Day 1 Concurrent Sessions

DAY 1: 10:45 - 11:45
Tailoring the learning experience for children with disabilities
Room 1

Presented by: Jackie Brien

Young children with disabilities and developmental delays have legislated and ethical rights to participate meaningfully and learn effectively in our early learning settings in Australia. As early childhood leaders and professionals, it is incumbent on all of us to critically reflect on the research evidence-base and link practices with high quality teaching practices embedded within the key principles of the National Quality Framework. This workshop will explore ways to assess a child's progress in learning and develop and implement appropriate learning goals in collaboration with families and other early childhood professionals involved as partners in the education and care of young children.

DAY 1: 10:45 - 11:45
Partnering for early childhood integrated services: The case for change
Room 3

Presented by: Mardi Haselton, Andrea McNair

Why are leaders in the Northern Territory excited about early childhood integration? The NT is upping the ante around early childhood integration. This presentation will engage participants in a journey of relational and collaborative leadership. We will explore the ways in which early childhood integrated models are transforming to engage and work with community by examining a range of models including child and family centres, early childhood development partnerships and connected beginnings sites. This presentation will outline the differentiated approaches of remote and urban integrated service models, while still pertaining to a collective impact framework to support this change. New processes and thinking were required to address the complex problem of child vulnerability. Participants will gain an understanding of the principles applied to integration to develop shared understanding, shared practices, leadership and co-design. This includes how to lead cross-agency collaborations in the early years to co-design place-based models and ensure there is robust methodology underpinning the integrated service models.

DAY 1: 10:45 - 11:45
Community Partnerships for Lives Fully Lived
Room 4

Presented by: Paul Sedunary, Nancy Greige

At Good Samaritan Primary School, over 80% of all enrolled students are of Iraqi heritage with either the children themselves and/or their parents having had a refugee experience. Since 2015, we have been inquiring into a different model of schooling that best meets the needs of our community through the establishment of partnerships with a range of community agencies. Our focus is to improve the child health and development outcomes for families through the establishment of a Child Health and Development Hub. In doing so we are establishing a cohesive service model that integrates easily accessible and complementary education, medical, social and/or human services that are beneficial to meeting the needs of children and their families. This presentation will address the strategic leadership and organisational processes involved in building school-community partnerships. It will also explore how a diverse range of partners can create new ways of working to both improve and expand the range of early years services available.

DAY 1: 10:45 - 11:45
Outdoor Learning Through Growing the Mindset
Room 5

Presented by: Marilyn Way, Kerry Boland

Promoting advantage for all children through the use of the outdoors to redress social/emotional vulnerability, particularly with children who are on the autism spectrum. The outdoors provides a range of adapted learning environments for all students to experience success. The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) for Australia and Age Appropriate Pedagogies (AAP) for school age children underpinned our work and is transferable across different contexts for children of all ages. Our early childhood and outside school hours centre is fortunate to have an outdoor learning environment complete with mud, moss, roots and rocks where children have a strong sense of ownership, responsibility and connection to the land. (Way, Boland, & McFadden, 2014, p. 27). We share the journey which supports respectful co-existence, enhances wellbeing and encourages wonder and curiosity. This presentation is a stimulus for pedagogic reform underpinned by Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset model for building resilience and self-efficacy, to redress some of the challenges facing 21st century learners.

DAY 1: 11:45 - 12:45
Hearing the voices of young children with disability
Room 1

Presented by: Jackie Brien

The right to be heard is enshrined for all young children in the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. To ensure that this right is enacted for young children with disability, it is helpful to reflect on the evidence base and consider this in light of the key constructs of Australia's recent major social change, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, choice and control for participants. How do we enable authentic choice for young children with disability in early childhood settings? How do we enable the voices of young children with disability to be heard? What does this mean for leading effective early childhood practices? This presentation will explore the literature regarding these key questions and provide reflection on work for the future.

DAY 1: 11:45 - 12:45
Early childhood teachers leading exemplary teaching practice
Room 3

Presented by: Ruth Garlick

Early childhood teachers are now recognised professionally alongside all NSW school teachers through the introduction of teacher accreditation. Since 2016, over 8000 early childhood teachers have been accredited at Proficient Teacher and are eligible to apply voluntarily for accreditation at higher levels to be recognised as influential teachers. A rigorous process is in place for teacher accreditation at Highly Accomplished or Lead Teacher. Teachers are required to demonstrate high levels of abilities in professional knowledge, practice and engagement. The values and characteristics specific to early childhood teaching have been preserved in the development of NESA’s procedures and resources relevant to these higher levels of accreditation. Leadership and ethics are prominent within the Standards at the higher levels. Teachers who achieve these levels of accreditation are expected to be active in service or broader community by leading others to improve educational outcomes for children with an ethical stance. Highly and Accomplished Teachers are recognised and respected as outstanding and exemplary teachers.

