4.1.1 Organisation of educators

The organisation of educators across the service supports children’s learning and development

Case Study – Meeting ratios in a crisis
Your Nominated Supervisor is responsible for providing enough staff to meet ratios, but educators need to assist time to time to ensure all educators are supported across the service in times of need or crisis. For example, Jason the educator was required to support Chloe as she had a meltdown. Chloe’s meltdowns left everyone stressed and it was decided to remove the children from the room while Jason helped Chloe regulate her behaviour. Removing the children into the outside play area left educator Kate with a group that wasn’t easy to adequately supervise.

It was decided that the doors would be open, so that Kate could communicate with Jason. Assistance was provided by the room next door. They opened their doors to the playground and placed one of their educators at the door to communicate with Kate and support her and Jason as well as supervising their children. Sometimes it was easier for both rooms to move outside as a group when these situations with Chloe occurred. Technically the room wasn’t out of ratio with Jason supporting Chloe, but Kate needed a little more support with her group when it came to adequate supervision. Usually these situations needed no more than twenty minutes of support from the other educators.

Identifying educators’ strengths has led to careful planning, and adjustments are continually made to create rosters which meet children’s needs.

Educators’ room location and shift times are carefully planned. For example, some people work best with certain ages, some people have strengths gained from outside early childhood, some people work best in the morning and some don’t.

Cody has recently moved back to the preschool room to ensure a group of active boys have their physical needs met. Cody is a football player in the local team and is often running many physical activities for the children. This includes using his football coaching skills and drills with the children to assist with concentration and physical co-ordination.

Tara’s strengths include extending and enhancing learning with meaningful community connection, her artistic ability and her ability to help children express their creativity across many areas of the arts, especially fine art and music.

Cherie was a cartographer (map maker) for 14 years before entering ECEC. She integrates her past career as a cartographer into learning with the children’s interests.

Below is a case study that demonstrates all the exceeding themes.
The blue text is directly from the NQS Guide, page 213-216, showing exactly how Exceeding theme 1 Embedded, 2 Critical Reflection and 3 Meaningful engagement with families and communities and how it links into practice.

As it comes up to the start of a new year, we’re already thinking about how to allocate our staff for next year. Part of our consideration is to ensure we use the strengths and interests of our educators the best way we possibly can. We have gained insight into these strengths and interests through things like performance appraisals, feedback from Room leaders and the Educational Leader and regular one on one meetings between individual staff members and the Director.  At a recent staff meeting the Director suggested we should also try and get feedback from our families about the way educators were organised. There was debate, discussion and opportunities for input by all educators. 

Most educators said they were unsure how to do this, and the Educational Leader suggested we post a few questions through our closed Facebook groups. eg “How could we organise our educators to help your child feel more secure or more inclined to participate in centre activities?” Are there any particular educators that you feel have special skills or talents? Many parents responded positively and we learnt a few things we didn’t know about educators’  hobbies outside the centre. We’re also considering a parent’s request that we have at least 2 educators present with children remaining at the end of the day, even where this is not required to meet ratios. Further discussion will occur at the next staff meeting to ensure any changes are understood by all.


1.3.1 Assessment and planning cycle

Each child’s learning and development is assessed or evaluated as part of an ongoing cycle of observation, analysing learning, documentation, planning, implementation and reflection.

Before we look at element 1.3.1 we need to understand what the Regulations say about documentation and planning. For example, Part 4.1 Educational program and practice. Regulation 73 An educational program is to contribute to the following outcomes for each child

(a) the child will have a strong sense of identity;

(b) the child will be connected with and contribute to his or her world;

(c) the child will have a strong sense of wellbeing;

(d) the child will be a confident and involved learner;

(e) the child will be an effective communicator.

You will see the above are the five Learning Outcomes from the EYLF and MTOP. What is more interesting is the EYLF and MTOP show you exactly how to meet this regulation and element 1.3.1’s planning cycle. Look at the right-hand columns under the Learning Outcome where it says,

Educators promote this learning, for example, when they:”

Above copied from the EYLF book

When you write from the right-hand side, you are showing how you are meeting regulation 73, but more importantly you are showing your planning and how you’re  extending learning for Element 1.3.1.

Please take a detailed look at the right-hand side below all the Learning Outcomes in EYLF/MTOP. There is
NO EQUIPMENT. There is YOU, the educator. This is why the EYLF and MTOP is known as a relationship curriculum. You need to build learning relationships from the right-hand side of the EYLF/MTOP to plan learning for children.

You always use the right hand side of the learning outcomes in the EYLF/MTOP to plan and extend learning.

 Analysis is the first step in assessment. You are analysing what you see and where you think the child is in relation to the Learning Outcomes – that is assessment. Look below, the regulation wants you to document the assessment of the child. Again, you analyse to get an assessment result. Your analysis is against the Learning Outcomes.

Analysis is about looking at what you see with the child, thinking about what you see and asking yourself in relation to what you see, “what Learning Outcome am I seeing with this child?” That is analysis. The end result is you writing the learning outcome you think you are seeing. When you write the outcomes met, you have documented assessment for the child.

Let’s now look at the regulation

 74 Documenting of child assessments or evaluations for delivery of educational program

(1) The approved provider of the education and care service must ensure that, for the purposes of the educational program, the following are documented

For children preschool age or under services are required to document:

  1. assessments of children’s developmental needs, interests, experiences and participation in the program (Regulation 74)
  2. assessments of a child’s progress against the outcomes of the EYLF (Regulation 74)

Educators need to continually ask “What does the child know, can do and understand in relation to the EYLF Learning Outcomes?”

