Helpful Articles For Educators and Parents & Carers

How Tapestry can help settings deal with temporary closure

With all the worry that surrounds the global outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), it is natural that people are starting to think “What if…?”, especially when the news from Italy and Ireland is that their governments have closed schools for a period of time. The knock-on effect for the education...

Teaching and Learning Remotely: an interview with a teacher from Italy

We now know that schools and early years setting will be closed from tomorrow, with provision set up for children who have parents working in vital public service areas and for vulnerable children. Schools across the world have already been closed for some time, and teachers in other countries have...

The Educational Leader Role (5)

Viewing the educator as a researcher In recent years increasing research, particularly in the world of neuroscience, continues to demonstrate the importance of early childhood education. Yet, policy and wage issues, alongside a still relatively new (and growing) awakening to its importance, has left early childhood education losing approximately one...

Photographs do not show reality.

They show a version of reality. The use of photography as a pedagogical strategy to make visible the learning and development of young children is now well ingrained within early learning services. Some services might use photography a little, most services use it a lot, and it would be fair...

Parents and Tapestry

Natalie Williams has written a series of three articles designed to help parents of children who attend schools or settings using Tapestry as their online learning journal. Her collection of articles are designed specifically to help other parents utilise Tapestry to support learning at home, as well as to highlight...

The Educational Leader Role (4)

Driving Critical Reflection- The term ‘critical reflection’ appears repeatedly throughout the National Quality Standard (ACECQA, 2017) and yet, was something we rarely spoke about prior to its initial release in 2011. It is a term which scares many educators, and for which there is a general lack of understanding. However,...

The Educational Leader Role (3)

Meaningful assessment of the curriculum- The Educational Leader (EL) is something which is relatively new, only being a defined role since the introduction of the 2011 Education and Care National Regulations. However, it was not uncommon even prior to 2011, for services to have one educator who would step up...

Mentoring for Quality Improvement

In my work as an early childhood consultant I visit many services throughout Australia and it is obvious to me that, as the Guide to the National Quality Standard (NQS) states, ‘there is a strong link between leadership and improved outcomes for children.’ It is always inspiring to see effective...

The Making of Australia’s Own Forest School Leader Tribe

Forest School Learning Initiative in Australia Why is a British Forest School training company coming to Queensland, Australia? Although there are amazing examples of good practice in Outdoor Learning in Queensland, Forest School training has proved to enable Early Childhood Educators and Teachers to have a model of practice. Our...

The Educational Leader Role (2)

Constructing meaningful philosophy: The Educational Leader role is an interesting one in the early childhood sector, as it is still relatively undefined. For this reason, there are many questions surrounding the responsibilities of the role, and one such question is often that of philosophy. Philosophies are something we have also...

Tapestry Australia

We are excited to announce our new website for Tapestry Australia! Over the last year we have had two Tapestry representatives living and working in Australia, talking to and learning from early years specialists and educators. Our developers have adapted the tried and tested features of Tapestry to meet the...

All About Charlotte: part 2

The Weapon of Mass Destruction- Mobile and Dangerous: Now that Charlotte is one, she has given up playing with her toys. I arrange them invitingly on a little play mat, but she stalks off with as much dignity as a girl who has only just learned to walk can muster,...

All About Charlotte : celebrating the first year of development

She’s Got the Look! I am always taken by surprise at how a newborn baby engages with the world around them. I have three children, and each of them has begun their journey as a social being in their own way from the moment they were born; one with a...

The Educational Leader Role (1)

Do we place enough value on the responsibility the role has in the delivery of quality educational programs? In Australia early childhood standards and regulations have established the requirement for every service to delegate an ‘Educational Leader’. The Education and Care National Regulations 2011 (Reg118) don’t give a lot of...

Incorporating aspects of Montessori into your setting

Many years ago, when our children were small, my husband and I decided to emigrate to Australia. At that time there was a demand for Montessori teachers and during the interview at Australia House the officer made a humorous comment saying “Montessori? Is that some type of disease or something?”...

Positive Behaviour Management

What is “good behaviour”? What does good behaviour look like in your setting? Can you describe the behaviour that you would like to see? We are often reactive to behaviour, dealing with instances of unwanted behaviour as they arise, but this article will attempt to focus on creating an environment...

Putting nature back into play

In 1984, psychologist Roger Ulrich published a curious finding; patients recovering in hospital rooms that afforded a view of green spaces, got better quicker and with less intervention, than those confined to a room facing bricks and mortar. Since that time, researchers from a diverse range of professions have empirically demonstrated the healing effect...

Sustainable practices in early childhood settings: water awareness

Early childhood educators who support children to appreciate and care for the world’s natural environment are fulfilling the goals to demonstrate respect for the environment and develop understanding of the significance of the world’s environment for the children. The state of the world’s environment is frequently in the global news...

What can having an eye test tell you about critical reflection?

Are there two scarier words in early education than “critical reflection”? We know from Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) data that it’s the element of the National Quality Standard (NQS) that is most likely to be “Not Met” during Assessment and R Checks. In talking with educators...