Message from the Director

2021 has not been the year many of us imagined.

COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on our personal and working lives. The following quote describes our situation well, “We are in the same storm but not in the same boat” (COVID-19 poem, author unknown). The pressures and uncertainty of COVID related restrictions on ECE staff, services and families are similar but the impacts we are all managing vary depending on our work context and individual circumstances.  With this in mind, the REEaCh Hub continues to explore with our Network of Early Childhood Professionals the strategies and supports that best contribute to both Educator and Child Wellbeing now and in to 2022.

Children’s Wellbeing will be the theme of this year’s Jenny Leaper lecture on November 24th. I am delighted to announce that the lecture will be delivered by Dr Michael Ungar, Director of the Resilience Research Centre and Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience at Dalhousie University. Presenting live from Canada, Dr Ungar will share practical strategies that educators can use to help nurture a child’s capacity to be resilient during and post the pandemic.  The link to register for this free online event can be found in the Newsletter – I hope you will be able to join us.

The REEaCh Hub staff continue to engage with EC services, deliver professional learning and engage in research through the current lockdowns. The Hub is working with AERO, the Australian Education Research Organisation, to examine how early childhood and school staff use research evidence and practitioner-generated data in their programs and practice. A new research brief, Learning at museums: Excursions and outreach programs for early childhood education, will be released soon, look out for it in your inboxes. We look forward to sharing more information about these projects and new initiatives in 2022.

Professor Tricia Eadie