Across Australia there are a variety of different facilities available to families in assisting them to care for their children. These include family day care (FDC), long day care (LDC), an early learning centre (ELC), and out of school hours care (OSHC). All care supplied to children in an LDC, FDC, OSHC or ELC must comply with government and state regulations. There are two approved national learning frameworks to help improve the quality care for children aged zero to twelve years of age. These include Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (EYLF) and My Time, Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority [ACECQA], n.d.). These national …show more content…
According to ACECQA (2017, p. 430) approved service must comply with national regulations 122-123 and national law section 169 during operation. The nursery room and toddlers 1A must have one educator for every four children, toddlers 1B and toddlers 2 must have one educator for every five children and both junior kindy and kindy must have one educator for every ten children (ACECQA, 2017, p. 430). Every room has a maximum number of children and must not exceed this number; otherwise, they are in breach of the regulation. The nursery is licensed for 12 children, toddlers 1A is eight children, toddlers 1B is ten children, toddler 2 is 15 children, junior kindy is 30 and kindy are 20 (Personal Communication, 2017). ELC must be sure that sufficient educators and staff members are available when the children are present as this helps to deliver quality education and care (ACECQA, 2017, p. …show more content…
According to ACECQA (n.d., para, 1) approved services are assessed against seven quality areas of the NQS, these include educational program and practice, children’s health and safety, physical environment, staffing arrangements, relationships with children, collaborative partnerships with families and communities, leadership and service management. These assessments and ratings make sure the ELC reach the required standard by promoting transparency and accountability, which assist parents to assess the quality of education and care service available in their area (ACEQA, n.d., para. 1). There are five ratings that approved centres can comply with. GELCVCR has a rating that states it is meeting the national quality standard, showing it provides quality education and care across all seven areas (Commonwealth of Australia, 2017, para. 3). Assessing and rating service in Australia helps to create high quality care, allowing and further investigating to be conducted if a service is not meeting these
Explain the legal status and principles of the relevant early years frameworks and how national and local guidance materials are used in settings
Prochner, L. & Howe, N. (2000). Early Childhood Care and Education in Canada. Vancouver & Toronto: UBC Press.
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) was implemented in England in 2008 and applies to all children aged 0-5. This new curriculum combined existing government ideas regarding the care of under 5s including the 'Every Child Matters' (ECM) policy: children's services have to respond to 5 outcomes for all children from birth to 18: being healthy, being protected from harm and neglect, being enabled to enjoy and achieve, making a positive contribution to society, and contributing to economic well-being. The statutory EYFS document stated a need for a 'coherent and flexible approach to care and learning' (DfES - Department for Education and Skills 2007; cited in Palaiologou, 2010, p.11 ), and ensures a quality experience for children regardless of the pre-school setting. EYFS and its direct predecessors were introduced based on the realisation that quality of teaching and management of schools play a central role in children's quality of learning, not socio-economic and educational background, as was previously thought. Pre-school education was seen as a method of helping children 'break the cycle of deprivation' (Baldock, 2009, p.20). However, research by Potter immediately prior to the inception of the EYFS concluded that due to 'insufficiently rigorous conceptual underpinnings, particularly in the area of language and communicatio...
In this centre, their all settings for the school age children are appropriate for their all developmental skills. I think they are trying to meet their philosophy which is fostering and contributing to the child development partnership with parents. as well their mission statement, “Our mandate is to meet the needs of our school families by providing quality age appropriate, interesting, engaging enjoyable activities for the students entrusted to our care on all regular school days and non school weekdays.”
If a child is looked after or in care, their opportunities in general may be restricted. This in turn leads to their development being affected in many different ways.
The process of opening a childcare facility is thorough, tedious and time consuming. The benefits of following proper procedures are time saving, informative and essential to the well being of the children being served. As the process begins there are many avenues in which to gather your information. You may choose to reference a textbook for initial pre-licensing direction. A University approved text would be “Developing and Administering a Child Care and Education Program authored by Dorothy Sciarra (Sciarra, 2007). This text will provide valuable information on assessing community needs and establishing a program, as well as licensing and certification objectives and resources. Another avenue source you may choose to access is direct contact with your state run division of childcare licensing. For the state of California, in which I reside, the local contact information is: Fresno Regional Child Care Office located at 770 East Shaw, Suite 300 Fresno, CA 93710. Their contact phone number is (559) 243-4588.. By directly contacting this office, telephone instruction can be provided which will lead you to the necessary steps required to begin the licensing process.
