Here's a practical Quality Area 5 Cheat Sheet that includes key standards, element breakdowns, and real-world examples that reflect emotionally intelligent, trauma-informed, and child-centered practice. This area focuses on building secure, respectful, and reciprocal relationships that support children’s wellbeing, belonging, and development.
Here's a breakdown of Exceeding Theme 3: Meaningful Engagement with Families and/or the Community across Quality Areas 1 to 7, tailored to your advocacy lens. This theme is all about co-constructing practice with families and communities—ensuring their voices shape decisions, environments, and outcomes.
In a moment of reckoning for one of the nation’s largest early childhood education providers, Tim Hickey, CEO of Affinity Education Group, has publicly apologised for a series of safety breaches across the organisation’s centres. His statement was delivered during a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry examining systemic issues in childcare safety and regulation.
Pedagogy in early childhood isn’t just about teaching—it’s about how we nurture, guide, and co-construct learning with our youngest citizens. It’s the heartbeat of early education, where relationships, play, and emotional safety shape every moment.
In early childhood settings, educators often face a subtle but powerful choice: should learning focus on the process or the product? While both approaches have their place, understanding the distinction can transform how we nurture creativity, independence, and critical thinking in young children.
In a landmark move toward equity and empowerment, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) services are expanding across New South Wales, offering families more choice, more places, and more opportunities for culturally grounded early childhood education.
As part of its commitment to expanding access to quality early childhood education and care (ECEC), the NSW Department of Education is offering targeted support to providers through the Flexible Initiatives Trial (FIT)—a $20 million program designed to help services test and trial new operating models. To help applicants navigate the competitive grant process, the department is hosting grant-writing workshops on the 25th of September, delivered online via MS Teams.
By empowering early childhood educators to embrace Auslan and foster inclusive communication from the earliest years. Here's a scaffolded guide to help you begin teaching Auslan in early childhood settings for toddlers and preschoolers.
Here's a comprehensive breakdown of Exceeding Theme 2:Practice is Informed by Critical Reflection across all quality areas 1 to 7 of the National Quality Standard (NQS). This theme emphasizes how services use deep, ongoing reflection to inform and improve their practices—not just occasionally, but as a core part of their culture.
In a powerful step toward inclusive and culturally responsive education, early childhood educators across New South Wales are invited to a fee-free face-to-face workshop* with Jessica Staines, founder of Koori Curriculum, on Saturday, 1 November, at TAFE NSW Kingswood.
In a bold move toward future-proofing early learning environments, a Brisbane early learning centre has become one of the first in Queensland to introduce AI-powered security systems, marking a significant leap in how childcare services protect children, staff, and families.
Early childhood education services across Victoria have been significantly disrupted as educators stage a widespread strike on Tuesday, 16th September. The industrial action follows a prolonged 15-month negotiation period during which the Victorian state government has failed to present a pay offer to educators.
A: There’s no fixed number of observations required from educators across all early childhood services in Australia—it depends on your service’s philosophy, policies, and the needs of the children.
Here's a quick cheat sheet for Quality Area 4: Staffing Arrangements under the National Quality Standard (NQS) in Australian early childhood education. This area focuses on ensuring that staffing promotes children's learning and development.
