KidsMatter Early Childhood eNewsletter
Issue 3: February 2011
Editorial
KidsMatter Early Childhood News
Where are we up to in the pilot?
KidsMatter Primary expansion
Coping after natural disasters
Developing partnerships
What has been happening in Queensland?
What has been happening in the Northern Territory?
Editorial
Welcome to our third issue, and the first for 2011
Much has happened around Australia since our last newsletter, including devastating floods and fires, particularly the floods in Queensland early this year. The New Zealand earthquake has also shocked and affected many living here in Australia. Many of our KidsMatter Early Childhood pilot sites have been directly or indirectly affected and our thoughts are with them as they clean up and attempt to get back to normal. Feelings of stress, grief, loss and trauma are not only experienced by adults but also by infants and children. One of our stories looks at coping after natural disasters and provides links to resources to help support our flood-affected communities. You can also visit our website for more information. Remember that children do not have to have had direct experience to be affected. Extensive media coverage means children hear and see a lot about what has happened and may need help understanding what it means for them and their families.
In this issue, you will meet our Queensland Facilitator, Maree Kirkwood, who not only provides us with a State update but also reflects on the importance of having a positive sense of community during challenging times such as the recent floods.
Professional Learning for Component Two: Developing children’s social and emotional skills is coming to an end, which means we are nearly half way through the pilot. The Component Two Information for Families resource is now available on our website.
All of our pilot services are currently engaging in the Professional Learning for Component Three: Working with parents and carers. Thank you to those services who volunteered for the field test version of this Professional Learning – your feedback was invaluable. One important factor when working with parents and carers is building collaborative partnerships as this helps to support children’s mental health. Have a read about a New South Wales service which has been developing partnerships with their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in the community. Finally, we bring you news from Morag Bell, our Northern Territory Facilitator, who assists 11 pilot sites to implement KidsMatter Early Childhood.
Jo Cole
KidsMatter Early Childhood National Coordinator, Australian Psychological Society
Judy Kynaston
KidsMatter Early Childhood National Project Manager, Early Childhood Australia
KidsMatter Early Childhood News
Where are we up to in the pilot?
Professional learning for Component Two: Developing children’s social and emotional skills is coming to an end and many services have been busy planning and preparing ways to implement the component in their services. Many early childhood services are already doing many things to support children’s developing social and emotional skills. There has been wonderful feedback about how services are extending what they have already been doing and the creative ideas they’ve developed to support children’s social and emotional skills. Some services have made everyday experiences an opportunity to foster children’s social interactions, such as meal times and tidy up times. Others have developed art experiences where children and staff can bring photos/pictures from home to create a collage and share with others what it means to them.
Our second Information for Families booklet which focuses on Component Two: Developing children’s social and emotional skills is now available for services to provide to families. Like the Component One: Creating a sense of community booklet it contains an overview of the component, short stories and practical suggestions for families and early childhood services regarding Component Two topics. To access the Component Two: Developing children’s social and emotional skills Information for Families booklet, please click here.
We would also like to acknowledge the small number of services who volunteered to be a part of the Component 3: Working with parents and carers professional learning field test. Your feedback and experiences of the professional learning were much appreciated. More about Component 3 coming soon!
KidsMatter Primary expansion
The KidsMatter Primary initiative showed a number of positive mental health outcomes in the schools involved in the pilot, which was very exciting to see! As a result, the Australian Government has committed further funding to the initiative so that schools around the country can have access to resources and training to support children’s mental health and wellbeing. The funding is being provided under the “Taking Action to Tackle Suicide” Package where $274 million will be invested over four years from 2010-11 which includes funding for the expansion of KidsMatter Primary of $18.4 million. This funding will enable KidsMatter Primary to be expanded to a further 1700 primary schools by June 2014.
As a result of this funding Australian primary schools will have more options to implement KidsMatter Primary in their schools. Planning is underway for a nationwide calendar of free professional development events for schools and teachers in central locations, telephone and online support to assist in the implementation of KidsMatter Primary and free materials for all participating schools from mid 2011. Further information on how schools can become involved in the KidsMatter Primary initiative will be posted on the website early this year. Click here to access the KidsMatter Primary Website. We are getting wonderful feedback in relation to the KidsMatter Early Childhood Initiative, hopefully we will be able to share similar news after the pilot has been completed.
Coping after natural disasters
The recent floods seen in Queensland and parts of New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia have caused much damage and devastation. The massive clean up effort is well under way with many communities banding together to get their towns up and running again. What many of us don’t see are the effects that experiencing such disasters can have on mental health. Stress, grief, loss and trauma are commonly suffered following such events. These experiences are not limited to adults, infants and children can also feel this way. For information about how natural disasters can affect young children and what you can do, please click on the following links for resources developed by Early Childhood Australia, Australian Psychological Society, beyondblue and the Australian Child and Adolescent Trauma, Loss and Grief Network.
Developing partnerships
Partnerships between families and early childhood staff provide an avenue for communication and a shared understanding that helps support children’s mental health and wellbeing. Partnerships take time to develop and may take some effort from the early childhood service. Some families are harder to engage with the service than others, this can be for a range of reasons, but a lack of awareness can sometimes exclude some families from becoming involved in the early childhood service community. Taking time to get to know the make up of the community surrounding the early childhood service can make all the difference in supporting developing partnerships with families. A falling enrolment rate put one early childhood service into action, click here to see how a little effort helped this service to develop partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families from the community.
KidsMatter Early Childhood in our states and territories
What has been happening in Queensland?
