Element 1.1.1
Element 1.1.1 Approved learning framework – Curriculum decision making contributes to each child’s learning and development outcomes in relation to their identity, connection with community, wellbeing, confidence as learners and effectiveness as communicators
Click on the button below that best describes you and follow the simple steps. Complete each step as it will automatically write your QIP and Self Assessment Tool.
Educators
Dear Zoo
This year we have discovered that we have families who spend their days working with the animals at Dubbo Zoo. Elijah’s Mum and Dad both work closely with the elephants and tigers.
Haley has recently noticed the children’s developing interest with the few animals we have floating around the room and found a story to relate to promoting a sense of community within the early childhood setting.
During a quiet time throughout our busy day, Haley invited Elijah and our new friend Leo over to the mat for a story. This particular story was about a boy who writes letters to the Zoo, asking for a pet. The Zoo sends all kinds of animals to the boy in ‘flip the flap’ cages which Haley sees as a way to test the children’s skills and abilities in participating in a group game. On each page, there was a new cage to open. Haley encouraged Elijah and Leo to open the cages, taking turns to reveal the new ‘pet’. Elijah and Leo revealed the animals with surprise as Haley explained the names of the animals, what they eat and where they live.
Perhaps at a later date we could reflect back on this and use a world map to explore where the animals of the world live.
As we continued to read the story, Elijah found the Lion before displaying a smile and letting out a quiet “rah” to indicate his knowledge of the lion’s roar. “That’s right Elijah, the lion does roar.” “Does Daddy hear the lions roar at work?” asked Haley.
It wasn’t long after that Leo discovered the Giraffe and then the Elephant. “Ooo what about the elephants’ sound?” “Elijah’s Mum sees all the elephants at the Zoo. Maybe we could get some photos of some elephants and research the noise they make” explained Haley.
This was a great opportunity for the children to broaden their understandings of the world they live in and is something we could build on from here as the opportunities are endless.
Learning outcome: 2.1 Haley
Why are you doing the checklist?
The practices identified in the checklist are what the assessor needs to see you do so they can check you’re ‘meeting the NQS.’ If you embed all the things in the checklist, then you are meeting the Element. If there’s something on the checklist that you’re not doing, then you need to either adjust your practice to do it, or ask for help and training to do what’s on the checklist ie work with your educational leader or room leader who should teach/coach you how to do it.
Together as a team, use what you do (from your brainstorming session and the checklist) to write 6 short sentence that show “how” you are doing it. We’ve chosen 3 questions from the checklist for you. Why are you doing this? QIP’s need to have personalised stories about your practice so the assessor can ask you about why and how you do things. The sentences below can be used for Friday’s QIP writing section. Describe ‘how’ you are putting this question into practice
- How do you regularly share information with families about their child’s participation in the Curriculum, and their achievements and needs?
- How do you regularly encourage families to help build curriculum by sharing their culture, jobs, interests etc?
- How do you make sure you fully understand any specific medical / behaviour / nutrition/physical activity/learning needs children may have, any related services they access, and do you regularly involve families in decision making processes around these needs?
What Regulation goes with this NQS Element?
Regulation 157 Access for Parents
Educators must always let parents/guardians into the Service if their child’s there unless there’s a Court Order prohibiting the parent’s access, or it wouldn’t be safe for other children or staff.
What do you need to do to comply with the above Regulation?
Step 1 Critical Reflection
The EYLF and MTOP say “Critical reflection involves closely examining all aspects of events and experiences from different perspectives.” There is no checklist for critical reflection, it is all about other peoples perspectives.
Select one or more from below or from the checklist to critically reflect upon:
- Select one or more from below tocritically reflect upon:
- The environment is welcoming for all families
- Communication is respectful and sensitive for all families
- Diversity is recognised and valued when engaging with families
- Families’ questions, concerns and requests are responded to in a prompt and courteous way
- Educators implement a range of strategies to share information and engage families in decision-making processes.
