Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Kelly Seaburg: Advocates for Early Learning Excellence Chair on National's pre-school check policy, screen time limits

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Kelly Seaburg: Advocates for Early Learning Excellence Chair on National's pre-school check policy, screen time limits · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Erica Stanford wants the phones and tablets ban for preschoolers
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and ECE centres, less screen time for juniors at primary
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: school as well.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Too many children are starting school without the skills they
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: need for a successful transition.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: We have seen how the mobile phone ban has worked
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: in classrooms and how it has reduced unnecessary distractions and
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: protected valuable learning time. And in early childhood, this is
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: just as important. It also wants a new school start check,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: looking at things like toilet training, dressing independently and holding
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: a pencil. Kelly Seaberg is chair of Advocates for Early
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Learning Excellence, joins us this morning. Kelly, good morning.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Morning, Ryan.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: So let's start there. The school start check. Good idea.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Look, I think there's a good opportunity to discuss new
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: ways to articulate progression within our early childhood curriculum. And
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: I think, you know, what I'm hearing from principals and
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: from parents is they do want to have a stronger
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: shared understanding about children learning through ECE and transition to school.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: There's currently a before school check and it's not well
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: respected and quite frankly well used across ECE because it's
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: got really inappropriate indicators in there. So, you know, I
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: think there is some merit here and I think it's
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: definitely worth exploring.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: What are the inappropriate indicators in the before school check?
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: It's sort of very binary to say things like, you know,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: does your child do a tantrum? And I just sort
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: of think some of those things people sort of react
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: to and say, well, hang on, if you've got a
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: young child in this day and age, sometimes they may
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: still do that. But it doesn't mean that all of
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: a sudden they've got major issues overall. So I think
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: there needs to be better nuance. And also, we've got
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: a curriculum in which we can actually put appropriate indicators
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: within our curriculum around their learning dispositions, around their social
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: and emotional regulation. So those things could definitely come through.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: We can think about, you know, early oral language. So
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: those things are far more appropriate and supported by our curriculum.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So do the teacher, who marks this? Who does this?
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: It's the teacher that says, does this child throw a tantrum,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: yes or no? That's sort of how it works in
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the Moriah and Kane. And so this is what is
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: being proposed by Erica Stanford, an improvement on that?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: I believe so. I mean, it's obviously at a high
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: level at the stage. And I think for this to
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: be successful, this has to be really driven by the
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: sector and made with the sector to ensure that those
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: indicators are appropriate, that they are entirely aligned to the curriculum.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: I think that's going to be very important if it's
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: going to be successful.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: These are basic things, aren't they? Can the kid go
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: to the toilet? Can the kid get themselves dressed? And
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: can they hold a pencil? I mean, that's pretty obvious,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I would have thought.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, as I said, I think there are
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: a much broader spectrum of things that we can include
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: in there. For example, I mean, when you think about toileting,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: this comes under a child's self-management skills in general, right?
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: So when we're looking at how a child is developing
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: an ECE, you know, can they actually put their clothes,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: take their clothes on and off? How can they open
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: their lunch box and stuff? You know, how can they
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: manage themselves? We definitely want those children to be capable
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: and competent throughout their ECU journey and then into school. So,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: you know, toileting is part of that, of course. And
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: when we start to look at things like, you know,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: are they able to have a serve and return conversation
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: with an adult? Those are the things that we really
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: want to pick up on. And also, if we're finding
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: that children are not progressing in the way that we
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: want to, I think there is merit that this could
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: be helped, not just at the end. I think it's
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: about how we're documenting and having conversation about children's progression
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: throughout their early learning journey. And if there is something
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: where they're not progressing the way that we'd like them to,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: this might help support picking up that information if they
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: need additional teaching strategies or early intervention.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Kelly, just very quickly, are there some parents who it's
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: awkward or you don't want to tell them that their
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: kid is doing something wrong?
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, that might be the case. And so something
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: like this may help a conversation between parents and teachers.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: If a parent can see the full curriculum that we
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: have in ECE, and I think there's real varied ways
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: in which that's communicated to parents across the sector. So
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: perhaps if this lays out the whole curriculum and you
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: can say, hey, listen, this is where your child is at,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: at the moment. This is what we're doing here in
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: our ECE to support their next steps. Actually, this is
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: what you can also do at home. I think those
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: are really useful conversations. So I think there's real potential
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: for that.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Kelly, appreciate your time this morning. Kelly Seaberg, Chair of
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Advocates for Early Learning Excellence.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 4:29
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• 4:34
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