On Friday, 21 October excited educators from across Australia gathered to commence the Child Australia Road to Excellence NT Bus Tour and take part in a Masterclass.
The morning bus tour took educators to Farrar Early Learning and the Nightcliff Campus, where they visited both Early Learning Centre and Outside School Hours Care service. Centre directors hosted guests and provided information on their service and how the important connections with children, community and families were embedded into their everyday practice.
A tour through all of the rooms was then held, with the number of visiting educators in each room governed by the needs of the children; this reflected the embedded practice throughout the services.
“We would like to share how lovely it was to walk into the services we visited and see such wonderful connections between the educators and children and feel a sense of calmness across all rooms.” – bus tour attendee.
Later in the day, Child Australia Professional Practice Consultant Connie Borg shared in depth knowledge in a 2-hour Masterclass on “Relationships with Children”.
The objectives for the training included;
- Exploring positive interactions and how they relate to the NQS and EYLF
- Becoming self-aware in the way you interact with children
- Understanding how interactions impact on children’s sense of wellbeing
- Reflect upon current practices.
The importance of food can’t be overlooked and attendees enjoyed a delicious nutritious lunch on the day as they networked in the lead up to Little People, Big Dreams the following day.
“It was inspiring to listen to the presenters, who all had a focus in one way or another on the importance of connections, respect, and collaboration with the children. It has been nice to walk away from the 2 days with conversations to reflect on and share with the team back at home.” – Masterclass and LPBD delegate.
“I had a great couple of days networking and engaging in professional conversations during our 2-day PD event. I took away many ideas how I can best support my team of educators and at the educator meeting tonight I will be sharing a folder for each room which consists of some reflective questions for them to ponder when reflecting on our educational but play based learning, so they understand the importance of child-initiated experiences and providing activities with child’s agency in mind.” – The Assistant Director from Malak FCI.
These Bus Tours and Masterclasses give Sector professionals learning and networking opportunities in the lead up to Little People, Big Dreams. If you missed out, join us next year on our Road to Excellence NT Bus Tour 2023 or in Perth for ECLD 2023.