When you write from the left-hand side you are meeting Regulation 74 and Element 1.3.1 section for assessed or evaluated. This is the biggest misunderstood concept of the EYLF and MTOP.

Above copied from the EYLF book

When you write from the left hand side you are showing the analysis phase of the programming cycle.

Simple programming planning uses the left-hand side of the EYLF/MTOP to discover what children know, can and understand (analysis) and the right-hand side shows how you as an educator planned and extended what children know, can do and understand. Using the EYLF and MTOP left hand and right-hand side to write all your documentation shows your planning cycle.

Simple planning cycle above using left and right sections of the learning outcomes.

Examples of great practice and documentation

Documentation with complete planning cycle written into it Planning cycle in action
Today Cody organised an activity with rocks and two PVC pipes for Archie and Carter to test a hypothesis. Cody asked the boys which rocks would slide down the pipes faster, large or small? Planning

Assessment (Cody is testing their knowledge)
Archie and Carter began investigating to see which rock would slide faster, but soon the boys struck a problem. The rocks became stuck. Cody asked the boys what we should. Archie grabbed the pipe and started shaking it while saying “we should shake it to see if they start sliding again.” Archie’s ideas worked. The rocks came loose and started sliding again. Observation

Reflection then Assessment (Cody is testing their knowledge). Analysis of Learning (Cody now knows what Archie knows)
Cody spent time interacting with Archie and Carter conversing about whose rocks would slide faster down the pipe. Archie said his big rock would be faster “bigger is faster,” but Carter was sure his little rock would be faster saying “no Archie mine will be faster.” They let their rocks go but it was too close to call, so we decided they were both winners with the boys saying “yay we won” and high fiving each other. Implementation and Planning

Assessment (Cody is testing their knowledge)

Documentation

A small sample of a large planning cycle that has grown and grown into major projects with very complex thinking.

Documentation with complete planning cycle written into it Planning cycle in action
Extending yesterday’s learning - Titanic Wed 10th Jan 2018
Coffee was still an interest for the children, so we decided to explore a little further the continents that grew coffee. While reading a book about continents Archie commented that South America “at the bottom has icebergs and icebergs sunk the Titanic.”

This was a great interest to the children and Archie shared his knowledge of the Titanic. “The people were on the boat for five days,” shared Archie.

Miss Danielle and Miss Tara furthered the children’s thoughts while conversing with them and role playing using chairs as life boats to see who the children thought should be rescued from the boat first e.g. women or men, babies or adults, rich or poor, captain and crew or passengers.

Miss Danielle provided children with examples of many ways identities and culture are recognised and expressed within the story of the Titanic e.g. the people that were thought to be important were saved first while others were left behind as they did not have enough life boats for everyone.

Chloe St expressed her concern for children and babies that did not make it onto a life boat when explaining.

“I think that they should of let the babies on first before the parents because they can’t swim so they will sink!” (L/O 1.3) The children spoke to Miss Tara about fairness and equality and whether they would have used the same method as the crew on the Titanic while choosing who got to board a life boat first. “I would put all the boys on the boats first and make the girls swim and hold their babies” shared Jasmine.

After this discussion, Chloe Sm asked “but why couldn’t they just fix the boat and smash the ice out of the way?”

Miss Danielle used this question as an opportunity to discuss the density of an iceberg. Miss Danielle explained to the children that 90% of the iceberg was below the surface of the water.

“The iceberg wanted to be under the water, it didn’t want to swim away from the boat” Lila confidently expressed. “But I think that when I put ice cubes in my drink they just stay on the top, they don’t sink to the bottom” Mackenzie stated. (L/O 1.2)

Extending on the ice density topic and Mackenzie’s statement about ice floating/sinking, Miss Tara and the children gathered containers and filled them with water so we can see whether the size of an ice cube is what determines whether it floats or sinks.

“I think the little ones will sink and the big ones will float” Alice hypothesised. (L/O 5.3)
Planning

Observation

Assessment

Analysis of Learning then Assessment (Using quotes shows what Archie knows)

Reflection
Planning (on the spot)
Implementation (on the spot)

Reflection
Planning (on the spot)
Implementation (on the spot)

Analysis of Learning then Assessment (Using quotes shows what Chloe knows)

Implementation

Analysis of Learning then Assessment (Using quotes shows what Jasmine knows)

Observing (with the children while talking to them)

Reflection
Planning (on the spot)
Implementation (on the spot)

Analysis of Learning then Assessment (Using quotes shows what Lila and Mackenzie know)

Planning (on the spot)
Implementation (on the spot)

Analysis of Learning then Assessment

The EYLF says “Learning is not always predictable and linear” and this is clearly seen in the learning story above. Who would have thought exploring coffee growing areas of the world would end up as a learning experience discussing who should live and who should die.

You as an educator need to be proud of what you can do on the spot and confident to show the assessor.

Exceeding Theme Core

All educators can explain how their approach to assessment and planning links to the service philosophy and learning framework, and how this extends each child’s learning and development, including in relation to the unique community context of the service. All educators engage in robust discussion about the assessment and planning cycle, and consider whether alternate assessment and planning processes will improve learning outcomes.

