The first five years of a child’s life is a time of great promise. The science of brain development tells us that it is a time when the architecture of a child’s brain is most open to the influence of relationships and experiences. It is a time when we seek to partner with you as parents in your child’s early learning.
At ECMS we recognise that providing opportunities for you to be involved is a great way to amplify your child’s learning. To make being involved easier and more fulfilling for you and your child are proud to announce our new Parent Activity Group (PAG), model. The PAG is proving very popular with a number of our services as it provides parents and families with practical ways to support their children’s learning, social networking and connections with the community in and around the service. If you’re interested in finding out more about our parent activity groups, please speak to your child’s educators.
Along with empowering families in their role, ECMS is committed to advocating to all levels of Government on behalf of children and families. We’re campaigning for policy changes that will lead to improved outcomes for all Australian children. Over the past few weeks, I have made several trips to Canberra to talk to our political leaders about the future of childcare and early learning. I walked away from these discussions somewhat optimistic. At this very point, Federal Parliament is debating the changes to childcare subsidies that will make access to childcare more affordable for low and middle income families.
Likewise, I walked away confident that our governments are convinced about the benefits of all four-year-old children accessing 15 hours of kindergarten in the year before school. Our collective message to our State and Federal Government's is "let’s get on with it", resolve these matters as a matter of urgency and move on because there is an even bigger conversation we need to have about the vision and long-term strategy for early education in Australia.
Your child’s safety is another key priority for ECMS. Last year the Victorian Government introduced seven new child safety for all organisations that work with children. ECMS is committed to the professional development of our educators, and we have now completed comprehensive staff training on child safety. Learn more about our commitment to child safety.
I look forward to sharing more details about our important work throughout the year.