Early childhood education under the microscope at Salt

More than 200 local early childhood teachers, student teachers and practitioners will meet at a conference at Mantra at Salt tomorrow, Saturday March 27 to update their knowledge and hear from experts in the field.

The Annual Conference of Early Childhood Australia (ECA), Far North Coast will feature workshops on a range of topics including speech pathology, children's communication, music, encouraging children's learning, brain development and children's interactions with the wider world. A key feature of the conference will be the workshop of the new Early Years Learning Framework which is the first national curriculum guideline for early childhood.

Guest speaker Dr Julie Davis of QUT will also present on current standing and trends in educating young children in sustainability.

Also at the conference will be 15 Bachelor of Education (Early childhood) students from Southern Cross University who will be attending the event supported by the School of Education and the Early Childhood Association (North Coast Region).

Regional president of the ECA, Far North Coast and Southern Cross University early childhood lecturer Wendy Boyd, said the annual conference enabled early childhood practitioners and students from the region to attend presentations by experts in the field at a convenient location.

"The venue at Salt is ideally located for regional participants and we are delighted that the Tweed Shire Council Mayor, Cr Warren Polglase will be officially opening the conference,” said Ms Boyd.

"The north coast branch of ECA is one of the most active early childhood groups in Australia.

“We are very proud that our annual conferences have grown in attendance and scope each year.

“This demonstrates the benefits the conferences bring to local early childhood professionals."

Photo: (L-R) Wendy Boyd with Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) students Kellie Tonkin, Lenora Murphy and Dr Karen Hawkins, Southern Cross University Early childhood course coordinator at last year’s Annual Conference of Early Childhood Australia