Where is your practice compared to the above statement?

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1.2.1 Intentional teaching

Educators are deliberate, purposeful, and thoughtful in their decisions and actions.

Go through the checklist and be honest so your Educational Leader and Nominated Supervisor know how to help you be the best.

E = Embedded, yes, I do that ALL the time.
K = We know we need to do that, but we don’t do
it all the time.
T = Please teach me how to do it or improve my understanding of why we need to do it.

Intentional teaching Edu 1
Educators
Do you recognise that learning occurs in social contexts and that interactions and communication is vitally important for learning?
Do you use strategies like modelling and demonstrating, open-ended questioning, speculating, explaining and engaging in sustained shared conversations to extend children’s thinking and learning?
Do you provide time, space and learning experiences that encourage thoughtful and challenging conversations with children?
Do you engage with children by listening, showing interest and asking open-ended questions to encourage thinking and conversation?
Do you use a range of communication strategies that involve explanations, speculation and problem solving?
Do you collaborate with children to develop further knowledge and skills?
Do you provide instructional/intentional support to children during play, routines and transitions?
Are you fully present and mindful of opportunities to provide children time and space to ‘be’?
Can you show plans and strategies you use to promote learning across all aspects of the program?
Can you show how intentional teaching strategies are used to extend children’s play, including spontaneous experiences?
Can you show how changes in practices have been implemented to support a child requiring additional assistance or to build respect for diversity?
Can you show and explain why you decide when to use a particular intentional teaching strategy, including the intentional positioning of resources or structuring of the learning environment?
Can you show how you make conscious decisions in a leisure based program to promote learning and wellbeing?
Do you have team meetings when planning for intentional teaching?

Case Study 1 – “I touch, you touch”
Karen (Educator) planned an activity today to help the children in Tommy’s Turtle’s identify their body parts. The children waited for their turn as they watched and listened to Karen as she began to point and say, “I touch my chin, my head, my cheek, my feet, my ears, my nose and mouth.”

The children watched closely as Karen pointed to the body parts. Karen engaged the children in play with words by saying the names of the body parts and helping them to point to that part.

Nevaeh, Ivy and Elijah moved closer to Karen as she took turns with the children by taking their hands as she said “Nevaeh’s head, Ivy’s ears, Elijah’s head” while pointing to the correct body part then continuing on to the rest of the body parts.

Ivy giggled as she looked at Karen each time she touched a different body part. Nevaeh, Ivy and Elijah were connected to Karen in a positive and happy way by showing lots of smiles and looking at Karen as she talked to them.

Case study 2 – I can do it
This afternoon Bryleigh was pushing herself up on her hands and tippy toes, trying to move forward. Karen placed the bead maze away from Bryleigh to encourage her to move herself closer to it. Karen sat near the bead maze encouraging Bryleigh by saying “Come on Bryleigh, you can do it.” Bryleigh actively responded by giving Karen a big smile as she continued to push herself forward with her feet. During this experience Bryleigh had a rest when needed by laying flat on the floor, continuing to look at the maze.

Bryleigh expressed a wide range of emotions during this task as she showed excitement and curiosity when Karen moved the flowers and shapes along the bars. “Look at the different colours Bryleigh” Karen said.

Bryleigh was persistent with this challenging experience as she was determined to get to the bead maze. When she finally reached it, she looked at Karen with a big smile.

Case study 3 –  Using the bubblers!
Today during our adventure out in the Toddler yard, the children enjoyed running around and exploring all different activities that were available for them to play with. The children’s favourite activity was running around the path chasing each other. All the running made the children thirsty and Brody and Lily came running over to Eliza and were pointing up to the bubblers, communicating their need for a drink. Eliza, Lily and Brody walked up to the bubblers together. Eliza explained to Brody and Lily that for the bubblers to work you need to use your hand to push down on the handle for the water to come out the spout. Eliza extended the learning by having a conversation with both Brody and Lily about making sure we drink plenty of water throughout the day to maintain a healthy body.

Case study 4 – Experiment time!
Magnets and the way they either attract or repulsed each other were a great interest to children. See curriculum 12.2.18 & 13.2.18. Eliza (educator) reflected about the success of the lesson and planned an experience to extend the concept of materials separating, but this time with liquid. Eliza gathered Reuben, Ethan, Eddie and Brody around in a small group on the floor as she prepared all the ingredients. Brody helped Eliza carefully squeeze 2 blobs of food dye into the water and mix it with the paddle pop stick. Once all the food dye was mixed into the water it was time for the oil to be poured into the water. Ethan confidently stood up beside Eliza and helped pour some oil into the jug of water. Reuben, Ethan, Eddie and Brody were all amazed how the oil and water did not mix together. Eliza had a group discussion using scientific language with the children to explain and discuss that the oil and water do not mix as water molecules are polar and the oil molecules are non-polar. So, they do not have a force that brings them together to mix. Eliza asked the children “Do you see the oil floating on top?” The children replied non-verbally with a grin on their faces. Eliza explained that the oil floats on top as it has a lower density then water, so it will always float on top.

