Welcome to the July Newsletter. It’s Dinidjanggama – (Heavy dew time) up here in the top end and we are enjoying some lovely cool morning breezes. The floodplains are starting to dry. Gakingga (magpie goose) are feeding their young and Dambilinggwa (waterlilies) are in full bloom. It’s been another busy quarter. The dry weather has enabled the Inclusion Support Team to get out and about visiting services all over the NT.

It has been good to get out to some of the more remote services to spend time with educators, children and families and witnessing some of the fantastic work being done in community. This is a gorgeous snap of the garden at Little Croc’s Early Learning and Care service at Timber Creek where the children can keep cool under a rain shower with the water running across a rocky creek and into the mud kitchen for some essential mud pie making! Recycling, sustainability, weather and imagination all happening under the gaze of a magnificent Boab Tree. Thanks Anita and the team for having us visit.

The NDIS team have been busy building up the early supports activities this quarter. Along with the Little Gecko’s playgroup and Envisage workshops, will be teaming up with YISSA and 54 Reasons in the next few weeks to start delivering some g4gd° play sessions for children and families at the short stay accommodation campus in Marrara.

All things NT, the ECA NT Committee have been working hard with our ECA Events Team to host An NT Pre-election Forum in July. This is an opportunity to hear from politicians in the three major parties about their policy and vision in all things early childhood before the NT election in August. You can register to attend through the link below. Please come and contribute to this important discussion.

All things ECA – we continue with our strong national advocacy and key strategic priorities. The Early Childhood Education and Care Productivity Commission Report has been sent to the Australian Government and we are expecting the public release any time soon.

ECA is doing a piece of work for the Australian Government Department of Education exploring unserved and underserved children, families and communities. The project seeks to explore options for delivering quality early childhood education and care in communities with persistently unserved or underserved ‘markets’ due to often converging factors, such as small population, low socio-economic status, and geographical location. This is a particularly pertinent project for us here in the NT with many children and families living in remote and very remote settings.

Janet Williams-Smith, 
General Manager - Inclusion & Early Intervention

This quarter has been a busy time for us as we continue to connect with numerous ECEC services in the Top End. 

Highlights from the past couple of months include:

• Remote travel to Gunbalanya, Jabiru, Katherine, Wadeye, Timber Creek, Groote, Emu Point, Daly River, Gapawiak, Borroloola, Galainku and Yarralin.
• Collaboration with Batchelor Institute, working together in supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators in gaining qualifications in early childhood, fostering inclusive practices in remote ECEC settings.
• Engaging visits and valuable connections with many ECEC services, particularly during our coaching and mentoring sessions.  Themes covered included exploring play schemas, understanding inclusion, heat mapping and educator wellbeing, positive guidance to challenging behaviours, effective communication, Circle of Security introduction, play statements and theories, and exploring play schemas.

Janet Williams-Smith our ECA Inclusion and Early Intervention General Manager and Jacinta and Maria, Inclusion Professionals visited Essington School to lead a discussion and explore ECA’s Statement on Play, Therapeutic Theories of Play and Play Schemas. All this wonderful talk about play culminated in educators and teachers exploring the different aspects and benefits of play,  through a fun and engaging hands-on activity with a range of natural and man-made loose parts.

Educators provided positive feedback on the session saying they were pleased to hear first-hand about ECA’s Statement on Play and learn about how understanding children’s natural play urges can be incorporated in planning cycles.  

Sadly, we said goodbye to Kirby McIntosh and Erin Murphy who are moving on to new opportunities within the early childhood educator sector. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors. We are actively recruiting new Inclusion Professionals to join our dedicated team.  If you are interested in becoming an Inclusion Professional, please see our SEEK ad and apply within.

Thank you for your continued support and collaboration.

Filomena Lay, 
NT IA Northern Region Manager

In April we have had a new staff member join us in the Inclusion Support Officer role within our team. Welcome to the Southern Inclusion Support Team Chelsey. 

We continue with business as usual, supporting services and educators as they work to provide all children with access to early childhood education and care, that meeting the needs of each of their cohorts of children. 

Services have participated in a number of Coaching and Mentoring sessions, both on and off the floor, which have focused on building educator capacity. These sessions have covered a range of topics tailored to individual service needs. For example, we’ve looked at Educator Wellbeing, Critical Reflection and Embedding First Nations Perspectives.  

Our Alice Springs Early Childhood Education and Care Networking meetings are up and running again this year. These have provided us with opportunities to share information on a range of topics pertinent to ECEC, and that are relevant to our region. 

We have participated in a number of stakeholder collaborations in Alice Springs over the last few months discussing regional needs affecting our communities. It is important to continue bringing our children’s needs to the table. 

