Community Child Care: Rattler 62

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Community Child Care Co-operative Ltd (NSW) is a not-for-profit organisation and a member of National Management Agencies Alliance Quality Management, Quality Care.

Community Child Care gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of:

NSW Curriculum Framework update

The NSW Curriculum Framework was launched on 22 April 2002 and is a first of its kind for NSW and Australia. The Framework will allow up to 250,000 children aged under five years to benefit from improved learning skills through a new early childhood curriculum.

For many years, early childhood educators have debated the notion of a 'curriculum'. Some view a curriculum as an early childhood mental 'straight jacket' while others view it as a tool to 'free the mind' of the child. All in all, a workable curriculum can allow the childcarer to work more effectively with children, allowing them to focus on the best process for learning.

In the past few years, there has been a focus on the developmental needs of children in the 0-5 years age bracket. The Framework has taken into account studies and research that shows early stimulation is extremely beneficial in later growth and for the developmental needs of the child. This research has also shown that 75 per cent of a child's brain develops after birth, with the bulk happening in the first five years of life.

The Framework represents the collaborative efforts of many people, particularly Associate Professor Alma Fleet, Anne Stonehouse and staff from the Department of Community Services (DOCS), who's involvement saw the efforts of the project realised from commencement until its ultimate launch. The Framework, which was trialed in 16 children's services throughout urban and rural NSW for six months during 2001, will be distributed to children's services throughout NSW over the next few weeks and will be supported by a $176,000 statewide training program.

The aims of the Framework include:

supporting children's learning and development;
embracing some 3,100 childcare services;
encouraging young children to find the best way to learn and progress;
recognising that children learn best when they are allowed to discover what they want to learn;
building on the excellent work in childcare centres across the state;
challenging children to examine, explore and investigate;
providing opportunities for expressive learning including art, role playing, music and stories;
creating opportunities for language development including pre-reading skills, vocabulary enrichment and listening and composition skills; and
boosting mathematics development and provides opportunities for science development.

The Framework offers a commitment to the early years and recognises the vital role children's services have in developing children's self-esteem and confidence and instilling a respect and love of learning. It is a project that will help children acquire important social skills, appropriate language skills, as well as other thinking and problem solving skills.

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