You have discovered where your practice is compared to the NQS Guide (comparing what you currently do and the checklist). This is the process of self-assessment. If you have discovered practices, processes, checklist areas you need to improve upon, write them below. This section will be copied into your QIP.
When Cade and his mum turned up for Cade’s first day, he was very upset and educators struggled to help him with his separation anxiety. They tried a couple of different things but nothing really worked.
The green text is directly related to the meeting indicators for Element 6.1.1 on pages 254-257 of the NQS Guide
While our Nominated Supervisor Matt showed a potential new family around our Service Mum Angela said she wasn’t sure how her son Cade would settle as his father was in the Army and had recently left for a tour of Afghanistan. Dad was going to be away for 6 months and Cade was already missing him and showing signs of distress. Matt said educators had lots of strategies for settling children and they would work with her to help Cade settle as soon as possible. For example, Cade would need to understand that she was coming back at the end of the day seeing he’d already ‘lost’ his dad, so educators would use words like “I’m here to keep you safe until Mum comes back after afternoon tea.”
Below is a case study that demonstrates how the Exceeding themes 1 Embedded Practice, 2 Critical Reflection and 3 Meaningful engagement with families and communities link into practice. The blue text is based on or directly quotes the exceeding indicators in the NQS Guide pages 262-264.
While our Nominated Supervisor Matt showed a potential new family around our Service Mum Angela said she wasn’t sure how her son Cade would settle as his father was in the Army and had recently left for a tour of Afghanistan. Dad was going to be away for 6 months and Cade was already missing him and showing signs of distress. Matt said educators had lots of strategies for settling children and they would work with her to help Cade settle as soon as possible. For example, Cade would need to understand that she was coming back at the end of the day seeing he’s already ‘lost’ his dad, so educators would use words like “I’m here to keep you safe until Mum comes back after afternoon tea.” They would also plan activities and experiences which involved learning about the Army, soldiers, the countries they’re deployed to etc to help Cade understand Army life and because the Curriculum was always based around children’s interests and family lives. At this point Matt explained how many parents participated in the Curriculum by sharing their interest, job or culture with children and encouraged Angela to consider sharing what life in the Army is like for families. Cade would love it if she visited and Angela agreed to organise a date with educators. Matt also mentioned there were a couple of other Service families where a parent was deployed overseas, and offered to help Angela get in touch and potentially develop a support group.
Use the below points to analyse your above exceeding example to see if you have included everything.
1. Write the room location into the strength. This will ensure the assessor knows where to look for your strengths.
2. Write the educator’s name into the strength. This will ensure the assessor knows who to ask about your strengths.
3. Include the child/children’s names in your strength. This will give educators confidence to talk about a subject they know about (the child/ren).
4. Evidence eg learning story, photo that’s easy to access.
5. Write how you are achieving the exceeding themes.
Embedded Practice
Critical Reflection
Engagement with families/community
6. Tell the assessor exactly where to find the location of other evidence they need to see to show how you’re exceeding.
7. Show the assessor the location and time of other practice they need to observe to show how you’re exceeding.
Parental Interaction and Involvement in the Service Policy
- We will communicate with families in a variety of ways
- We will provide relevant information to families in their home language if necessary
- We take complaints by families seriously. We may ask that complaints raised verbally be put in writing. We will use our Grievance Procedure to investigate and action complaints
- Families are encouraged to be involved in all aspects of our Service eg by sharing information about their family or culture, making suggestions about service operations, assisting with daily activities
- We have an ‘Open Door’ policy and welcome families at all times.
Do you have any feedback or comments about this policy? Please include below.
Room/Group Leader
- Set a goal for the week.Goal doesn’t always need to link to NQS Element. A goal can be used to solve a challenge or be positive improvement i.e. learning area setupClick here for goal template.
- Identify barriers
- Track the goal daily
- Celebrate achieved goal.
The following is an example of a Code of Conduct. These types of codes must be negotiated and agreed upon by the service. Please review your Code of Conduct and compare with the one below. Change or add accordingly to your services needs and requirements.
