The SSTUWA Early Childhood Conference, held on Friday November 18, at the SSTUWA in East Perth was an outstanding success.

Early childhood educators from around the state attended the conference which was subtitled “It’s More Than Just What to Teach” and focused on best practice and the latest developments in the crucial field of Early Childhood Education.

Keynote speaker Professor Collette Tayler dedicated her presentation to: ‘the largely unrecognised people who shape our future daily: the thousands of early childhood teachers... throughout Western Australia.’

Professor Tayler - who holds the Chair of Early Childhood Education and Care in The University of Melbourne – invited early childhood educators to consider practices in kindergarten, pre-primary and year 1 and presented the latest findings from research and review.

Other guest speakers included SSTUWA President Anne Gisborne, Sharon O’Neill – Director General DoE and Hon. Linda Savage MLC.

Teachers also participated in a selection of workshops, forums and networking activities throughout the day. Workshops included:

• Critical Thinking in the Early Years
• Out of the Box Exploring Creative Thinking in the Early Years
• ECE and Teachers’ Online Planning System (TOPS)
• Unpacking the Level 3 Application Process for Early Childhood Educators.
• Collaborative Learning in the Early Years- The TRIBES Way.
• Dealing With Difficult People

Participants and Teachers overwhelmingly hailed the event a major success and plan to add the event to their annual professional development calendar.

Comments from teachers:

Empowering ECE Teachers to be more involved staff members. To speak up on behalf of the teaching & learning styles of early learners. Thanks Sharon

Hi Cherry, Start your week on a high knowing that Friday’s conference was an outstanding success.
Congratulations to you and your team. Elizabeth.

Fantastic to get together with other Early Childhood teachers and well informed facilitators and affirm beliefs and keep in touch with new initiatives. Sally

Fantastic. Helpful Union people – had questions answered. I am going away with a much more positive frame of mind. Thank you.

Would be good if it could have been a 2 day conference. I would have liked to have gone to all the other workshops. Catherine

A fantastic and inspiring day. TOPS extremely useful – I wish I’d been to this before I started writing reports. Anya

Enjoyed both the workshops. Good to have time to reflect on practice and take on new strategies. Enthusiastic, informed presenters. Jane

Pictures