ACECQA Newsletter Issue 9 2016

Inspiring excellent practice

Educators often ask how they can implement practice from Excellent rated services. This month on We Hear You, Megan Alston, the manager of ACECQA’s Educational Leadership & Excellence team, explains that excellence is driven by context and describes how services can learn from highly accomplished programs, partnerships and practices.

Also on We Hear You this month, we provide advice on applying for the Excellent rating and hear tips from the Director of an Excellent rated service, Megan Dodds of KU Corrimal East Preschool.

'Taken to be' Early Childhood Teacher changes

It may seem a while away, but it is important to know that a transitional provision in the National Regulations will expire at the end of 2017.

Currently, an individual is ‘taken to be’ an early childhood teacher (ECT) if they are ‘actively working towards’ an approved ECT qualification and have either completed at least 50 per cent of the course or hold an approved diploma level qualification (Regulation 242*). 

From 1 January 2018, an educator will need to have completed their ECT qualification to be considered a qualified ECT.

However, educators ‘actively working towards’ an approved ECT qualification may still be counted as a Certificate III or Diploma level educator, depending on how much of the approved ECT qualification they have completed.

Actively working towards an ECT qualification?

Educators can be counted as a Certificate III level educator (for ratio purposes) as soon as they enrol and start studying towards an approved ECT qualification.

Educators can be counted as a Diploma level educator (for ratio purposes) if they have completed 30 per cent of the units of an approved ECT qualification.

Educators that already hold an approved Certificate III level qualification and have commenced their ECT qualification can also be counted as a Diploma level educator.

To be considered ‘actively working towards’ a qualification, educators must be enrolled in and have commenced an approved qualification, meeting the requirements for maintaining enrolment, and making satisfactory progress towards completing the approved qualification. See Regulation 10 for more information.

Need help understanding the requirements?

If you employ an ECT who will still be studying at 1 January 2018, you may wish to contact your regulatory authority to discuss your situation and explore your options.

Contact the ACECQA enquiries team if you have any questions, or visit the ACECQA website for more information.

*Regulation 242 came into effect in 2014 to support the sector to meet the higher qualification requirements introduced under the National Quality Framework for some jurisdictions. In NSW, this provision only applies to educators working in centre-based services with less than 30 children of preschool age or under.

Did you miss our 'Unpacking the planning cycle' blog series?

During September, ACECQA’s We Hear You blog featured a special three-part series exploring the ongoing planning cycle and documentation – ‘Unpacking the planning cycle’.

These have been some of our most popular blog posts on We Hear You and have received positive feedback from readers.

Beginning with Element 1.2.1 and the challenges presented by the cycle of planning, documentation and evaluation, the first instalment considers the requirements of Quality Area 1 and thinks through the why, what and how of planning and documentation for children’s learning and wellbeing.

In the second instalment, we extend our discussion about documentation through three case studies to consider the information educators are collecting, and the way it is used to understand and add value to learning outcomes for children.

In ‘Closing the loop’, the final instalment of the series, we return to documentation and records, as well as the practice of evaluating children’s learning and wellbeing using the learning frameworks and educator guides.

Read the complete series on the We Hear You blog:

Part 1: Why do we document? Thinking through the what and the how of the cycle of planning for children’s learning, wellbeing and development

Part 2: Gathering meaningful information, questioning and interpreting the learning

Part 3: Closing the loop: Planning, implementing and evaluating