A few accreditation programs include NAEYC, The National Association for the Education of Young Children, NECPA, National Early Childhood Program Accreditation (Douglass 89-94); and specific to Pennsylvania, Keystone Stars. If a daycare receives NAYEC accreditation then they are the crème de la crème of early childhood programs. Parents recognize NAEYC accreditation as a mark of high quality and are more inclined to send their child to that daycare center. Centers that are NAEYC accredited have stronger team of teachers, administrators, and families working together to improve quality for children (Why NAEYC Accreditation). NECPA accreditation in child care center also attracts families to enroll their center there because they know their child will receive quality care. This accreditation program asses the quality of the adult and child interaction, staff framing, health and safety; physical environment, administration, and the parent and community relationships (Encouraging Quality, Recognizing Excellence). Keystone Stars is a continuous quality improvement program. It has four star levels, one meaning just beginning and four meaning the highest quality. Keystone Stars sets requirements for early childhood education program to promote the best learning environment and safest setting possible for each child. A Keystone Stars program provides children with individual attention, daily learning activities, a safe, friendly, and respectful environment; self-esteem, a well educated staff, and parent and community involvement (A Parent’s Guide to Choosing Quality Child Care). Accrediting programs is a way of child care centers providing the best possible care that promotes social, emotional, and cognitive development for young childre...
The National Quality Standard establishes a national benchmark for the quality of education and care services. It provides great opportunities for families to have a better understanding of the quality service. This also allows families to make the right decisions about the services that provide the best education and care to their children. In the National Quality Standard, there are seven standards that provide children the quality of education and care services. These seven standards are educational program and practice; children’s health and safety; physical environment; staffing arrangements; relationships with children; collaboration partnerships with families and communities; leadership and service management (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority [ACECQA], 2013). The National Quality Standard aims to support and foster the safety, health and wellbeing of children. It also aims to provide high-quality educational programmes to achieve positive outcomes for children. To add on, families will have a better understanding of the programmes and will be able to differentiate an...
When selecting childcare for your child the foundation of early learning has offered some tips that they believe will be helpful in the process. The foundation says that parents have always known that good early experience was important for their child. Now scientist and researchers are confirming how critical these first years of life are to your child’s healthy development (Selecting child care, 2002). Because the brain matures in the world rather than in the womb, the brain growth and development of infants and young children is deeply affected by their earliest experiences. In a childcare environment the relationship your child has with the caregiver will also affect how that child feels about himself and the world around him and as he grows up (Selecting child care, 2002). I ...
A normal day for a daycare facility is to have many classrooms full of students like a typical public school; however, they are younger children and are being supervised by an adult. That adult is responsible for, on average, four to ten students at any given time, ages ranging from zero to six. During that time, a lot can happen. These busy workers have many responsibilities throughout the day. The most important one is safety. Because these children are so young, they are also adventurous therefore need a lot of attention. Daycare workers have to spend much time supervising these children while performing other tasks throughout the day. Not only do children need to be supervised to be safe, but they also need to have a safe, clean and presentable environment that the daycare workers of the facility are to maintain. One way to keep things clean is to sanitize, in which is a big task of these workers. Children are always putting things in their mouth and then passing it off to other kids; therefore, sanitation is a big deal in these types of facilities. Another responsibility that daycare providers have are to enforce rules. When rules are broken, these providers are to then enforce discipline policies. These can sometimes become an issue seeing that these providers are not the parents of the children thus they have to consult with the parents on certain discipline techniques to use on specific children. On the other hand, these providers are similar to parents in the sense that they wash children's clothing and clean up after every child. In addition to all the other responsibilities, daycare providers also have to maintain current, accurate and confidential client files per child. These files are to consist of observations and r...
Each and every daycare has their own menu for the children’s breakfast and lunch. Through my observations, I have noticed that the “Don’t Worry Childcare” has a variety of food selections throughout the month. For example, the children could either choose from fruit loops cereal, or frosted flakes for breakfast. The children’s snacks eaten varies every day as well. For instance, the children ate milk and cookies one day, and cheese crackers another day. An example of lunch would be, milk, chicken fingers, French fries, green beans, and mixed fruit one day, and spaghetti, corn, peaches, and bread another day. I observed the children eat ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and peaches one day for lunch. All those food options seemed very delicious.
This has led to children having a poor start to life, which carries on through their learning and is the leading cause of behavioural or emotional problems (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015). Therefore, the Australian Government inaugurates an ECE and care reform agenda. The key components: • Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) • Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) • Early Years Workforce Strategy •
Commission for Social Care Inspection (2005) Making Every Child Matter, Commission for Social Care Inspection
Care and education have become a part of children’s daily lives in Ireland and England outside the home in childcare services. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the statutory curriculum framework for children up to the age of five in England. It was first introduced in 2008 and on the 1st of September 2012 a new revised document was published. Aistear, published in 2009, is Ireland’s first early year’s curriculum framework for children from birth to six years of age. A curriculum framework is a scaffold or support for the development of a curriculum that can be used in childcare settings. A curriculum framework can also be used in partnership with parents when developing a curriculum. This paper will compare and contrast these two curriculum frameworks in relation to philosophy, content, pedagogical practices and expected/targeted outcomes for children. Due to the limits of this paper, it will only be possible to develop an overview of the similarities and differences.
Ministry of Education. (2008). Licensing criteria for early childhood education and care centres 2008 and early childhood education curriculum framework. Wellington New Zealand: Ministry of Education.