25Th February 2013
Yesterday Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced $1 Million Reading Blitz program. The program will target kindergarten to year three students and is likely to be centred on the teaching of phonics to help students develop the basic reading skills. Read the full article in The Sunday Telegraph, February 24, 2013.
Furthermore two articles from yesterday's Sunday Age draw upon the evidence base that shows that children who attend childcare centres staffed by better-qualified educators start school with superior language and literacy skills:
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Findings from research conducted Early Childhood Australia demonstrate that ''having trained teachers working with preschool children (aged three to five) for a substantial amount of time [is] linked specifically with improved outcomes for children's literacy and social learning at age five'' Educators in childcare give a good start The Sunday Age, 24 February 2013
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According to Professor Field Rickards, the dean of Melbourne University's graduate school of education ''every child can, and should be, learning from birth, and we should have nothing but the highest of expectations about what they can achieve. That's why we need highly trained teachers in all settings, including early learning.''Little Australians benefit as teachers move into childcare, The Sunday Age, 24 February 2013