all services will be subject to a pre-approval visit, a monitoring visit within three months of their opening date and will be assessed and rated within 12 months of operation.

13. What should a planning cycle of assessment look like?

Processes and systems will be individual for each service to achieve a planning cycle. Authorised officers will seek to collect evidence about the learning assessment and evaluation of each child, as well as how planning cycles meet the elements outlined within standard 1.3.1.

There are a multitude of resources available for cycles of planning:

14. What are the top three things that ACECQA is looking for when assessing for an Excellent rating?

Assessment for an Excellent rating differs from assessment and ratings conducted against the National Quality Standard (NQS). With an Excellent rating assessment, you can choose the themes you would like assessed.

For example, you may want to be assessed on your leadership in the broader community or early childhood education and care sector, or your quality improvement planning, etc (QIP).

To achieve a rating of Excellent, services must be able to prove their practice is embedded (i.e. will not lose steam with the changing of approved provider or with staff turnover, etc) and explain how their practice is making a difference to children, families, and communities.

There is a set of criteria that have been determined by ACECQA’s board which are outlined on the ACECQA website.

15. Could we please have some clarification around safety? What is essential, and what are the key things to remember in the safety of children?

This is a very broad question, probably sparked by Glenn Wagland’s inspiring and thought-provoking presentation, which is likely to have offered a new perspective and some new ideas to many educators.

There is a responsibility for services to ensure that children are kept safe in care. This is not to say, however, that you need to eliminate every possible risk. There are lots of documented benefits of risky play. Services should conduct detailed risk–benefit assessments to determine whether the level of risk for their chosen activity is appropriate for the children within their care. This assessment will also dictate what level of scaffolding is required to assist the children in assessing their own limitations within a supervised environment.

The learning and skills developed through risk-taking often supersedes the risk of potentially dangerous activity, and children should be seen as competent and capable and given the opportunity to contribute to risk assessments.

Effective documentation procedures will allow services to navigate this space with their families and develop suitable and appropriate play spaces for the children within their care.

16. How can we incorporate loose parts play when working with different age groups?

The idea of cross-age collaboration is awesome, as it provides significant opportunities for learning and behaviour-modelling in groups of children who would not usually play together.

I will often have the stuff out for a four year old as I do for a 12 year old, but the way it is used is different. When a four year old builds a cubby house with another four year old, it is quite basic and simple. When a four year old is given the opportunity to build with a 12 year old, his or her opportunity for learning increases exponentially. The older child also has the opportunity to act in a mentorship role, learns new communication strategies, and practices patience.

This multi-aged engagement should be encouraged as much as possible. – Glenn Wagland, Mobile Junk and Nature Playground

17. How can we incorporate nature play at an OSHC service when they are attached to an unsupportive school?

This is a tricky situation. But I would say to work with the schools to learn why they are opposed. Show decision-makers the latest data advocating for loose parts play. Inform them of the benefits and learning opportunities. I am also happy to attend your OSHC as a mobile service to assist with your advocacy. Most of the time senior school leaders are curious and will stick around to watch the learning and agree that the benefits outweigh the perceived cons. – Glenn Wagland, Mobile Junk and Nature Playground

18. Is a Reconciliation Action Plan required at an OSHC service when the school already has one?

There are two schools of thought on this. It ultimately depends on the relationship you have with the school, and whether you have a shared vision for your Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

If you work closely with the school and are willing to piggyback onto their RAP, are available for their meetings, and are comfortable contributing suggestions and feedback, then you are welcome to develop a ‘cluster RAP’, which will incorporate your needs with the needs of the school.

Alternatively, you may feel as though you are further ahead on your reconciliation journey and would prefer to do your own. This is completely fine, too.

Please contact Narragunnawali if you would like any further information on either of these concepts.  – Julie Bover, Narragunnawali

19. Can you provide some guidance on working with communities and families that do not share the same views to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people?

It is important to realise that you do not necessarily need to have potentially difficult or challenging conversations with families that may share different views on the importance or relevance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander concepts and perspectives at your service.

Instead, you should provide as much information as you can in a way that can be easily accessed by families who wish to engage with it and model the behaviour you wish to see in the community through things like: flying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags, having a physical Acknowledgement of Country visible at your service, getting to know the local community, and engaging with local leaders.  – Julie Bover, Narragunnawali

20. Can an Acknowledgement of Country be in the form of song for young children?

This is not a question that can be answered as a blanket statement, as rules will change depending on your community and the views of elders within it. You should consult an elder within your community for further information on this.