We have been celebrating services who value Inclusion by presenting them with ECA's ‘Our Service Values Inclusion’ stickers which are part of our recognition of their continuing commitment to inclusion. 

Our community outreach support work saw us collaborating with ARRCS childcare at Mutitjulu to ‘Share the Dignity’ helping women in our remote communities with access to feminine hygiene products. This supports Inclusion at a fundamental level! 

In February 2024 Inclusion Professional (IP) Tracey spoke with the Centre Director of Mutitjulu Childcare Centre about ways to support mums attending the the service. They spoke about lack of readily available affordable period products, and how the service had been purchasing them for many years to support the wellbeing of women in the community. These products come at a high cost. Tracey suggested that ECA NT could support the service by signing up to the 'Share the Dignity' charity to support them as they support the women. The 'Share the Dignity' charity was happy to support the community and sent 17 cartons of products to the ECA Alice Springs office. The IP team then delivered the products to the women of Mutitjulu Childcare Centre in May. This venture has taken away a substantial financial burden from the centre as well as supporting women have the dignity they deserve. Fundamental Inclusion support!

The Alice Springs team will continue to support 'Share the Dignity' with their Dignity Drives that are held in November. 'Share the Dignity' works to make a real, on-the-ground difference to the lives of women, girls and those who menstruate who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness, domestic violence or poverty.' 

Catherine Clucas, 
NT IA Southern Region Program Manager

The NDIS team are very excited to welcome back Tania Vesty. Tania took 6 months off to travel Australia with her family. She returns to ECA in the role of Senior Early Childhood Practitioner. We also warmly welcome Michelle Corera and Luiza Gava to the team as Early Childhood Practitioners. Our first podcast was launched in April with fabulous feedback. Please take the time to have a listen and share to anyone you think would benefit from the information HERE

In our 2^nd podcast, Early Childhood Specialists Viola and Aline talk to ECA NT physiotherapist Amy who explains to us why Allied Health Professionals are so interested in W-sitting, in-toe/out-toe and toe walking. They will help us understand whether children are developing typically in this area or whether further professional help should be sought, and they will also provide practical strategies.

The ENVISAGE program also continues to receive extremely positive feedback from families that have participated in the program. ENVISAGE is a program co-created by Australian and Canadian researchers, clinicians, and most importantly parents of children with developmental concerns and disabilities. The program mission is to empower caregivers to feel confident and competent to navigate the experience of parenting a child or children with developmental concerns by embracing contemporary strengths-based ideas about health, wellbeing, and development. If you have any families that you think could benefit from participating in ENVISAGE please encourage them to reach out to ECA for further program dates and times. 

In external news, DSS announced their consortium to review and revise Australia’s Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) Best Practice Framework. The consortium is keen to hear from all Australian’s to have their say. Professor Christine Imms, Consortium Lead; This review of the Early Childhood Intervention Best Practice Framework is a foundational piece required to underpin the community’s demand for change in how Australia supports families raising children with developmental concerns or disability. To find out more and how you can be involved please click on the link HERE

As mentioned before, the NDIS review is currently sitting with the Government for a response, so we expect to see some changes to how we do business as the year unfolds. If you have any families that are expressing concerns, confusion or just wanting to talk to someone about the NDIS, please encourage them to reach out to us. Change can bring confusion, so we are here to help, support and guide families through this process.

Trish Wachtel
Area Manager Early Childhood Approach

g4gd® has finished Term Two, wrapping up another great program with the City of Palmerston’s Get Active, Palmerston program. We look forward to working with this great team again later in the year.

g4gd® also enjoyed our second term working with Playgroup NT with their PALS Program an all-abilities playgroup with a focus on providing an inclusive space for all children with or without disability and/or additional needs. We hope that this partnership between ECA NT and Playgroup NT can continue in the future.

Finally, we have some VERY exciting news. Our g4gd® program has been invited to be a part of the Darwin Festival in Palmerston for their Family Fiesta, a night of non-stop fun and adventure for the whole family on the 16 August, 2024, 5:00 – 9:00pm. g4gd® will run two sessions in the Palmerston Library Community Room at 5pm and 6pm and we are so excited to be a part of this iconic festival with Darwin families.

The g4gd® team look forward to what the second half of what 2024 brings!

NAIDOC Week is fast approaching next month 7-14 July 2024. Don't forget you can attend the local events Larrakia Nation are holding.

Held across the country from 7-14 July 2024, NAIDOC Week will celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year’s theme chosen by the National NAIDOC Committee, is Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud & Proud.

Claire Bredhauer,
Media, Events & Program Coordinator 

Inclusion Support Officer (Darwin) - Apply HERE. 

Early Childhood Australia NT acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout the Northern Territory and pay our respect to Elders past and present for their continuing custodianship of the land and the children of this land, across the generations.