The Approved Provider, Nominated Supervisor, educators, staff members, volunteers and students will uphold the following ethical conduct principles at all times, and promote positive interactions within the Service and the local community.
- Commitment to our Service philosophy and values, including the promotion of a meaningful connection to the NQF and best practice in early childhood education in partnership with our families
- Effective, open and respectful two-way communication and feedback between employees, children, families and management
- Honesty and integrity in all interactions between children, families, employees and managers
- Consistency and reliability in all exchanges with children, families, employees and managers
- Commitment to a workplace which values and promotes the safety, health and wellbeing of employees, volunteers, children and families.
Commitment to an Equal Opportunity workplace and culture which values the knowledge, experience and professionalism of all employees, team members and managers, and the diverse heritage of our families and children.
Why are you doing the checklist?
The practices identified in the checklist are what the assessor needs to see you do so they can check you’re ‘meeting the NQS.’ If you embed all the things in the checklist, then you are meeting the Element. If there’s something on the checklist that you’re not doing, then you need to either adjust your practice to do it, or ask for help and training to do what’s on the checklist ie work with your educational leader or room leader who should teach/coach you how to do it.
Together as a team, use what you do (from your brainstorming session and the checklist) to write 6 short sentence that show “how” you are doing it. We’ve chosen 3 questions from the checklist for you. Why are you doing this? QIP’s need to have personalised stories about your practice so the assessor can ask you about why and how you do things. The sentences below can be used for Friday’s QIP writing section. Describe ‘how’ you are putting this question into practice
What Regulation goes with this NQS Element?
As there are no specific Regulations for Element 4.2.2 Professional Collaboration, we suggest you watch this YouTube video which is also available as a podcast on services like Spotify. In this entertaining clip Celeste Headlee discusses the 10 ways to effectively engage in conversation:
- Don’t multitask
- Don’t pontificate – assume you have something to learn
- Use open-ended questions – who , what, when, where, why or how
- Go with the flow
- If you don’t know, say you don’t know
- Don’t equate your experience with theirs
- Try not to repeat yourself
- Stay out of the weeds -forget the names, dates, details
- Listen – with the intent to understand
- Be brief
Step 1 Critical Reflection
The EYLF and MTOP say “Critical reflection involves closely examining all aspects of events and experiences from different perspectives.” There is no checklist for critical reflection, it is all about other peoples perspectives.
Select one or more from below or from the checklist to critically reflect upon:
- Do you and your team regularly assess your practice against the service philosophy?
- Would all staff agree you always keep confidential information about children, families and other staff private?
- Would all families and staff agree you’re always polite, respectful and professional when interacting with them or the children?
- Would all staff agree you’re always willing to try new ideas?
You have discovered where your practice is compared to the NQS Guide (comparing what you currently do and the checklist). This is the process of self-assessment. If you have discovered practices, processes, checklist areas you need to improve upon, write them below. This section will be copied into your QIP.
Tyrone’s mum was trying to tell me about her weekend when I was really busy organising an activity and supervising the children. I told her she’d have to leave and maybe I could talk with her later when I wasn’t so busy.
The green text is directly related to the meeting indicators for Element 4.2.2 on pages 220-221 of the NQS Guide
Tyrone’s mum was trying to tell me about her weekend when I (Miss Crystal) was really busy organising an activity and supervising the children. I said I’d love to hear more about what happened, and asked if she could come in 5 minutes earlier than usual to collect Tyrone when I’d have time to give her my full attention. She did and it was amazing hearing about their visit to Grandma’s house. Grandma tied squeezy bottles of paint from the ceiling with string and placed large sheets of ‘butcher’s’ paper on the floor so Tyrone could experiment with squeezing and moving the bottles to create unique masterpieces! I said that was a great idea and we would definitely be trying that with all our children. Thanks for sharing!
Below is a case study that demonstrates how the Exceeding themes 1 Embedded Practice, 2 Critical Reflection and 3 Meaningful engagement with families and communities link into practice. The blue text is based on or directly quotes the exceeding indicators in the NQS Guide pages 222-223.
