NSW: Requirements for hiring an Early Childhood Teacher.

Hi readers, how are you guys getting on? I just came back from trying to catch a glimpse of Keanu Reeves at his premiere of Street Kings in Sydney earlier this evening.Well, so much for my brushing with fame anyways. Ha ha.

Last week, I was assigned to a centre on the way to Chatswood for a week block to work with pre-schoolers (3-5 yrs) and toddlers (2-3yrs). The centre was further away from the city, so the staff were mostly Anglo-Australian locals. This week, I was assigned to a centre in North Sydney. So far, I realised that the childcare centres which are nearer to the city have more multi-cultural staff compared to those which are further away. I would say this is how most cities are like anyways.

For the past two days, I have worked with babies (0-2 years) group in the nursery. Compared to the toddler age group I have worked with last week, babies are much more dependent on adults than toddlers are. Adults have to do everything from feeding, cleaning, and changing their nappies. Because babies can only babble, adults have to rely heavily on non-verbal as well as verbal clues given by the babies in order to meet their needs.

When babies cry, it could sound like a happy bubbly laugh, a whimpering, or plain loud crying! The two main contact persons in the centre are a trained Montessori lady from India, & the other a local-Aussie girl who is just completing her Cert III.

Yup, for the past two days, I have been changing nappies for babies! I don't know how I managed to go through so many weeks without ever having to change nappies, but I did not manage to escape this week! In the past two days, I must have changed nappies like 15 times in day, from the whole routine of putting on gloves, lining the bed with napkins, changing poo-filled nappies & disinfecting the beds to clearing out bags full of smelly, stinky nappies! Phew..!

I also understood more about the (NSW DoCS (Dept. of Community Services) requirements today. The director that is in charge of the centre I am assigned to this week is actually in charge of another centre I was assigned to a couple of weeks back!

Apparently the reason why I had been contracted to the centres in the past two weeks is because of the DoCS requirements that if the centre has more than about 39, or 59 children they need to adhere to Clause 52 whereby they are required to have a "teaching staff" to commensurate with the ratio for this amount.

1) Clause 52:
a) has a degree/ diploma in early childhood education from a university following a course with a duration (on a full-time basis) of not less than 3 years, or
(b) has some other approved qualification, or
(c) has other approved training and other approved experience.

The director also asked me to bring a copy of my qualification based on :

Clause 93:
1) Centre based and mobile children’s services
The licensee of a centre based or mobile children’s service must ensure that the following records are made and kept up to date in relation to each member of staff of the service:
(a) a copy of any relevant qualification held by the member,
(b) a copy of any first aid qualification held by the member,
(c) any other particulars that the Director-General requires, by notice in writing served on the licensee, to be kept in relation to the member.

(2) The licensee of a centre based or mobile children’s service must ensure that records are made and kept up to date of the day to day attendance of each member of staff, casual employee or contractor of the service, including times of arrival and departure during the day and including details of all absences

(3) All children’s services: The licensee of a children’s service must ensure that records are made and kept up to date of the attendance of any visitor to the premises of the service, including times of arrival and departure.

(4) The records kept under this clause in relation to any person must be signed by the person.

Anyways, regardless of the requirements that an ECT is needed as per the legislation set out, candidates have to know that if the centre doesn't like the ECT who has been contracted, they may not ask that candidate to return to the centre to work again. So, work rapport & managing interpersonal skills with other staff is important aside from having the right credentials as well as qualifications.

Have fun working, kids!

A Toddler Jonah Day.

Today is one of those days that just started out right but have a very exasperating middle & a fantastic ending.

It started out a warm & sunny day. Remind me that I should never complain about the sunny weather especially when I am running out of warm clothing (just waiting for my supply to arrive, hopefully in the next two weeks). Winter clothing costs an arm & leg, so I think I shall just wait for my parents to send it from KL. Postage isn't too bad when the Australian currency exchange is about RM3: AUD1.

Anyways, today I worked with the toddlers..... Oh my gosh.. the toddlers were acting up! There were 5 boys who were pretty disruptive, and the rest of the group who were watching decided to join them. So the entire group was pretty much acting up.

I kept on reflecting about the reasons why I could have such difficulty in handling them, & partly the reason I realised that is because I wasn't using the right way to interact with them.

Toddlers have different needs from pre-schoolers. This age group requires more kindness, patience & a different way of talking than from the older age group. Of course, sometimes what we read in books at university can only be translated to knowledge with a real life scenario on a continual basis. Since I do not primarily handle this age group, it was a real tremendous learning curve for me.

These are some of the things I remember & observed about them:

• Toddlers are at the developmental stage that they don't take well to strangers & new faces.
• Toddlers are still mostly blabbing and speaking in two or three word sentences, sometimes its harder for a casual to understand what they are trying to say.
• Toddlers respond better to a kind word rather than a direct instruction (they may not understand what the adult wants and thus ignores them!).
• Toddlers listen better if the adult makes it like a game for them to follow instructions.
• Toddlers still need a firm hand at the end of the day.
  

I guess that just means that I have to adapt the way I talk to them than what I was originally planning to do. Oh well!