KidsMatter Early Childhood eNewsletter
Issue 6, October 2011
Editorial
Spring 2011
Welcome to the latest edition of the KidsMatter Early Childhood eNewsletter. As we near the end of the KMEC pilot, we are excited to hear of many positive changes being made by Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services due to their participation in the initiative.
Our evaluation continues with Time 4 data collection happening by the end of 2011. For more information about the evaluation, see the latest newsletter. The final report of the evaluation is due to be delivered in June, 2012.
In preparation for next year, the KMEC partners are discussing and planning the next steps for our initiative. Keep a close eye on the website for news as it comes to hand!
Jo Cole
KidsMatter Early Childhood National Coordinator, Australian Psychological Society
Judy Kynaston
KidsMatter Early Childhood National Project Manager, Early Childhood Australia
News items
Where are we up to in the pilot?
As we are approaching the final months of the pilot of KidsMatter Early Childhood, our services are completing Component Four: Helping children who are experiencing mental health difficulties. Services have been undergoing Professional Learning for this component and are focusing on understanding children’s mental health and wellbeing, observing children’s behaviour and supporting children who may be experiencing mental health difficulties. Our Component Four Information for Early Childhood staff and Families booklet, Understanding mental health in early childhood is now available in services and online. This contains an overview of the component and practical suggestions for families and early childhood services to help children experiencing mental health difficulties. Click here to read Understanding mental health in early childhood. Over the coming months many more resources for each of our four components will be made available to families and early childhood services. These resources will include information on helping children manage their emotions; looking after parents’ and carers’ mental health and wellbeing; and risk and protective factors for children’s mental health. We are looking forward to providing these resources and hearing more about what our services will be doing until the end of the year. At this point, many services will be thinking about celebrating their achievements throughout the KidsMatter Early Childhood Initiative.
Help us by taking our survey
KidsMatter Early Childhood is currently undertaking important research to improve its website and better support its implementation in early childhood centres.
Your perceptions of KidsMatter Early Childhood and of our website are vital to the successful expansion of the initiative and, as such, we invite you to take our brief 15 minute survey online (link below).
The survey is designed to gauge your awareness of KidsMatter Early Childhood, interest in specific children’s mental health topics, preferred methods of information delivery, internet usage, and access to hardware, like colour printers and mobile devices.
Once you have completed the survey, we ask that you forward the link on to other members of your community you think would like to help – leadership team members, centre directors and managers, centre staff, parents and carers of children under 6, mental health and wellbeing personnel, sector colleagues, or any other interested members. There will be instructions at the end of the survey on how to do this, and the survey closes on 17 November 2011.
Furthermore, you will automatically go into the draw to win one of eight $250 book vouchers to spend on your library (or donate to a charity of your choice).
We thank you for your ongoing support of KidsMatter Early Childhood!
http://online.tns-global.com/wix2/p1061122464.aspx
Launching KidsMatter Early Childhood state pages
KidsMatter Early Childhood is excited to launch the new state and territory pages on the website. These web pages contain news and updates on the initiative in each state and territory, contact details for facilitators, and a list of early childhood services currently participating in the pilot. To find out what’s happening in your area, click here to view the Early childhood services map and select your state or territory from the top right-hand corner drop-down box.
KMEC and the National Quality Framework
A new resource, KidsMatter Early Childhood: Connecting with the Early Childhood Education and Care National Quality Framework, is now available on the KidsMatter website. The purpose of this document is to make explicit the connections between the KidsMatter Early Childhood Initiative and the National
Quality Standard (NQS), which has the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) embedded within it. This resource maps the elements of the KidsMatter initiative onto the NQS, including the EYLF. It demonstrates that the KidsMatter initiative has considerable potential to enable early childhood services to implement key elements of the NQS and to achieve National Quality Standard level.
KidsMatter Early Childhood plans to continue this work and over time, provide Early Childhood services participating in KidsMatter with more resources to support them to plan, implement and document their work under the initiative, in relation to the EYLF and NQS. Click here to view.
Other KidsMatter News
KidsMatter Transition update
Beginning primary school is an important time for families, early childhood services and primary schools. Parents and carers play an important role in supporting their child to make the transition. In recognition of this, the KidsMatter Transition to School: Parent Initiative was developed and piloted by the Australian Psychological Society with funding from the Department of Health and Ageing.
The Initiative aims to support parents and carers by providing evidenced based information about transition and how parents and carers can continue to support their child during this time. It also aims to give parents and carers opportunities to start to build relationships with school staff and the other parents and carers whose children are also starting at the school. The Initiative comprises of four information sessions for parents and carers and a range of supporting resources. The sessions are designed to be delivered by school staff in the school where the children are enrolled to attend, two prior to commencing the school year and two following.
The Initiative was piloted in 16 primary schools across each state and territory in Australia. Feedback from the school staff and parents and carers involved in the pilot has been overwhelmingly positive. Importantly the majority of the parents and carers who attended agreed that the Initiative improved their understanding of transition and how they can support their child, and that after attending the sessions they felt more confident in supporting their child during transition. Feedback from parents and carers also indicated that the sessions helped them to meet other parents and carers and build partnerships with school staff. From the perspective of school staff, the majority agreed that they felt supported in the delivery of the sessions and that the sessions were relevant and engaging for parents and carers. They also agreed with parents and carers that the sessions helped them to build partnerships. Some of the comments from parents and carers were:
“Feel very valued as a parent and member of school community. Our kids ‘do matter”
“Gave a great insight into how parents can work together with teachers in the best interests of their children.”
“Helps build the bridge between parents and the school.”
The feedback from the pilot will be used to improve the resources and the materials.
Click here to view the KidsMatter Transition to School: Parent Initiative resources which are available to download from the website.
KidsMatter Primary update
KidsMatter Primary is in the process of developing a range of multimedia resources to assist schools implement the initiative. Filming in six schools across Australia that are currently involved with KidsMatter Primary is taking place over September, October and November with the resources to be available mid-2012.
Click here to view the September 2011 eNewsletter, with articles highlighting the importance of Social and Emotional Learning in children’s development and its close links with learning outcomes.
