Early Years

Printed copies of Communication Practice Guide available

The Communication Practice Guide and Assessment of Children as Effective Communicators in Early Childhood Education and Care: Literature Review were developed to inform a greater understanding of communication. Children's wellbeing, identity, sense of agency and capacity to make friends is connected to the development of communication skills, and strongly linked to their capacity to express feelings and thoughts, and to be understood (VEYLDF, p22). The Communication Practice Guide provides scenarios and learning activities to support engagement with key concepts of the VEYLDF, in particular the Learning and Development Outcome 'Children are effective communicators'.

The concepts, scenarios and reflective questions in this practice guide align with the National Quality Standard and support all early childhood professionals to engage with the learning activities in a way that shows a commitment to ongoing quality improvement.

The flexible design of this practice guide provides the opportunity to either engage with one scenario at a time (perhaps as part of a regular team meeting) or to set aside periods of time to look at one of the following theoretical sections. The material can be revisited depending on current themes within settings and used as a reference tool to help work through practice challenges. Group discussion will maximise engagement; however, the scenarios can also be used with individual staff to guide discussions as part of their regular professional mentoring or supervision sessions.

If your early childhood service would like a printed copy of these resources to use for staff development, please contact the VCAA's Early Years unit: veyldf@edumail.vic.gov.au.

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Mentoring in the early childhood sector

Early childhood educators are invited to take an online survey to share their thoughts on teacher mentoring in the early childhood sector. If you're a service manager, an experienced early childhood teacher, or a provisionally registered teacher, the Department of Education (DET) and Training wants to hear from you. The survey will take around 10 minutes and your feedback will help strengthen teacher mentoring within the sector.

Your service may also be contacted to participate in a small focus group workshop or a telephone interview. A detailed information sheet about the survey is available on the survey webpage. For further information, contact DET's Mentoring team: ec.mentoring@edumail.vic.gov.au.