Our university partners

NQS Toolkit

NQS Professional Development Toolkit

Be the best you can possibly be. Achieve exceeding and go home happy.

University Partners

Charles Sturt University

Jennifer Sumsion Professor of Early Childhood Education EYLF

Linda Harrison Professor of Early Childhood Education EYLF

Ben Bradley Professor of Psychology

 

Macquarie University

Dr Helen Little Senior Lecturer Educational Studies

A Proven Management System

Build your QIP and show continuous improvement in your service with our weekly tasks. For 40 weeks of the year, we’ll email you tasks that your whole team can complete to meet elements of the NQS. Balance the workload out over the year and get your whole team involved.  Learn more

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With an upfront payment or monthly payments on offer, the 12 month subscription is an affordable solution for all services. All resources are available in the Members Area of the website, and the Centre Support team is always here to help. Learn more

Our Research

Be the best you can possibly be. Achieve exceeding and go home happy.

‘Belonging’ in Australian early childhood education and care curriculum and quality assurance: opportunities and risks

‘Belonging’ in Australian early childhood education and care curriculum and quality assurance: opportunities and risks by Professor Jennifer Sumsion,  Professor Linda Harrison, Karen Letsch, Professor Benjamin Bradley, Matthew Stapleton

Matthew Stapleton was one of the lead researchers exploring opportunities and risks for belonging in the Early Years Learning Framework and in the National Quality Standard.  The research was carried out using case study data generated in the babies’ room of an early childhood centre in an Aboriginal community in rural Queensland .

Journal Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Vol 19 Issue 4 Published 1 Dec 2018

Spatial perspectives on babies’ ways of belonging in infant early childhood education and care

Spatial perspectives on babies’ ways of belonging in infant early childhood education and care by Professor Jennifer Sumison, Professor Linda J. Harrison, Matthew Stapleton

This research involved thinking spatially about infants’ everyday lives and their ways of ‘doing’ belonging in the babies’ room. Space was viewed as complex, dynamic and relational, and researchers mapped the movements  of baby Nadia. The results showed how Nadia used people, objects and spaces  to extend her environment beyond what was initially viewed as a particularly  confining space.

Journal of Pedagogy Vol 9 Issue 1

Is infant belonging observable?
A path through the maze

Is infant belonging observable? A path through the maze by Professor Jennifer Sumison, Professor Linda J. Harrison,  Dr Jane  M Selby, Professor Benjamin S Bradley, Matthew Stapleton

The authors look at the idea of infant ‘belonging’ in the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and note it contains four different meanings for ‘belonging’, and also refers to ‘a sense of belonging’ as something that  infants and toddlers demonstrate and we can see.

They explore the ideas of ‘marked belonging’ in the EYLF, which refers to infants’ exclusion from or inclusion in groups of peers, and what they call ‘unmarked’ belonging in the EYLF which refers to an infant’s general comfort or ease.  Differences between these two meanings of infant belonging are explored using video recordings of infants.

The authors conclude that ‘belonging’ is not a helpful way to demonstrate an infant’s ‘unmarked’ comfort or ease, and that it would be better to look at infants’ proven capacity to participate in groups.

Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 2018, Vol. 19

Behind the mirrors and in the mud patch: The affordance of belonging in outdoor learning environments for infant and toddlers

Behind the mirrors and in the mud patch: The affordance of belonging in outdoor learning environments for infant and toddlers by Matthew Stapleton

This case study looked at belonging and how it can be created for toddlers by redesigning and rebuilding the outdoor environment. It addresses the reality that not all early childhood environments are purposely designed for the care and education of children.

The case study explores how an outdoor setting that promoted conflict and frustration was remodelled and renovated using design principles to create structures and play spaces that children used productively and creatively, for example digging in the mud patch behind the mirror.

Presented at European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) Dublin, Ireland 1st September 2016

Mapping babies' connections and disconnections over the childcare day: Using go-pro cameras in research"

“Mapping babies’ connections and disconnections over the childcare day: Using go-pro cameras in research” by Professor Linda Harrison and Matthew Stapleton

Presented at European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) Dublin, Ireland 1st September 2016

Building Challenging and Risky Learning Spaces with Four Year Olds: Unexpected Learning ‘Beyond the Fence’

Wollongong Conference see my Desktop edit folder

Conquering the tyre tower: Toddlers engaging with challenging. risky play

Conquering the tyre tower: Toddlers engaging with challenging, risky play by Dr Helen Little and Matthew Stapleton.

Article looks at risky play for under 3s.

 

published?

Presented at International Play Association Conference Alberta Canada September 2017

 

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