Tyrone’s mum was trying to tell me about her weekend when I (Miss Crystal) was really busy organising an activity and supervising the children. Promoting open and respectful communication I said I’d love to hear more about what happened, and asked if she could come in 5 minutes earlier than usual to collect Tyrone when I’d have time to give her my full attention. She did and it was amazing hearing about their visit to Grandma’s house. I encouraged her to explain in detail how Grandma tied squeezy bottles of paint from the ceiling with string and placed large sheets of ‘butcher’s’ paper on the floor so Tyrone could experiment with squeezing and moving the bottles to create unique masterpieces! I said that was a great idea and we would definitely be trying that with all our children. Thanks for sharing! I made sure she saw all the children’s efforts and explained how much fun they’d had completing their artworks.
Use the below points to analyse your above exceeding example to see if you have included everything.
1. Write the room location into the strength. This will ensure the assessor knows where to look for your strengths.
2. Write the educator’s name into the strength. This will ensure the assessor knows who to ask about your strengths.
3. Include the child/children’s names in your strength. This will give educators confidence to talk about a subject they know about (the child/ren).
4. Evidence eg learning story, photo that’s easy to access.
5. Write how you are achieving the exceeding themes.
Embedded Practice
Critical Reflection
Engagement with families/community
6. Tell the assessor exactly where to find the location of other evidence they need to see to show how you’re exceeding.
7. Show the assessor the location and time of other practice they need to observe to show how you’re exceeding.
National Quality Framework Policy
We are covered by and value the National Quality Framework which includes the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), the National Education and Care Law and Regulations, and the National Quality Standard covering seven Quality Areas:
- Educational program and practice
- Children’s health and safety
- Physical environment
- Staffing arrangements
- Relationships with children
- Collaborative partnerships with families and communities
- Governance and Leadership
Services are assessed and rated on their performance. Rating levels include excellent, exceeding, meeting, working towards and significant improvement required.
We are committed to the continuous improvement of our practices and seek and value input from families and our community, including in respect of our Quality Improvement Plan.
Educational Leader
The following is an example of a Code of Conduct. These types of codes must be negotiated and agreed upon by the service. Please review your Code of Conduct and compare with the one below. Change or add accordingly to your services needs and requirements.
The Approved Provider, Nominated Supervisor, educators, staff members, volunteers and students will uphold the following ethical conduct principles at all times, and promote positive interactions within the Service and the local community.
- Commitment to our Service philosophy and values, including the promotion of a meaningful connection to the NQF and best practice in early childhood education in partnership with our families
- Effective, open and respectful two-way communication and feedback between employees, children, families and management
- Honesty and integrity in all interactions between children, families, employees and managers
- Consistency and reliability in all exchanges with children, families, employees and managers
- Commitment to a workplace which values and promotes the safety, health and wellbeing of employees, volunteers, children and families.
Commitment to an Equal Opportunity workplace and culture which values the knowledge, experience and professionalism of all employees, team members and managers, and the diverse heritage of our families and children.
Why are you doing the checklist?
The practices identified in the checklist are what the assessor needs to see you do so they can check you’re ‘meeting the NQS.’ If you embed all the things in the checklist, then you are meeting the Element. If there’s something on the checklist that you’re not doing, then you need to either adjust your practice to do it, or ask for help and training to do what’s on the checklist ie work with your educational leader or room leader who should teach/coach you how to do it.
Together as a team, use what you do (from your brainstorming session and the checklist) to write 6 short sentence that show “how” you are doing it. We’ve chosen 3 questions from the checklist for you. Why are you doing this? QIP’s need to have personalised stories about your practice so the assessor can ask you about why and how you do things. The sentences below can be used for Friday’s QIP writing section. Describe ‘how’ you are putting this question into practice
Step 1 Critical Reflection
The EYLF and MTOP say “Critical reflection involves closely examining all aspects of events and experiences from different perspectives.” There is no checklist for critical reflection, it is all about other peoples perspectives.