Case Study 1 – Patterns in play

Miss Tara used Saxon and Aaron’s interest in building and Lego to introduce the concept of patterns. The activity sparked Torah’s curiosity and Torah asked Miss Tara “can I do it too Tara?” Miss Tara happily welcomed Torah to the activity and asked the children “does anyone know what a pattern is?” The children were unsure, so Miss Tara explained “a pattern is something that repeats itself. It does the same thing over and over again.” Miss Tara used the Lego to illustrate this concept by placing a red brick on the floor then a red brick next to it. Miss Tara asked, “if we want it to be the same which colour should come next?” Saxon answered “yellow”.

Miss Tara placed the yellow brick down and exclaimed “you are right Saxon. It is yellow. See, it goes yellow, red, yellow”. Miss Tara then asked so which colour should go next?” Torah identified “red”. Torah and Saxon both showed they are beginning to understand and recognise patterns by identifying the next colour in the sequence. (L/O 5.4)

Miss Tara laid out another pattern, this time using three different coloured blocks green, pink, yellow. Miss Tara asked Saxon, Aaron and Torah if they could identify which colour comes next. Again, Saxon recognised the pattern and correctly answered “green.” Miss Tara asked Aaron, “which do you think comes after the green Aaron?” Aaron told Miss Tara “pink”. Miss Tara placed a pink brick down. Aaron observed “no not that pink, it’s a different pink!” Miss Tara laughed and found a brick which was the same shade pink as the first one. Miss Tara, Saxon, Torah and Aaron spent time making more patterns and arranging the bricks in a line. Miss Tara wanted to include numeracy into play and asked Aaron if he could count all the bricks in the line. Aaron confidently counted all 17 bricks. Saxon saw this and said “look I can count; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6” as he pointed to each brick. Torah showed Miss Tara “I can count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7!” as she pointed to the bricks.

Case Study – No intentional teaching

Educators were concerned with babies’ care and routine and hadn’t thought about how their practice could be ‘intentional teaching’ as the children were too young. Other educators didn’t think young children could understand scientific concepts, so no intentional scientific lessons were planned.

Exceeding Theme Core

All educators are consistently deliberate, purposeful, and thoughtful in all of their decisions and actions, and confidently make curriculum decisions to ensure each child’s participation, learning and development. All educators consistently draw on families’ or communities’ understanding of each child’s strengths, ideas, culture and interests to extend their learning and development, and regularly reflect, individually and with each other, on their educational practice.

Where is your practice compared to the above statement?

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1.1.3 Program learning opportunities

All aspects of the program, including routines, are organised in ways that maximise opportunities for each child’s learning.

The big focus for this element is the two words ‘maximise’ and ‘learning’. With learning comes teaching and that is what this element wants from us as educators.

Firstly, let’s look at the routine and see if we are maximising the learning within all the routines that are conducted during the day.

Babies

Babies have their own routines and as they grow older you can start to form a Room Routine together. For example, meal times might include a child by themselves, or a few children. As they grow the room starts to eat as a group.

There are so many learning possibilities in the Room Routine and they become a part of the EYLF process of learning for young babies and children. For example,

Food service – get the children, including the very young children, to run it eg handing out bowls and cutlery, serving themselves, washing up. They love it.

Sleep rest area – prepare this area with the children.

Cleaning   – clean with the children using a roster for children’s jobs.

Gardening – garden with the children. My educators and children have done everything in my backyard, including recently laying new lawn and building climbing structures.

Recycling – eg children can help recycle material to use for art.

Toileting and nappy change –  this is the most valuable time you have with a child which allows warm nurturing relationships that build trust.

Cleaning time!

At morning tea time Harry and Lylah had fun cleaning their faces with washers. We have them clean up every time after their meals so they know the feel of the face washer. It’s also part of a routine that’s implemented every day to make their transition smooth as it can be. They had fun getting used to the face washers and cleaning their faces.  Courtney (educator) responded by talking to them and making them smile by clapping. Harry and Lylah would clap and laugh too.    Learning Outcome 1.1

Help with the cleaning

Today the children helped us clean the room. Hadlee helped Stacey wipe down the cupboard.  Sam provided Hadlee with a cleaning cloth so she could participate in cleaning the benches including the sides like Stacey showed her. Stacey actively supported Hadlee to learn hygiene practices during the daily routine.

Isabelle, Chelsea and Ivy helped Eliza wipe down the bookshelf. The girls climbed through the bookshelf to ensure all areas were clean as Eliza showed them how to wipe in big circles. Isabelle interacted with Ivy and Eliza by giggling with them and talking to them as she connected with them in a positive and happy way.

What are you doing well in relation to ‘maximising learning’ in the routine?

Where and how can you improve ‘maximising learning’ in the routine?

Exceeding Theme Core

All educators work collaboratively with the educational leader, and regularly engage with families and the community, to consistently make curriculum decisions, including the organisation of daily routines, which maximise learning and development outcomes for every child. All educators regularly reflect on changes to the program which would enhance learning outcomes, including through the organisation of daily routines.

Where is your practice compared to the above statement?

2.2.2 Incident and emergency management.

Plans to effectively manage incidents and emergencies are developed in consultation with relevant authorities, practised and implemented.

Go through the checklist and be honest so your Educational Leader and Nominated Supervisor know how to help you be the best.

E = Embedded, yes, I do that ALL the time.
K = We know we need to do that, but we don’t do
it all the time.
T = Please teach me how to do it or improve my understanding of why we need to do it.

