Kids' tale double the fun
heraldsun.com.au
Herald Sun, Saturday, October 13, 2012
FOR BREAKING NEWS heraldsun.com.au
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Kids’ tale double the fun
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BERT Newton came face to face with a ‘‘mini me’’ while launching a series of mini books for kids at Elsternwick Library. Archie Wickham, 19 months, was captivated as Newton read Who Sank the Boat? at ‘‘Story Time’’ to launch the Herald Sun’s Kids’ Mini Book Collection. The collection will be available to Herald Sun readers from next Saturday. More than 60 preschoolers and their parents who attended the Elsternwick event got a sneak preview of the series. It features 12 books by six well-known Australian and New Zealand authors — Graeme Base, Mem Fox, Hazel Edwards, Lynley Dodd, Pamela Allen and Alison Lester. The first book, Animalia by Graeme Base, as well as a handy kid-sized mini book bag to house the collection, will be available free with purchase of the Herald Sun next Saturday. The rest of the collection, comprising other favourites, will be available for $2.50 with the Herald Sun until October 31.
Story time: Archie Wickham, 19 months, and Bert Newton share the joy of reading from the new Herald Sun collection. Picture: TONY GOUGH
State exempts 41 operators from meeting new national standards
Natasha Bita a new ‘‘daycare curriculum’’. Parents are paying the price as some centres increase fees to cover costs of the reforms. But the Herald Sun can reveal the State Government has exempted 41 Victorian centres from complying, with 30 operating without the required number of qualified staff, and 11 granted ‘‘waivers’’ from having to upgrade facilities. An Education Depart-
ment spokeswoman said exemptions went only to centres with ‘‘extenuating circumstances and genuine difficulty’’ in complying. ‘‘The safety of children is the department’s top priority, and no waiver is considered if a service is unable to adequately demonstrate comprehensive safety measures,’’ she said. The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, which is rating every childcare centre
against the new standards, has set the bar low for centres to stay open. Centres get ratings that range from ‘‘significant improvement required’’ to ‘‘excellent’’. They can stay open indefinitely, so long as they meet the second-lowest ranking of ‘‘working towards’’ the standards. The ratings guide reveals centres can ‘‘work towards’’ the requirement that children are adequately supervised at all times, and show
they are ‘‘working towards’’ ensuring every reasonable precaution is taken to prevent children being injured. Staff need to only ‘‘sometimes’’ respond to children’s ideas and play. Centres must not pose an ‘‘unacceptable risk to the safety, health or wellbeing’’ of children. In the past two years Victorian authorities have prosecuted shocking breaches by centres, including a case in which a baby fell off a nappy change table,
and one of a toddler wandering into a carpark. Federal Childcare Minister Kate Ellis yesterday said the new rules would give ‘‘peace of mind’’, as centres would be deregistered if they ‘‘ultimately’’ failed to meet the higher standards. The Australian Childcare Alliance yesterday said many centres, especially in remote or regional areas, could not find enough qualified staff to meet the standards.
DHS 13-OCT-2012 PAGE
SUBSTANDARD childcare centres will be kept open despite strict new national quality controls that are driving up the cost of care. Under the standards, even centres judged to be only ‘‘working towards’’ the requirement that children are adequately supervised at all times would receive the green light to operate. The standards, which applied this year, require centres to hire more and better-qualified staff and use
C M Y K
Child centres excused Editorial, Page 65
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Herald Sun, Saturday, October 13, 2012
FOR BREAKING NEWS heraldsun.com.au
7
NEWS
+
Kids’ tale double the fun
F B 1 2 3
BERT Newton came face to face with a ‘‘mini me’’ while launching a series of mini books for kids at Elsternwick Library. Archie Wickham, 19 months, was captivated as Newton read Who Sank the Boat? at ‘‘Story Time’’ to launch the Herald Sun’s Kids’ Mini Book Collection. The collection will be available to Herald Sun readers from next Saturday. More than 60 preschoolers and their parents who attended the Elsternwick event got a sneak preview of the series. It features 12 books by six well-known Australian and New Zealand authors — Graeme Base, Mem Fox, Hazel Edwards, Lynley Dodd, Pamela Allen and Alison Lester. The first book, Animalia by Graeme Base, as well as a handy kid-sized mini book bag to house the collection, will be available free with purchase of the Herald Sun next Saturday. The rest of the collection, comprising other favourites, will be available for $2.50 with the Herald Sun until October 31.
Story time: Archie Wickham, 19 months, and Bert Newton share the joy of reading from the new Herald Sun collection. Picture: TONY GOUGH
State exempts 41 operators from meeting new national standards
Natasha Bita a new ‘‘daycare curriculum’’. Parents are paying the price as some centres increase fees to cover costs of the reforms. But the Herald Sun can reveal the State Government has exempted 41 Victorian centres from complying, with 30 operating without the required number of qualified staff, and 11 granted ‘‘waivers’’ from having to upgrade facilities. An Education Depart-
ment spokeswoman said exemptions went only to centres with ‘‘extenuating circumstances and genuine difficulty’’ in complying. ‘‘The safety of children is the department’s top priority, and no waiver is considered if a service is unable to adequately demonstrate comprehensive safety measures,’’ she said. The Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, which is rating every childcare centre
against the new standards, has set the bar low for centres to stay open. Centres get ratings that range from ‘‘significant improvement required’’ to ‘‘excellent’’. They can stay open indefinitely, so long as they meet the second-lowest ranking of ‘‘working towards’’ the standards. The ratings guide reveals centres can ‘‘work towards’’ the requirement that children are adequately supervised at all times, and show
they are ‘‘working towards’’ ensuring every reasonable precaution is taken to prevent children being injured. Staff need to only ‘‘sometimes’’ respond to children’s ideas and play. Centres must not pose an ‘‘unacceptable risk to the safety, health or wellbeing’’ of children. In the past two years Victorian authorities have prosecuted shocking breaches by centres, including a case in which a baby fell off a nappy change table,
and one of a toddler wandering into a carpark. Federal Childcare Minister Kate Ellis yesterday said the new rules would give ‘‘peace of mind’’, as centres would be deregistered if they ‘‘ultimately’’ failed to meet the higher standards. The Australian Childcare Alliance yesterday said many centres, especially in remote or regional areas, could not find enough qualified staff to meet the standards.
DHS 13-OCT-2012 PAGE
SUBSTANDARD childcare centres will be kept open despite strict new national quality controls that are driving up the cost of care. Under the standards, even centres judged to be only ‘‘working towards’’ the requirement that children are adequately supervised at all times would receive the green light to operate. The standards, which applied this year, require centres to hire more and better-qualified staff and use
C M Y K
Child centres excused Editorial, Page 65
7 FIRST +