Select one or more from below or from the checklist to critically reflect upon:
- Do you and your team regularly assess your practice against the service philosophy?
- Would all staff agree you always keep confidential information about children, families and other staff private?
- Would all families and staff agree you’re always polite, respectful and professional when interacting with them or the children?
- Would all staff agree you’re always willing to try new ideas?
You have discovered where your practice is compared to the NQS Guide (comparing what you currently do and the checklist). This is the process of self-assessment. If you have discovered practices, processes, checklist areas you need to improve upon, write them below. This section will be copied into your QIP.
Tyrone’s mum was trying to tell me about her weekend when I was really busy organising an activity and supervising the children. I told her she’d have to leave and maybe I could talk with her later when I wasn’t so busy.
The green text is directly related to the meeting indicators for Element 4.2.2 on pages 220-221 of the NQS Guide
Tyrone’s mum was trying to tell me about her weekend when I (Miss Crystal) was really busy organising an activity and supervising the children. I said I’d love to hear more about what happened, and asked if she could come in 5 minutes earlier than usual to collect Tyrone when I’d have time to give her my full attention. She did and it was amazing hearing about their visit to Grandma’s house. Grandma tied squeezy bottles of paint from the ceiling with string and placed large sheets of ‘butcher’s’ paper on the floor so Tyrone could experiment with squeezing and moving the bottles to create unique masterpieces! I said that was a great idea and we would definitely be trying that with all our children. Thanks for sharing!
Below is a case study that demonstrates how the Exceeding themes 1 Embedded Practice, 2 Critical Reflection and 3 Meaningful engagement with families and communities link into practice. The blue text is based on or directly quotes the exceeding indicators in the NQS Guide pages 222-223.
Tyrone’s mum was trying to tell me about her weekend when I (Miss Crystal) was really busy organising an activity and supervising the children. Promoting open and respectful communication I said I’d love to hear more about what happened, and asked if she could come in 5 minutes earlier than usual to collect Tyrone when I’d have time to give her my full attention. She did and it was amazing hearing about their visit to Grandma’s house. I encouraged her to explain in detail how Grandma tied squeezy bottles of paint from the ceiling with string and placed large sheets of ‘butcher’s’ paper on the floor so Tyrone could experiment with squeezing and moving the bottles to create unique masterpieces! I said that was a great idea and we would definitely be trying that with all our children. Thanks for sharing! I made sure she saw all the children’s efforts and explained how much fun they’d had completing their artworks.
Use the below points to analyse your above exceeding example to see if you have included everything.
1. Write the room location into the strength. This will ensure the assessor knows where to look for your strengths.
2. Write the educator’s name into the strength. This will ensure the assessor knows who to ask about your strengths.
3. Include the child/children’s names in your strength. This will give educators confidence to talk about a subject they know about (the child/ren).
4. Evidence eg learning story, photo that’s easy to access.
5. Write how you are achieving the exceeding themes.
Embedded Practice
Critical Reflection
Engagement with families/community
6. Tell the assessor exactly where to find the location of other evidence they need to see to show how you’re exceeding.
7. Show the assessor the location and time of other practice they need to observe to show how you’re exceeding.
Nominated Supervisor
The following is an example of a Code of Conduct. These types of codes must be negotiated and agreed upon by the service. Please review your Code of Conduct and compare with the one below. Change or add accordingly to your services needs and requirements.
The Approved Provider, Nominated Supervisor, educators, staff members, volunteers and students will uphold the following ethical conduct principles at all times, and promote positive interactions within the Service and the local community.
- Commitment to our Service philosophy and values, including the promotion of a meaningful connection to the NQF and best practice in early childhood education in partnership with our families
- Effective, open and respectful two-way communication and feedback between employees, children, families and management
- Honesty and integrity in all interactions between children, families, employees and managers
- Consistency and reliability in all exchanges with children, families, employees and managers
- Commitment to a workplace which values and promotes the safety, health and wellbeing of employees, volunteers, children and families.
Commitment to an Equal Opportunity workplace and culture which values the knowledge, experience and professionalism of all employees, team members and managers, and the diverse heritage of our families and children.
