Early Childhood Council annual conference begins in Rotorua

Early Childhood Council annual conference begins in Rotorua tomorrow (Friday)

The Early Childhood Council’s annual conference is set to be held at the Energy Events Centre in Rotorua from 24 to 26 May.

The Early Childhood Council (ECC) is the largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres in New Zealand. We have more than 1000 member centres, with more than 7000 staff and tens of thousands of children in their care.

The conference programme includes a presentation by a New Zealand early childhood operator about to open New-Zealand-style centres in China; a former adviser to ‘Sesame Street’ on the uses of technology in educating the very young; a workshop on the resourcing problems encountered by early childhood centres as a result of Government funding cuts; and a keynote speech by ECC CEO Peter Reynolds that outlines the impact diminishing revenue is having on early childhood centres, the causes of this, and the questions he thinks should be asked of both National and Labour politicians.

Our conference gathers, in one place, many of the most important people in our sector: the Minister of Education Hekia Parata and the Labour Party Spokesperson for Early Childhood Education Sue Moroney; Kidicorp General Manager Fiona Hughes and NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter; Home-based Early Childhood Education Association President Carol Stovold; New Zealand Teachers Council Director Dr Peter Lind; Ministry of Education officials and early childhood centre owners and senior teachers from one end of New Zealand to the other.

The presentations we think likely to be of most interest are itemized below in chronological order.

These include the following.

1. Friday 24 May, 11.20am: Early Childhood Council CEO Peter Reynolds outlines the impact diminishing revenue is having on early childhood centres, the causes of this, and the questions he thinks should be asked of both National and Labour politicians.

2. Friday 24 May, 1pm The Minister of Education Hon Hekia Parata both speaks on early childhood education for the year ahead and presents the inaugural annual ECC-Telecom Innovation and Improvement Award for innovation and/or improvement in a New Zealand early childhood centre.

3. Saturday 25 May, 8.50am: USA-based Brian Puerling is a former technology adviser for ‘Sesame Street’ and author of ‘Teaching in the Digital Age: Smart Tools for Age 3 to Grade 3’. Here he addresses how fear of new technology can limit its uses and how early childhood centres can implement new technology into teaching practices.

4. Saturday 25 May, 9.50am: Family Centre Director, Kristina Lainson describes the first year in the life of the Henderson Family Centre (Auckland) - an ‘integrated hub’ that includes not only early childhood education but also ‘wrap around’ family support services such as life and wellbeing skills for teen parents, Plunket, midwifery, budgeting, counseling, and acupuncture.

5. Saturday 25 May, 12.05am: Early Childhood Council Policy Officer Laree Taula introduces ‘Partnering with Parents’, an early-childhood-centre-based programme that brings together parents, health professionals and others to answer the question: ‘How can we best work together to support the children we all care for?’ Partnering with Parents is led by the Early Childhood Council, in partnership with Plunket and the Ministry of Social Development and has been piloted in 14 locations including Tokoroa, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Manurewa, Mangere, Takanini, Papatoetoe, Wellington, Lower Hutt, and Masterton. The workshop includes presentations by the Early Childhood Council, Plunket and Ministry of Social Development, and a video clip giving parent and teacher perspectives on Partnering with Parents.

6. Saturday 25 May, 4.10pm: Former Early Childhood Council President, and Prodigy Learning Centres Owner Ross Penman outlines both the serious resourcing problems caused by Government reducing centre revenue, and what operators can do to survive.

7. Sunday 26 May, 8.50am: UK-based founder of OPAL Outdoor Play Michael Follett criticises attitudes to outdoor play in which ‘our prime policy driver… has been fear’, and argues that ‘the free-range chicken has more legislation to determine its access to quality outdoor space than our children’. He argues for play spaces that deliver multiple possibilities for creative play, based on ‘acceptable risk’ and the consequent development of a child’s ability to make judgments.

8. Sunday 26 May, 9.55am: Early Childhood Council President Maria Johnson, about to open her first early childhood education centre in Wuxi near Shanghai, outlines China’s approach to early childhood education, and the opportunities that exist there for New Zealand educators.

ENDS

© Scoop Media