Emergency Practices Edu 1
Facilities
Exit doors are always clear of obstructions/objects
Exit doors are unlocked when service is open
Rehearsals
Evacuation procedures are rehearsed at least once every three months on different days and at different times
Rehearsals for all potential emergencies (eg lockdown) are rehearsed at least once every three months on different days and at different times
Documentation
Incident, Injury, Trauma and Illness Records are completed for children that have suffered an injury or trauma during emergency
Practices in Emergency (Rehearsals)
Attendance records (children, staff and visitors) are collected and checked to ensure everyone is accounted for
All areas of service checked eg bathroom, toilet, cot room
The emergency kit is collected and contains everything required
The emergency kit is fully stocked
There is a charged mobile phone with credit
Educators contribute to evaluation of rehearsal

A lot of centres don’t understand they have to do a risk assessment for ALL potential emergencies or what those emergencies could be.

Please ensure you discuss and identify if these are appropriate for your room and service. Remember whole service emergency practice are required, but what happens if the emergency starts in your room?

  • Bushfire
  • Intruder
  • Grassfire
  • Building Fire
  • Severe Weather Event
  • River Flooding
  • Earthquake
  • Bomb/ Substance Threat
  • Pandemic
  • Hazardous Substance Release (Inside and Outside Facility Grounds)
  • Angry Parent Threatening or Abusing Educators
  • Child Meltdown
  • Child Leaving the Service by Themselves
  • Snake in the Room
  • Car smashing into service or playground trapping children
  • Educator on Drugs Having Psychotic Episode
  • Child brings hand gun to centre in bag and gets it out
  • Alien Invasion (just checking to see if you are reading).

Looking at your list of emergencies, how would you connect and learn from your local community? For example, Alice’s mum is an ambulance officer. She has assisted the educators thinking about different ways to deal with emergencies from her experience. Every visit from the emergency services to your centre gives you the opportunity to talk to and discuss how to deal with emergencies and this needs to be documented.

Document how you would connect to the families to learn more about dealing with emergencies.

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Exceeding Theme Core

Managers develop partnerships with key emergency service organisations and ensure emergency plans are practised regularly. All educators actively engage with families about their safety concerns, and critically reflect individually and as a team on emergency management practices, taking into account responses to past incidents and advice from recognised authorities, making identified changes to improve safety outcomes.

Where is your practice compared to the above statement?

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2.2.1 Supervision

At all times, reasonable precautions and adequate supervision ensure children are protected from harm and hazard

Go through the checklist and be honest so your Educational Leader and Nominated Supervisor know how to help you be the best.

E = Embedded, yes, I do that ALL the time.
K = We know we need to do that, but we don’t do
it all the time.
T = Please teach me how to do it or improve my understanding of why we need to do it.

Edu 1
Supervision Practices
Are children effectively supervised at all times eg
  • in all areas they can access?
  • on the change table and any other places that present a risk?
  • while sleeping (especially babies and toddlers)?
  • at mealtimes or when eating and drinking?
  • all children within sight and/or hearing of educators at all times?
Do you focus completely on supervising children eg you’re not supervising children while also cleaning, programming etc?
Supervision and Communication
Do you communicate effectively with team members about supervision of children eg I’m going here, Darcy’s up there?
Do you share supervision planning/arrangements for indoor and outdoor areas with relief staff?
Supervision and Environment
Do you arrange equipment, furniture and activities to ensure effective supervision?
Do you arrange equipment and furniture so children can access private and quiet spaces while being supervised unobtrusively?
Do you follow the outdoor supervision diagram showing where you should stand for effective supervision (if relevant eg there are hard to see areas)?
Child Protection
Are volunteers and students always visible to other educators when they are with the children?
Do you ensure students are never left with the sole supervision of children, indoors or outdoors?
Do you ensure individuals/groups of children are never taken into rooms that can be locked or areas where they’re not visible to others?
Staffing
Are educator child ratios always met?

Exceeding Theme Core

All educators reflect upon their practice and families’ concerns to ensure children’s safety is always met. They do this by being consistently attuned to children and applying risk assessment. Educators can confidently explain and adjust the environment, program, practice, policies and procedures when required.

Where is your practice compared to the above statement?

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2.1.3 Healthy lifestyle

Healthy eating and physical activity are promoted and appropriate for each child.

Healthy food and the five food groups

You want to provide healthy, nutritious food for your children, but what are the latest healthy eating guidelines for children?

Just like adults, children should eat a variety of foods from the five food groups every day

  1. Vegetables (lots of different colours) and legumes
  2. Fruit
  3. Grain foods like bread, cereal, rice, pasta, noodles (preferably wholegrain and/or high fibre)
  4. Meat (lean) and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds
  5. Dairy foods (milk, yoghurt, cheese)

While children aged 2 and over should eat or drink mostly reduced fat dairy foods, reduced fat milk (or food) is not suitable for children under 2.

And just like adults, children should avoid foods that are high in saturated fat or have added salt or sugar. This means foods like  biscuits, cakes, ice-cream, lollies, pies, takeaway burgers, chips and fried foods, potato chips, sausages, processed meats (eg frankfurts and devon), cordial, soft drink and sports drinks should only be consumed on special occasions.

Children should also drink plenty of water. Infants up to 1 year old should have breast milk or formula as their main drink (preferably breast milk). Soy and goat-milk based formulas are not recommended.

