The Fair Work Commission has introduced important changes to how cooks are classified and paid under the Children’s Services Award 2010. These changes recognise that many cooks in early childhood settings perform responsibilities that go beyond food preparation and contribute directly to children’s care and safety.
From 2026, every educator covered by the Children’s Services Award will move into a new, simplified classification structure. Instead of navigating 30 different levels, educators will transition into one of eight new Children's Services Employee (CSE) levels based on their qualification, experience, and role responsibilities.
This update doesn’t change the work you do; it simply ensures your classification and minimum pay rate accurately reflect the skills, knowledge, and responsibility you bring to your role. Whether you’re new to the sector, a Certificate III educator, a Diploma‑qualified educator, a room leader, or a director, you’ll be able to clearly see where you fit and what your new minimum rate will be by the end of the five‑year transition.
Below is an easy‑to‑read guide showing how each current classification translates into the new structure.
Over the next five years, educators across the sector will see steady, structured wage increases designed to lift pay to the new benchmark rates for each qualification level. These increases begin with a 5% rise in March 2026, followed by annual increases each 30 June, and finish with a small top‑up adjustment in the final year to ensure every educator reaches their correct new classification rate.
This staged approach gives educators a clear, predictable pathway to their new pay level and ensures that both Certificate III and Diploma‑qualified educators move confidently toward the final correct rate by 30 June 2029.
On 10 December 2025, the Fair Work Commission issued a major determination affecting the Children’s Services Award 2010 (MA000120). These changes form part of the Gender-Based Undervaluation Priority Review, recognising long‑standing inequities in early childhood.
The updated award will come into operation on 1 March 2026 and will apply from the first full pay period on or after that date.
This article breaks down the key changes so educators, cooks, support workers, room leaders, and directors can understand what the new structure means for them.
A: No. There is no requirement in the National Regulations, the EYLF, or ACECQA guidance that says educators must add EYLF outcome numbers, sub‑outcomes, or codes to observations. Linking is optional, not mandatory.
Documentation should support children’s learning, not overwhelm educators. When linking becomes a tick‑box exercise, it loses meaning and adds unnecessary workload. This article breaks down what’s actually required, what’s optional, and how to use EYLF links only when they genuinely add value.
In early childhood education, the words we choose shape how learning is seen, valued, and shared. The EYLF gives us a powerful framework but in the rush of daily practice, it’s easy to lose confidence in linking outcomes or finding the right language to describe children’s learning. That’s where keywords and prompts become transformative.
Using consistent, purposeful language helps educators capture learning clearly and confidently. It supports teams to analyse observations with depth, link meaningfully to outcomes, and plan follow‑ups that honour each child’s identity, culture, and capabilities. Most importantly, it keeps documentation manageable, intentional, and child‑centred.
This article explores how EYLF‑aligned keywords and prompts can streamline your observation cycle, strengthen reflective practice, and bring clarity to everyday planning.
Provocations are not displays. They are not Pinterest‑perfect tableaus or aesthetic arrangements designed to impress adults. At their core, provocations are intentional invitations, carefully curated materials that nudge children toward exploration, questioning, and meaning‑making.
When we design with purpose, we shift from “setting up activities” to co-constructing possibilities. A well‑designed provocation whispers:
“I wonder what you’ll do with this…”
“What might you discover today…”
This shift honours children as thinkers, researchers, and capable contributors to their learning community.
When children dig, pour, smear, splash, squeeze, and explore, they’re not “making a mess.” They’re building the neural architecture that supports language, self-regulation, creativity, and problem‑solving. Sensory experiences are one of the most powerful, developmentally aligned ways children make sense of their world.
This learning experience is designed to approach the topic gently through play, storytelling, small‑world exploration, and hands‑on creativity. Rather than focusing on danger, it highlights helpers, community care, and nature’s remarkable ability to heal and regrow. The aim is to empower children with knowledge in a developmentally appropriate way, supporting emotional regulation while strengthening their connection to Country and community.
By engaging with familiar materials, calm routines, and open‑ended play, children can explore big ideas safety, responsibility, resilience, and environmental cycles in ways that feel safe, supported, and meaningful. This plan honours children’s voices, respects cultural perspectives on fire and land care, and provides educators with a thoughtful, responsive framework for guiding conversations during bushfire season.
In early childhood education, we talk endlessly about teamwork, collaboration, and shared responsibility. But when the pressure hits, when a child is dysregulated, when an educator is overwhelmed, when the room feels like it’s tipping, the real test of teamwork appears.
And too often, what happens is this: People stand back. They watch. They wait. Sometimes out of uncertainty. Sometimes out of habit. Sometimes because they assume the educator “has it.”
But here’s the truth we need to say out loud: If you see a fellow educator is struggling, step in. Not later. Not when it escalates. Not when someone gets hurt. Now. We are human. We have limits. And we need each other.
Somewhere along the way, our sector slipped into a strange belief: if we don’t take hundreds of photos a week, we’re not doing our job.
But here’s the truth that many educators whisper quietly, often only to each other: We don’t need 200 photos to prove we’re educators.
We never did.
The heart of early childhood education has always been relationships, presence, and professional decision-making, not the size of a digital gallery.
An opinion article for early childhood educators exploring why excessive photo-taking doesn’t define quality practice. Highlights the importance of presence, intentional documentation, and sector-savvy approaches to capturing photos for families, observations, and learning documentation.
A practical, sector‑savvy guide for early childhood educators on understanding, navigating, and reducing workplace gossip (“bitching”). Includes examples, reflection prompts, and strategies to protect your energy and rebuild respectful team culture.
Gossip. Side comments. Whisper networks. The “Did you hear what she said?” moments that ripple through a service and drain the joy out of the day.
Every educator has felt it: the shift in the room when the bitching gets loud.
This isn’t about blaming individuals or shaming the workforce. It’s about understanding why gossip shows up, how it affects us, and what educators can do to protect their energy while still contributing to a respectful, professional culture.
This is a systemic issue, not a personal flaw, and when we name it honestly, we can finally start to shift it.
EYLF Outcome 1 Floorbook prompts for identity, belonging, autonomy, emotional well-being, and empathy. Includes child‑voice questions, educator reflections, group prompts, and page starters.
Outcome 1 of the EYLF focuses on identity: a child’s sense of belonging, autonomy, emotional safety, and connection to others. Floorbooks are a powerful way to capture this learning because they centre children’s voices, make thinking visible, and document identity as it unfolds in real time.
Support toddler identity development through choices, routines, relationships, and play. Explore practical examples that build autonomy, belonging, and emotional confidence.
Toddlers develop a strong sense of identity through everyday choices, warm relationships, predictable routines, and meaningful play. When educators intentionally design experiences that honour children’s autonomy, culture, emotions, and social connections, toddlers begin to see themselves as capable, valued, and connected members of their community.
These experiences don’t need to be elaborate. In fact, identity is built most powerfully through repetition, belonging, and being truly seen.
