In this week's update:

1. Political Update - Labour

2. Conference 2012 Programme Available

3. Tips for Developing a Policy for Staff Use of Facebook and Social Media

4. The Importance of Fun in the Learning Process 

5. Preschool Worries on the Rise

1. Political Update - Labour Yet to Release Education Policy but has released a Children's Policy

On our website, as you are aware, there is information to help you compare what the different parties are offering by way of pre-election promises for ECE.  Labour has just released some material of relevance to ECE policy in its Children's Policy.  Labour's actual early childhood education policy as part of its education policy has not been released yet.

* READ THE LATEST UPDATES:   Compare party policies by topic   And Compare early childhood policies by party

2. Conference 2012 Programme Available

Start 2012 off on the best foot by participating in NZ's premier professional and networking event for early childhood care and education. The NZ Early Childhood Annual Research Conference is scheduled Thursday 26th to Saturday 28th January 2012 in Wellington city.

Friday-only registration is available for ECE staff and managers keen to join us for professional learning but unable to attend the full conference.  Register before 18th December as an early bird and save.

Keynote Speakers

Dr Ken Blaiklock - speaking on Te Whāriki,  the rhetoric behind the national curriculum and the reality as well as what we can learn in NZ from curriculum innovations in other countries 

Associate  Professor Claire McLachlan -  speaking on the quality of literacy teaching in NZ,  what effective literacy teaching would look like, and what an early literacy policy in our NZ context would contain.

• Online registration - click here to go the EVENTS page
• Download and print a copy of the registration form    - click here
• View the programme including key note speakers and presenters, abstracts, and timetable    - click here
• Would you like a conference flyer for your noticeboard and to give to others?    - click here

3. Tips for Developing a Policy for Staff Use of Facebook and Social Media

ChildForum received a request from a member for help with information in developing a staff policy for Facebook use after photos from a social event were posted online.   When we looked into the use of Facebook and talked with different early childhood services about this we discovered that there are many issues in the use of social media and it seems most services don't have a social media policy.  Social media is what we call Internet based tools that allow for the publishing of information, views, pictures etc and include social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and LinkedIn, along with blogs and wikis.

* READ MORE:   Common problems, how to reduce and avoid these, main issues to consider in drafting a policy, what expectations and consequences to include in your policy

4. The Importance of Fun in the Learning Process

We learn best when we are playing and having fun especially if we are rewarded with smiles, positive comments and cuddles. Children are no exception! So how do they learn? Mainly by copying and you, as parents are the most powerful role models that children copy.

* READ MORE:  The positive messages you can give to children - here's how

5.  Preschool Worries on the Rise

Now that the word 'preschool' has caught your eye in the title - just to let you know in case you missed it last week that the results of our survey were released concerning how things are in early childhood services and if people think things are going to get better or worse.

* READ MORE:  NZ Herald article

* READ MORE:  Report of the Survey Results and discussion.  (The appendix of the report includes a timeline of policy changes and key happenings in the sector) 

The information provided by ChildForum in this newsletter is general information only.
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ChildForum Early Childcare and Education Networks, PO Box 58-078, Porirua 5245, NEW ZEALAND