DAY 1: 11:45 - 12:45
Empowering young learners through a discovery-based inquiry approach
Room 4

Presented by: Deborah Vietri, Vanessa Willis

There are currently 21 Catholic Primary schools in Melbourne engaged in the Discovery 18 Cluster, the purpose of which is to: engage in Professional Learning with and from each other in order to explore best practice, design powerful learning, and empower our Early Years Students to become highly capable learners. The approach to learning being used in these schools is Discovery-based inquiry, where students learn through inquiries initiated by teachers as well as personalised, self-directed inquiries that emerge from opportunities to play and explore in less formalised ways. The focus is on developing students' learning dispositions and skills as self-motivated and self-managing learners. This workshop will explore some of the key features of the approach, as well as how the cluster supports ongoing professional learning and support for teachers and leaders. Participants will be encouraged to reflect on the beliefs, values and practices presented and how they might connect and apply to their own setting.

DAY 1: 11:45 - 12:45
A distributed model of leading early childhood pedagogy
Room 5

Presented by: Sarah Louise Gandolfo

Last year, Sarah Louise presented at the ACEL EC Conference to share the way in which Clarendon Children’s Centre (CCC) approaches service leadership, in both a distributed and catalytic way. This year, she wants to go deeper, specifically looking at the way in which pedagogical leadership is distributed amongst the team. This presentation will engage with the concepts of leadership for service management versus leadership for pedagogy, and why these two are not, and cannot, be the same. She will then share their experiences in modifying the legally required role of Educational Leader (EL) from a one person, specialised role, as is found in most early childhood education and care settings, to a more distributed role involving four individuals. She will discuss the necessity of the role of EL in regards to the NQF, and how they've interpreted this at CCC to get the most out of all their educators in order to raise the quality of their service provision.


Day 1 Showcase

DAY 1: 13:25 - 13:40
Language, culture and digital play
Plenary

Presented by: Amanda Macdonald, Libby Tuckerman, Leanne Robertson

The Early Learning Languages Australia (ELLA) program is a key part of the Australian Government’s commitment to reviving the teaching of languages in Australia. It provides children with early experiences in language learning to encourage language learning in the later years of education. The key objectives of the program are to:

  • introduce children to words, sentences and songs in a language other than English
  • give children opportunities to recognise sounds and concepts of the language
  • provide children with appropriate experience and practice in the language
  • provide engaging and educational play-based language learning experiences.

The ELLA program aligns with the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum, to provide interactive language learning experiences for preschoolers. In this workshop educators will have hands on experience with the ELLA apps which have been developed especially for early language learning, and consider a range of strategies to integrate technology to provide language experiences that children would otherwise be unable to have.

DAY 1: 13:40 - 13:55
Re-imagining community: Listening and responding to children and families
Plenary

Presented by: Pauline Bosco, Fiona Pulford, Kelly Williams

Through our story of Re-imagining Community, we will provide inspiration for others on how identifying and drawing on local expertise can elevate learning both on site and in the community. Understanding your local context and going beyond your walls will develop a community versus site vision. We value each child and family as unique, capable, competent and contributing citizens. We will share our journey of family and community engagement which resulted in our centre being awarded an Excellent Rating by ACECQA. This was accomplished through encouraging, supporting and building communities of practice to create a collaborative culture where staff, children, families and community are willing to share and learn from each other. This deep reflective practice combined with our commitment to continuous improvement, forced us to challenge our own taken-for-granted practices and to innovate in order to achieve improved outcomes for children and families. Change happens when we mobilise community champions who are supported to act on a shared vision.

DAY 1: 13:55 - 14:10
The Song Room: Creative Kids, Brighter Kids
Plenary

Presented by: Deborah Nicolson, Catherine Sewell, Zoe Barry

Creative Kids, Brighter Kids is an interactive workshop that combines online and face-to-face delivery as well as audience participation. Since 2004, The Song Room has been using creativity to engage young children in learning, primarily through its long-term, evidence-based Teaching Artist programs. Our Early Years programs are set predominantly in culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Programs use imagination, play, music and the arts to engage children and motivate their learning in early literacy skills. We have devised a number of innovative resources for facilitators to use which comprise a game, a story, songs and activity ideas designed to be seeds for language learning whilst building positive relationships and imagination and curiosity. EYLF mapping and reflection questions are provided to extend and consolidate learning. Our digital education platform, ARTS:LIVE, houses videos and resources to enable Early Childhood leaders to incorporate more creativity in their planning. Participants will learn how to use all resources and how to apply them in diverse settings.