Around 6 months of age start infants on solid foods including iron fortified cereals, pureed meat and poultry, cooked plain tofu and legumes/beans. Foods can be introduced in any order provided the texture is suitable for baby’s stage of development. Cow’s milk products including yoghurt, cheese and custard may also be given.

Shopping and Cooking

So what do you need to be aware of when cooking or buying food?

  • Try not to add salt to food you cook or put it on the table
  • Use spices, herbs and lemon to flavour food instead of salt/sugar
  • Use polyunsaturated oils (eg olive oil) rather than saturated fats like palm oil, butter, cream, coconut oil, copha, lard
  • Trim fat from meat
  • Avoid frying and steam, bake, poach or grill instead
  • Check product labels for sugar, fat and salt (sodium) levels
  • Remember that products marked as ‘light’ may not necessarily be more healthy. They may have higher levels of sugar or bad fats, and contain similar calories as the normal product
  • Be careful you don’t end up buying a high sugar breakfast cereal which are often marketed as healthy options

Source: Eat for Health Federal GovernmentAustralian Dietary Guidelines 2013Infant Feeding Guidelines 2012

Why is physical activity good for children?There’s increasing research which shows a link between a lack of physical activity and illnesses like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. So it’s important to develop healthy habits in children to help protect them against disease in later life.There’s also growing evidence that physical activity helps children improve the way they process information, concentrate and remember what they’ve learned.

That’s good news for most children who naturally love to explore and run around.

Of course when children play they also learn about how their world works and develop the social skills needed to interact harmoniously with others.

Floor based play is best for babies who can’t walk yet eg tummy time. It’s important that the environment inside and outside is stimulating and encourages babies to explore. There should be exciting spaces (eg tunnel), sounds (eg things to bang) and textures. Educators can encourage greater activity and learning when they interact with babies, mirror their actions and talk with them.

The Federal Government recommends at least 3 hours of physical activity every day for children aged 1-5 years. It’s important to remember that everyday routines and activities contribute to this time.

Activities can include things like dancing to music, ‘make believe’ games, riding bikes, kicking balls, moving like an animal, yoga, sandpit play, treasure hunts, gardening (eg watering and weeding), water play and walking instead of riding in a stroller.

Exceeding Theme Core

All educators consistently promote healthy eating and physical activity in line with current recognised guidelines which they can discuss, actively engage with families about their child’s healthy eating and physical activity needs, strengths and preferences and include these in the educational program, and build partnerships with the community  to enhance children’s health and activity outcomes. All educators regularly reflect on opportunities to enhance health and activity outcomes, and make identified changes..

Where is your practice compared to the above statement?

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2.1.2 Health Practices and Procedures

Effective illness and injury management and hygiene practices are promoted and implemented.

Go through the checklist and be honest so your Educational Leader and Nominated Supervisor know how to help you be the best.

E = Embedded, yes, I do that ALL the time.
K = We know we need to do that, but we don’t do
it all the time.
T = Please teach me how to do it or improve my understanding of why we need to do it.

Bathroom Safety and Hygiene - Cleaning Procedures Edu
Is soiled clothing/nappies firmly sealed in containers and inaccessible to children at all times?
Is the bathroom cleaned at least once a day?
Is the bathroom cleaned as soon as it looks/smells dirty or there are spills?
Is the toilet thoroughly cleaned eg around the base, under the lid?
Is the bathroom cleaned with detergent and water?
Is the bathroom disinfected if there are spills of blood, urine, poo or vomit which are known/suspected to be infectious?
Can sponges/cloths used be easily identified because they’re a specific colour eg orange for the bathroom?
Are gloves worn to clean the bathroom?
Are these gloves only used to clean the bathroom?
Are cleaning products inaccessible to children?
Are plastic bags inaccessible to children?
Are plastic bags inaccessible to children?
Are mops and buckets inaccessible to children?
Are drawers and cupboards closed immediately after use?
Do all staff clean and dry equipment after cleaning?
Do all staff wash their hands as soon as they finish cleaning?
The Bathroom - General
Supervision
Are children supervised AT ALL TIMES in the bathroom?
Display
Are toileting and nappy change procedures displayed?
Are hand washing procedures displayed?
Are handwashing procedures with pictures displayed for children to follow?
Is the cleaning schedule displayed
Is the cleaning schedule signed off by the person who cleans the bathroom?

Case Studies – Refer to Staying Healthy 5th Edition before talking. 

https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/ch55_staying_healthy_5th_edition_150602.pdf

All educators refer to Staying Healthy before making a decision about a child’s illness or their own illness. This process has taken a long time to implement in the centre because a cultural change needed to occur through reflection and a better understanding of where and how Staying Healthy 5th Edition was developed. Firstly, it was decided to not to discuss any child’s illness unless we had referred to Staying Healthy. Secondly room leaders and more importantly Nominated Supervisors had to push back and stop ALL conversations about illness until educators referred to Staying Healthy. This was required as far too much time was being wasted by getting many people involved to talk about a child’s illness. The benefits of implementing this practice has seen less wasting of other educators’ time talking about illness, giving educators confidence to refer parents to Staying Healthy when it comes to children’s illness, which in turn has seen parents keeping children at home when their child is contagious and overall better hygiene practices in the centre, especially when a preventable disease enters the centre.

