Preschool Matters Term two 2014
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“There are no mandated recipes or templates for documentation and for very good reason. Recognising the uniqueness of each service, there is no one-size-fits-all approach and educators are empowered to explore a range of styles and methods to determine what works best for their children, families, service and community”, Rhonda Livingstone, National Education Leader, ACECQA.
Why do we need to document? Gathering and analysing information about what children know, can do and understand is part of the ongoing cycle that includes planning, documenting and evaluating children’s learning. It helps educators (in partnership with children, families and other professionals) to: • plan effectively for children’s current and future learning • c ommunicate about children’s learning and progress • d etermine the extent to which all children are progressing in their learning outcomes and if not, what might be impeding their progress
children, families, educators, the setting and establish some benchmarks that are regularly reviewed • w e need to be selective in what we choose to document, because it is not possible to capture all of the rich experiences and learnings that occur every day • w e need to share our documentation efforts and experiences, and continue to learn, grow and develop • w e need to be open to change as the dynamics of the children’s group or team change • w e need to constantly review and remind ourselves why we are documenting and for whom • w e need to be clear about what the standards, learning frameworks and, if relevant, the funding agreements are asking us to do, as there are a number of myths emerging. We also agreed that being open, honest and critically reflective in our
self-assessment process and work helps to identify strengths in this area as well as identifying areas that need focus. This helps in identifying and informing families, other educators and professionals and authorised officers, how your documentation meets requirements and promotes each child’s learning and development. My colleague’s service has just been assessed and rated and I was not surprised to learn they had received an overall rating of Exceeding National Quality Standard. The team are highly reflective educators and the authorised officer would have no doubt observed this in the assessment process. So let’s revisit why we need to document, look at how services are going with this quality area, unpack some of the myths, explore the place of templates and programs, think about what the authorised officers might be looking for in an assessment visit and consider what resources are available to assist.
1 (The Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Age Care and in Victoria, the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework) 2 (Page 17 of the Early Years Learning Framework and the Framework for School Age Care)
• identify children who may need additional support in order to achieve particular learning outcomes, providing that support or assisting families to access specialist help • evaluate the effectiveness of learning opportunities, environments and experiences offered, and the approaches taken to enable children’s learning • reflect on pedagogy that will suit this context and these children.2
How are services performing against Quality Area 1 – Educational Program and Practice? The sector is to be congratulated for embracing the National Quality Framework (NQF) and the dedication and commitment shown to promoting positive outcomes for children and families. While recent NQF Snapshot data shows most assessed and rated services are either Meeting or Exceeding the NQS in Quality Area 1 about 30 per cent are Working Towards NQS in this quality area. This is recognised as the area where services require most support and ACECQA’s recent regulatory burden research has shown that documenting learning, although extremely valuable, is seen as one of the more time-consuming aspects of the NQF. (continued on page 12)