A good place to start is to contact the SA Native Title Service  to determine which land you are on.

21. What does the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) data mean for me as an educator, approved provider or director of a service?

There are a range of resources developed specifically for early childhood educators to help support their engagement with their local AEDC data. The more people using the AEDC data in their service and with the community the better, and the AEDC Program is keen to help support you in doing so. The resources can be found on the 'Resources for early childhood educators' section of the AEDC website.  In addition, each state has an AEDC coordinator. Their role is to help with the data collection process and to support communities and services to use the AEDC data. The SA AEDC coordinator is Mylene Warman. She can be contacted via the following email mylene.warman [at] sa.gov.au.  –  Professor Sally Brinkman

22. AEDC: What advocacy can be done around ensuring universal access for all children when CAfHS is only funded for 50% of children? It’s hugely problematic.

A couple of suggestions would include writing to the Board of the Women’s and Children’s Health Network or the Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner or your local member of parliament. –  Professor Sally Brinkman

23. Sally, does three-year-old preschool and\or preschool in school environments in WA contribute to changes in AEDC data?

We can’t say definitely, I’m afraid. Three-year-old preschool as a targeted service is delivered in most jurisdictions. So unless it was delivered very differently in WA, this is unlikely to be the primary reason for the difference in results seen in WA compared to the other jurisdictions. – Professor Sally Brinkman

24. Are there large differences in how much is spent from state budgets on early childhood and does this correlate to AEDC results?

I wish I knew. It seems near impossible to determine how much the different jurisdictions spend on early childhood health, community services and education. We have made some attempts to collect information specifically for child health nurse FTE and we can’t even obtain this information to be able to undertake a comparison. – Professor Sally Brinkman

25. AEDC brings important data to the community. How is it used in (state/national) policy making?

The AEDC is used at many levels, both at the local level as well as the state or territory and national level. Further the AEDC is used by many different service providers, i.e. health, education, child protection, non-government community services, and researchers to name a few. Currently there isn’t a database kept of all the different policies that have changed or been created because of AEDC data. A little while ago a few different community stories were prepared to provide people examples of how to use the AEDC data. They can be found on the AEDC website under 'Community Stories'. There are also 'School stories'. It would be great to have policy stories added to these examples. – Professor Sally Brinkman

26. Are there any plans from AEDC to target the weak areas that come every year after the data is collected?

The AEDC program is focused on data collection and distributing the results with support from each AEDC state or territory coordinator. The coordinators work with interested communities to support them to take action on the results. However all community members and service providers can take local action on the results. We know well that the whole community has a role in supporting children. If you are interested in working with the AEDC data locally, there are lots of resources on the AEDC website to help you get started. – Professor Sally Brinkman

27. Are you tracking the impact that the new rules around childhood vaccination are having on children's participation in early childhood education?  

We aren’t specifically, but I know that the state government in SA as well as other states are indeed tracking the impact of the ‘No jab, no play’ policy on enrolment. It is very important for children to be both vaccinated AND attend preschool.

For those children who aren’t vaccinated prior to preschool, then governments and service providers should be looking at ways to address barriers and proactively support families to engage.

The policy was intended to enhance immunisation and not reduce preschool participation. It is very important that there are no unintended consequences as a result of the policy. – Professor Sally Brinkman

28. Wondering about the impact on AEDC of bushfires and COVID (face-to-face services, families connecting at playgroups, playcentres, sessions etc.)?

We expect there may well be an impact on child development from both last year’s bushfires and COVID lockdowns and all the consequences associated with the lockdowns. The 2021 AEDC data is being collected across the state right now with the data released publicly in early 2022 (if not beforehand). 

There will be many researchers (including myself) waiting for the data to be released so we can start to match it with the differing levels of community traumatic events and burdens.

Data from overseas indicates that we may see changes in children’s levels of anxiety and social skills and that we may see increases in inequality in child development.

Out of all the Australian Early Development Census data collections so far, this 2021 data collection, will be the most important! – Professor Sally Brinkman

29. How do we explain to parents and staff that it is now much harder to receive an Exceeding rating and might not happen next time?

ACECQA is working on a national communications plan to address this issue.

30. Do you currently have to pay to be considered for an Excellent rating?

For further information on the Excellent rating, including the application process, please see the ACECQA website.