Case Study – Injury management by engaging children with the risk benefit analysis process

 Reflecting upon the risk children are exposed to in the play area it was decided adults were not the best people to say what was risky and what was not. Educators and children developed lessons and discussions to identify what was dangerous and how to play safely. The children developed their own safety rules and checklist to monitor the playground as well as an end of play season reflection about what worked well in the playground and what could be improved upon (see Learning story 18/5/19).

We need to be sure your service reflects the unique geographical, cultural and community context and draw upon the voices, priorities and strengths of the children and families.

Case study – New family required a little help

Do you remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? He said before we can make close personal relationships or learn we need to feel full, warm, rested and safe. It’s the same for families. Before they care about who a child’s friends are, or what they are learning, they want their child to be safe and their basic needs met. Hygiene is one very important part of children’s safety. Poor hygiene practices can lead to illness, including infectious disease and isolation.

A family arrived at the centre as a new enrolment because another centre previously kicked them out because of the child’s poor hygiene. We didn’t realise this at the time, but it was later disclosed to us by the family.

The family had fallen on hard times, the parents were separating, the mother had lost her job and the children arrived dirty, neglected and hungry. The educators were required to report the family to child protection. This process initiated outside help and the family was given a case worker from an agency and support started which included the agency working with the centre to provide the support.

It was discovered the family was living without electricity, therefore there was no hot water to bathe with. The centre very discretely showered the children when they arrived and provided fresh clean clothes and nappies for the baby.

The centre discussed with the mother their food situation. It was discovered that they had difficulty scraping enough money together for food. The centre’s chef contacted Oz Harvest and discussed how they retrieved food from restaurant to give to the homeless. The chef discussed with the Nominated Supervisor how they could help and set up a food plan. Leftover food was kept for the family after it had been decided by the chef the food would meet the food hygiene standards and safety rules.

The centre worked closely with the agency and they were able to provide vouchers for food and electricity to the family.

When children are dirty and smell, other children won’t play with them. When children are hungry they don’t develop and can’t concentrate on learning. The NQS is focused upon supporting families with the help of the whole community to create the best outcomes for children. The centre that kicked out the family were not meeting the guiding principles of the NQS or coming anywhere near exceeding theme 3 Families and Community.  It is easy to remove the hard families and children, but how do you grow personally and professionally as an educator and person?

Remember, we need evidence written into the QIP showing how we work with families across ALL of the 7 quality areas. When we dig a little deeper the evidence is all there, we may have not thought about all the evidence we have. Think about all the ways you have worked with families and communities under the three strands of element 2.1.2

  1. Illness management and hygiene practices
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  1. Injury management
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  1. Hygiene practices
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Exceeding Theme Core

All educators consistently implement effective hygiene practices, and manage and support children’s health and medical needs in line with recognised best practice which they can discuss. All educators reflect on health and illness-related incidents, and help to implement identified changes. All educators build partnerships with families and community members/organisations to enhance children’s health outcomes.

Where is your practice compared to the above statement?

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2.1.1 Wellbeing and comfort

Each child’s wellbeing and comfort is provided for, including appropriate opportunities to meet each child’s need for sleep, rest and relaxation.

Supporting rest and sleep in early childhood settings for toddlers

Daytime rest and sleep is an important feature of an early childhood centre routine and significant for children’s health, behavioural regulation, and learning. To create an environment for children to rest and sleep in there are four keys things to consider:

  1. scheduling
  2. routines
  3. environmental stimuli
  4. emotional climate
  1. Sleep scheduling

Sleep scheduling includes the consistency and duration of sleep and respect for the child’s sleep duration. We need to be aware of a child’s sleep schedule at home because it helps us to establish positive sleep and rest practices at the centre. Another important point is to know when a child has had their sleep schedule interrupted because we all know how a child’s behaviour can be linked to a lack of sleep.

We can assist the parents by teaching them the importance of regular bedtime, rise time, and allowing children to sleep to their needs. There is a link between sleep scheduling and behaviour, for example, irregular bed and rise times might disturb the circadian rhythm (body clock). When exposed to irregular sleep scheduling, they may experience tiredness and adverse effects on the child’s behaviour and learning.

What do we do well in centres?

Educators maintained sleep and rest routines, told stories, and offered children an opportunity to play with a soft toy or to read a book on their bed for a period of time before the expectation of sleep. They engaged in routines that prepared children for sleep time.

What do DON’T DO WELL in centres?

Educators were expecting children to have lengthy periods of sleep time, often up to 2 hours or more during which nonsleeping children were not permitted access to alternative activities. These rooms were characterised by a lack of pre-sleep routines to decrease arousal.

How can you improve your sleep and rest schedule at your centre?

  1. Sleep routines

Routines are activities that are associated with the start of sleep time and serve to reduce stress and increase predictability for children. Such routines lead to a decrease in arousal levels and result in a shorter period in getting to sleep and an overall improved quality of sleep.

Tips for parents. For night bedtime routines to be most successful, they should start before putting the child to bed and include a pre-sleep activity that is low in stimulation and signals transition to sleep. The worst things parents can do before bed are boisterous or mentally exciting activities that arouse the child and heighten physical and emotional states. The above works well in ECE setting too.  For daytime rest and sleep we need use consistent routines that reduce arousal states and signal the approach of rest and sleep time.

As a team create a list of pre-sleep routines that are low in stimulation and signals transition to sleep. Don’t forget to share the successful ideas with parents.

They will love you for it.

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Now list all the things you have seen or accidentally done that is the opposite of a pre-sleep routine and boisterous or mentally exciting activities.

