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Overview 

We also bring you a couple of new items this week along with a number of notices of things which may be of interest.

What's Hot

Children from low socio-economic households are accessing early childhood education less than other NZ children, despite government heavily subsidising early childhood education services. This is the central claim of a new report published by The Salvation Army Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit titled 'Monopoly Games in the Nursery: Community, Inequalities and Early Childhood Education'. Read more on this report and proposals for alternatives to the commercial approach to early childhood education by clicking here ... 

Mother's Day

Mother's day is a very special day which dates back to a spring festival of the ancient Greeks dedicated to the maternal goddess, and to the ancient Romans, as well as to the early Christians who celebrated a mothering Sunday in honour of the Virgin Mary. To learn more about the tradition and for great ideas of ways that families, caregivers, and early childhood educators can help young children to mark this special day for their mother (or special person) click here ...

A Parent's Perspective on Early Childhood Policy

Michelle Rush at the early childhood national forum presented a parent's perspective on early childhood policy. She eloquently spoke about policy, children's rights, and children's interests. You can read this by clicking here ...

Gifted in Reading?

Just published is a new article by Melanie Wong on how to identify a child who is gifted in reading and provide a responsive learning environment. Click here to read ...

News that Continues to be Current

Improving literacy learning and teaching in early education, click here for information ...

Government is to allow early childhood services to have class sizes of 75 babies or 150 mixed aged children. Read the results of a survey on reactions to this and find out more ....

The Children's Action Plan and making a submission on the Green Paper, click here to find out more ..

The cost of ECE has risen dramatically over the recent quarter and past year, due at least in part to services raising fees to meet shortfalls in government funding, but doesn't stand out as having significantly higher cost changes to the compulsory and tertiary education sectors. Read more ...

Upcoming Events

Prof Dame Anne Salmond presentation
Distinguished Professor Dame Anne Salmond is giving a presentation on Tuesday 3rd May, at the University of Auckland, 12.30-1.30 pm followed by a light lunch. At the Function Room 730-220, School of Population Health, University of Auckland Tāmaki Innovation Campus 261 Morrin Road, Glen Innes, Auckland. Anne Salmond grew up on the East Coast and as a teenager, was taken under the wing of Eruera and Amiria Stirling, Maori elders from that district. Now Distinguished Professor in Maori Studies and Anthropology at the University of Auckland, she is the author of seven award-winning books and many articles on Maori life and early contacts between Europeans and islanders in Polynesia. Anne is a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences; a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy; a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand; and a Dame Commander of the British Empire. There is no charge to attend but it is essential, please, to RSVP to Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Dr Andrew Gibbons presentation
Join Dr Andrew Gibbons for a presentation and discussion on "Tricks for Triads: A critical discussion amongst friends" to be held at the Auckland University of Technology, on 4 May 6 - 8pm in Room AJ100. The session will look at the meaning and purpose of the triadic discussion between student teacher, associate teacher and evaluative lecturer during a practicum visit. Interested? To confirm your place email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or ring on 9219999 ext. 7936

Music Therapy Conference
For people involved in early childhood education, allied health, nursing, psychology and the arts a practice based research conference is to be held November 11th -13th 2011 at the NZ School of Music in Wellington. It aims to share and celebrate developments in research method and process in the complex real life environments that practitioners, teachers, medics and artists inhabit. The deadline for the call for papers has been extended to 14 May 2011 and you are warmly invited to submit an abstract or to join the conference as a participant. Click here for more information ...

For other conferences and events check out past issues of our weekly newsletter online, and also our conference and events page.

Have a lovely weekend
Best wishes from the ChildForum national office team.