Introducing our Facilitator, Maree Kirkwood
Maree Kirkwood is an Early Childhood Teacher who also holds an arts degree in psychology. Maree has worked in various kindergartens and long day care settings across Queensland in both the community and private sectors. Prior to KidsMatter Early Childhood, Maree was part of C&K’s Universal Access Project which involved trialing the delivery of a kindergarten program in rural and remote areas across Queensland. As part of this role, Maree worked closely with an Indigenous community in the Gulf of Carpentaria where she played a mentoring role for staff to support their delivery of early childhood education and care. Maree has also trialed a Blended Kindergarten model which involved the delivery of a kindergarten program to 4 year old children who live on stations in North West Queensland via the internet and by taking the kindergarten program to the children’s properties. Maree has a strong sense of social justice and is passionate about the rights of children.
Hi, my name is Maree Kirkwood and I am the KidsMatter Early Childhood Facilitator for Queensland, I joined the team in January 2010. It is amazing that a whole year has passed already since the commencement of the pilot and what a rewarding and challenging year it has been.
Last year’s focus was on the first two components of the KidsMatter Early Childhood initiative. The first component, Creating a sense of community, was explored by the 16 Queensland services in the first six months of 2010. Through the component professional learning, services were able to share and celebrate their strengths in creating a positive sense of community as well as identify ways to enhance their current practice and skills. Using the KidsMatter Early Childhood ‘Plan-Do-Review’ process, services developed, implemented and reflected on goals and strategies for continual improvement in creating a sense of community within their service. These ‘action plans’ were all diverse, thus reflecting the uniqueness and richness of the communities that each of the 16 services exist in.
As I write, Queensland is in recovery mode as a result of the extensive flooding around the state. Many of the children, families and staff who attend the Queensland pilot sites have been affected by these floods in some way. While our focus on Component 1 was 12 months ago, these devastating floods remind us that experiencing and continually engaging in a positive sense of community is essential to our mental health and wellbeing.
Creating a sense of community is essentially the foundation on which all the components of the KidsMatter Early Childhood initiative sit. As the Queensland pilot sites moved through to Component 2, the director at one of these services reflected to me, ‘It all comes back to having a sense of community’.
Component 2, Developing children’s social and emotional skills, was facilitated to services during the last six months of 2010. Like Component 1, services explored their strengths and ways to enhance their current practices and skills through the professional learning. Many services developed their action plans at the end of the year with intention to commence implementation in early 2011.
As I travelled around the state to support services in their implementation of Component 2, I heard many times that as a result of the professional learning, staff were now more aware of themselves in their interactions and relationships with children and its importance for the development of children’s social and emotional wellbeing.
Whilst the implementation of Component 2 goals and strategies are in their early stages, I have had the pleasure of witnessing some innovative approaches to developing children’s social and emotional skills that challenge previous notions of early childhood practice. As we move through 2011, I look forward to seeing service’s goals and strategies for Component 2 in practice.
Maree Kirkwood
KidsMatter Early Childhood Facilitator, Queensland
What’s been happening in the Northern Territory?
Introducing our Facilitator, Morag Bell
Morag Bell has a professional and personal commitment to the active promotion of strong mental health amongst children and their carers. Morag graduated with Honours in Psychology from the University of Sydney. During her time at university she studied both developmental psychology and developmental linguistics. In addition, Morag has valuable practical experience working in the early childhood field; particularly following her recent work as a group leader with a Northern Territory based early intervention program supporting young children experiencing behavioural and emotional difficulties, their families and teachers.
Hi my name is Morag Bell, I’m the KidsMatter Early Childhood (KMEC) Facilitator for the Northern Territory (NT) and I’m delighted to be onboard with this fantastic initiative. It’s been a pleasure working with the KMEC NT pilot services over the past year and meeting many friendly and dedicated people who work so hard in the NT early childhood community. Through KidsMatter, services have aimed to strengthen their capacity to promote strong mental health in children by implementing strategies aimed at increasing the protective factors that create a supportive environment.
In the NT we have 11 KMEC pilot services all operating in a rich, diverse, and often challenging environment. Five services are based in Darwin, two are based in Palmerston, two are in Alice Springs, one is in Katherine and one childcare centre is based in Jabiru in the centre of Kakadu National Park. This amazing Aboriginal cultural landscape covers an area of 19 804 km2 within the Alligator Rivers Region, quite a unique setting for a childcare centre!
KidsMatter Early Childhood services in the NT are still working hard implementing Component 1: Creating a sense of community and are employing imaginative strategies to enhance the Component 1 target areas. They are also beginning the implementation of Component 2: Developing children’s social and emotional skills. Feedback from services has been positive with many discussions taking place about strategies supporting children’s developing social and emotional skills. Soon we will begin on Component 3: Working with parents and carers.
I would like to congratulate one of our KMEC NT pilot sites, Holy Spirit Community of Learners who won the Innovative Service Award at the recent 2010 WA Childcare Awards. Joanne Moller, a wonderful staff member at Holy Spirit won the peer nominated Early Childhood Educator Award. I am not surprised by either of these awards; Holy Spirit do a fantastic job and provide the children with a nurturing environment that feels more like home than childcare. I especially love the magical garden at Holy Spirit (a community project); it always makes me want to play in it!
Within the KidsMatter Early Childhood framework, not only will service community members continue to reflect upon the application of strategies and their effects, they will set goals in order to excel even further in the provision of protective factors which promote good mental health and a strong sense of wellbeing in all that belong to that community.
Morag Bell
KidsMatter Early Childhood Facilitator, Northern Territory
Other KidsMatter News
For the latest edition of the KidsMatter Primary eNewsletter please click here. Stay tuned for their upcoming edition Back to school: Supporting children and families, which covers a range of topics in relation to helping children get back into the routine of school after the holiday break.
