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Playfulness is more than fun—it strengthens relationships, supports learning and enhances wellbeing. Explore why playful educators are essential to high-quality ECEC practice.

New international data has renewed debate about educator-to-child ratios, workforce pressures, child safety and whether current staffing models remain fit for purpose in early childhood education and care.

As allied health professionals become more embedded in early childhood education and care settings, collaboration, outreach and educator capacity building are playing a growing role in supporting children’s development, inclusion and early intervention.

Young children are, by nature, scientists. Watch any toddler tip a cup of water onto the floor, or a preschooler crouch down to inspect an ant carrying something three times its size, and you will see scientific investigation in action. Curiosity, observation, and a drive to understand how the world works. As early childhood professionals, we know this. We talk about it, we celebrate it, and we build it into our practice.

In ECEC settings, behaviour is increasingly understood through the lens of regulation rather than compliance. This shift reflects growing awareness of the neurobiology of stress and the importance of safe, predictable environments in supporting children’s development.

Move beyond token celebrations by embedding children’s cultures and home languages into daily routines. Practical steps for inclusive, identity-rich early learning environments.

Creating inclusive early learning environments is a foundational element of quality education and care. For early childhood education and care (ECEC) and outside school hours care (OSHC) providers, ensuring the inclusion of children with disability is both a professional obligation and a legislative requirement.

Teaching children the correct anatomical names for their private body parts can feel confronting for some adults. Yet evidence and child protection experts continue to point to the same conclusion: accurate language supports children’s safety, health and autonomy and reduces the secrecy and shame that can prevent children from speaking up.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) services are entrusted with one of the most important responsibilities, ensuring the health, safety and wellbeing of children. Effective incident prevention and management practices are vital to meeting this responsibility, and are mandated under both federal legislation and the National Quality Framework (NQF).

Ensuring the safety of children and young people in education, care and community settings is a shared responsibility. In New South Wales (NSW), the Working with Children Check (WWCC) is a cornerstone of child protection law, a screening mechanism that helps prevent people who pose an unacceptable risk from working or volunteering with children. Now, the NSW Government has opened a public consultation to review the legislation that underpins this system, inviting individuals, families, service providers and organisations to have their say on how it can be strengthened and made fairer and more effective.

A new research paper from the Victorian Parliamentary Library,  A Moment of Reckoning: Recent Developments in Childcare Safety, explores the significant reforms reshaping early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Victoria. The paper provides a clear overview of the events, legislation and public concerns that have driven a major regulatory shift in the state’s approach to child safety and oversight of services.

26 January is the date on which Britain’s First Fleet sailed into Sydney Harbour in 1788, beginning the colonisation that would lead to the dispossession, disruption and trauma experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. For many, it is not a day of celebration, but one of survival and mourning.

As Australia prepares for wide-reaching changes to the National Quality Framework (NQF) in 2026, it is timely to examine how other countries are evolving their approaches to regulation and quality assurance in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Recent updates to the United Kingdom’s (UK) Ofsted inspection framework offer key insights for Australian providers, policymakers and sector leaders as they navigate the next wave of reforms.

A newly published paper in Scientific Reports argues that the “carbon footprint” can become a practical, age-appropriate entry point for sustainability learning in the early years, when educators translate abstract ideas into everyday routines such as switching off lights, saving water and sorting waste. Based on interviews with award-winning early childhood science teachers across three Middle East countries, the study proposes a framework for embedding carbon footprint concepts through experiential learning, cultural relevance and consistent practice.

Heat management in early childhood services is usually framed as a health and safety issue, sun protection, hydration, rest, and reducing the risk of heat illness. New research suggests it may also be a learning and development issue, with unusually high temperatures linked to lower rates of being “developmentally on track” for some foundational skills in the preschool years.

A large randomised controlled trial has found that a structured, smartphone-based eczema education program for caregivers reduced relapse risk over the first 12 weeks for children aged 0–6 years with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis. While the benefit did not remain statistically significant beyond 12 weeks, the study adds to growing evidence that scalable digital education can strengthen early flare recognition and timely management, an insight with practical implications for early childhood education and care (ECEC) services working alongside families.

As 2026 begins, early childhood education and care (ECEC) services across Australia are preparing for a year of substantial reform, focused on strengthening child safety and raising the bar on national standards. Following a series of agreements by Education Ministers in 2025, new changes to the National Quality Framework (NQF) and the Education and Care Services National Law will take effect progressively throughout the year. These reforms reflect the shared commitment of educators, families, communities and governments to place child safety and wellbeing at the centre of early learning environments.

In early childhood education and care (ECEC), the concept of consent is often misunderstood as something too advanced for babies and toddlers. Yet, foundational learning around body safety, agency and respectful relationships begins in the earliest months of life, and early learning settings are uniquely placed to nurture it.

Nothing says quality childhood education and care like letting an unintelligent machine do it for you instead of knowing the child.