Why are you doing the checklist?
The practices identified in the checklist are what the assessor needs to see you do so they can check you’re ‘meeting the NQS.’ If you embed all the things in the checklist, then you are meeting the Element. If there’s something on the checklist that you’re not doing, then you need to either adjust your practice to do it, or ask for help and training to do what’s on the checklist ie work with your educational leader or room leader who should teach/coach you how to do it.
Step 1 Critical Reflection
The EYLF and MTOP say “Critical reflection involves closely examining all aspects of events and experiences from different perspectives.” There is no checklist for critical reflection, it is all about other peoples perspectives.
Select one or more from below or from the checklist to critically reflect upon:
- Do you and your team regularly assess your practice against the service philosophy?
- Would all staff agree you always keep confidential information about children, families and other staff private?
- Would all families and staff agree you’re always polite, respectful and professional when interacting with them or the children?
- Would all staff agree you’re always willing to try new ideas?
Your team crave feedback on their weekly Centre Support professional development.
Getting appropriate feedback and seeing actions which come from their comments and reflections inspires them to keep on completing the professional development. It’s important therefore that you read the Educators’ section and make sure you and/or the Educational Leader:
- action the checklist results eg if educators ask for help by answering ‘T’ they get the help they need
- follow up their critical reflection ie help implement outcomes
- use their QIP contributions and celebrate them with your educators.
Tyrone’s mum was trying to tell me about her weekend when I was really busy organising an activity and supervising the children. I told her she’d have to leave and maybe I could talk with her later when I wasn’t so busy.
The green text is directly related to the meeting indicators for Element 4.2.2 on pages 220-221 of the NQS Guide
Tyrone’s mum was trying to tell me about her weekend when I (Miss Crystal) was really busy organising an activity and supervising the children. I said I’d love to hear more about what happened, and asked if she could come in 5 minutes earlier than usual to collect Tyrone when I’d have time to give her my full attention. She did and it was amazing hearing about their visit to Grandma’s house. Grandma tied squeezy bottles of paint from the ceiling with string and placed large sheets of ‘butcher’s’ paper on the floor so Tyrone could experiment with squeezing and moving the bottles to create unique masterpieces! I said that was a great idea and we would definitely be trying that with all our children. Thanks for sharing!
Below is a case study that demonstrates how the Exceeding themes 1 Embedded Practice, 2 Critical Reflection and 3 Meaningful engagement with families and communities link into practice. The blue text is based on or directly quotes the exceeding indicators in the NQS Guide pages 222-223.
Tyrone’s mum was trying to tell me about her weekend when I (Miss Crystal) was really busy organising an activity and supervising the children. Promoting open and respectful communication I said I’d love to hear more about what happened, and asked if she could come in 5 minutes earlier than usual to collect Tyrone when I’d have time to give her my full attention. She did and it was amazing hearing about their visit to Grandma’s house. I encouraged her to explain in detail how Grandma tied squeezy bottles of paint from the ceiling with string and placed large sheets of ‘butcher’s’ paper on the floor so Tyrone could experiment with squeezing and moving the bottles to create unique masterpieces! I said that was a great idea and we would definitely be trying that with all our children. Thanks for sharing! I made sure she saw all the children’s efforts and explained how much fun they’d had completing their artworks.
Use the below points to analyse your above exceeding example to see if you have included everything.
1. Write the room location into the strength. This will ensure the assessor knows where to look for your strengths.
2. Write the educator’s name into the strength. This will ensure the assessor knows who to ask about your strengths.
3. Include the child/children’s names in your strength. This will give educators confidence to talk about a subject they know about (the child/ren).
4. Evidence eg learning story, photo that’s easy to access.
5. Write how you are achieving the exceeding themes.
Embedded Practice
Critical Reflection
Engagement with families/community
6. Tell the assessor exactly where to find the location of other evidence they need to see to show how you’re exceeding.
7. Show the assessor the location and time of other practice they need to observe to show how you’re exceeding.