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  1. Stimulus in the sleep environment

Activities that occur within the rest and sleep environment are important to look at and evaluate as they influence rest, sleep and the quality of sleep in both positive and negative ways. Reading a book has a positive effect on sleep, but activities involving screen-based media, for example TV, iPads or computer screens have a negative effect. Many research studies have shown the presence of screen technology reduces sleep duration and quality. Screen-based technologies heighten emotional, cognitive, and physiological arousal by increasing levels of environmental light and sound, and exposure to emotional content. It’s good to remind parents of this as well as the negative effect of having screens/iPads etc in the bedroom. Put simply, beds are for sleeping in and we don’t want to learn beds are for stimulating non-sleep screen activities. Sleep clinics and sleep health practitioners are worried about this trend in modern life.

Evaluate your sleep environment. Are you reducing the behaviours and practices to slow children down and take their emotional and physical states down? How can you improve?

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  1. Emotional climate

Adults behaviour effect the arousal levels in the sleep environment and set the emotional tone of the room. A calm emotional climate can facilitate sleep, whereas an environment that is threatening or punitive (“on your bed” said in a harsh voice) may limit sleep and may become associated with sleep disorder.

Research showed centres scheduling prolonged sleep times without alternative activity for nonsleepers were found to have lower emotional climate, whereas those with more flexible timing and provision of quiet activities for nonsleepers had higher emotional climate. Disruption and distress of children within ECEC rooms have been reported to occur alongside coercive and punitive methods to keep children in their beds and can disrupt the sleep of other children in the room.

In contrast, positive behaviours such as gentle and respectful communication within classrooms have been observed to provide a calm and emotionally supportive environment. The best environments for the support of children’s sleep are: characterized by appropriate scheduling, the provision of pre-sleep routines that signal the commencement of the sleep period; presence of activities that reduce stimulation and remove arousing activities; and educator’s practice that maintains calm and are free of threatening or punitive behaviours.

What are the alternatives for non-sleepers?

Exceeding Theme Core

All educators consistently meet each child’s needs for sleep, rest and relaxation individually and in groups, taking into consideration information from children, families and the community. All educators can explain how children’s changing activity needs are considered in the program design and the guidelines that underpin their practice.

Where is your practice compared to the above statement?

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1.3.3 Information for families

Families are informed about the program and their child’s progress.

Case study – Showing how writing curriculum documentation can easily cover NQS Element 1.3.3

NQS Guide Requirements Example of curriculum from pre-schoolers 4 -5 years From the EYLF Learning Outcomes
Below I have used the NQS guide to show how this learning example meets what the Element 1.3.3 requires.

Show how educators have supported and guided children.

Ensure information is provided that documents children’s participation and their progress against the approved framework’s learning outcomes.

Educators share ‘point-in-time’ summaries about each child’s progress towards the learning outcomes

Show how educators have supported and guided children.

Show families their child’s strengths, abilities and knowledge.
Re-visiting the Water Cycle (Tara)
Today with Miss Tara, Lucinda and Marlee set up an experiment to illustrate how trees collect and expel water. Miss Tara explained; “we are going to put the leaves inside the bag to see if it collects water.”

Marlee and Lucinda began pulling the leaves off the tree and putting them in the bag. “Instead of putting the leaves in the bag that way, we are actually going to leave the leaves on the tree and tie the bag around the branch!” Miss Tara clarified. Once the girls understood how we would set up the experiment we worked together to place the bag over the branch, making sure we got as many leaves in as possible and tied it off, so it was nice and tight.

“How do you think water might get into the bag?” Miss Tara asked Lucinda and Marlee.
“From the rain”. Marlee predicted.
“It might but we have tied off the bag so hopefully no rain gets in there” Miss Tara replied. To build on the knowledge and understandings that Lucinda and Marlee bring Miss Tara reminded the girls what they learned last year about the water cycle. (L/O 1.3)
“What happens when it rains, where does the rain go?” Miss Tara asked.
“On the ground” Marlee replied.
“And what do trees have under the ground that suck up the rain?” Miss Tara questioned.
“Wood?” questioned Lucinda. Miss Tara continued, “Yes, they are called ‘roots’. The water goes into the roots and travels up the tree until it reaches the?...”
“Leaves!” both girls replied.
“So, how do you think water might get into our bag?” Miss Tara asked again.
“From when it rains, and it goes into the ground and gets to the leaves and comes out the leaves”Lucinda replied.

Both Marlee and Lucinda displayed an ability to transfer knowledge from one context to another by applying their existing knowledge about the water-cycle to the experiment we are conducting. (L/O 4.3) Both Lucinda and Marlee have been checking the bag regularly to see if any water has built up. Miss Tara suggested we leave the bag overnight and check it tomorrow to see the results of our experiment.
Look at the EYLF Learning Outcomes and below you will see two boxes.

The green type represents the left-hand side of the EYLF outcomes indicators showing what children know, can do and understand.

The Blue type comes from the right hand side and represents what the educator can do to extend and promote the learning outcomes.

Exceeding Theme Core
All educators consistently engage meaningfully with children’s families in culturally sensitive ways that meet each family’s needs to inform them about the educational program and their child’s participation, learning and development, and regularly reflect, individually and with each other, on whether families can understand and easily access the information.
Where is your practice compared to the above statement?

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