As you begin your training, you may come across words and phrases that are used often in the industry but may be new to you. This glossary is here to make those terms clear and easy to understand. Think of it as your quick reference guide whenever you need to check the meaning of a word or concept. By becoming familiar with these key terms, you will feel more confident in your learning and better prepared to use professional language in your workplace.
- ECRU – Education and Care Regulatory Unit, approves and monitors education and care services in Western Australia.
- EYLF – Early Years Learning Framework / Belonging, Being & Becoming, is a national framework for early childhood educators to support children’s learning and development from birth to five years. It is made up of principles, practices and learning outcomes.
- LO – Learning Outcomes, there are 5 LO within the EYLF. Each learning outcome covers a key developmental area. The learning outcomes work together to ensure that children develop holistically in the early years.
- WWCC – The Working with Children Check is a compulsory screening strategy for people engaging in child-related work in Western Australia (WA) and the Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
- ACECQA – Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, is the independent national authority that assists governments in administering the NQF for children’s education and care.
- EXPOR / STORYPAK / OWNA – software or apps used to assist educators with documenting children’s learning, needs and planning. They can also be used to communicate with families, share children’s achievements, plus more. Each service uses different software.
- ED LEADER – Educational Leader, primarily has the role to collaborate with educators and provides curriculum direction and guidance, ensuring the effective implementation of the learning cycle and ensures that children’s learning and development are guided by the learning outcomes of the approved learning frameworks.
- ROOM LEADER – generally the person with the most responsibility in that age group, the person in charge. They model and mentor educators working in their room to follow policy and procedures and collaborate in all aspects of planning and curriculum programming.
- 2IC – is the person who is second in charge. This can be under the Manager or Room Leaders.
- HEAD COUNT / NUMBERS – due to ratio regulation requirements, Educators are required to count the number of children in their room. They will also do this when they move between spaces, for example indoors to outdoor or to meals room etc. Management staff will request the “numbers” at different times during the day. These checks are to ensure that children enrolled into care that day are present and as a safety measure.
- ON THE FLOOR – Educators can only be counted towards ratios if they are considered to be “on the floor”, meaning working directly with the children.
- BREACH – this occurs when a childcare centre does not meet the requirements of NQF. In minor offences, centres are provided with an opportunity to rectify the issue within a strict timeframe. The more serious can result in fines, closure of centre, criminal charges and prison.
- NQF – National Quality Framework, is a national approach to regulation, assessment and quality improvement for early childhood education and care and outside school hours care services across Australia.
- NQS – National Quality Standards, sets benchmarks for early childhood education and care services in Australia under the National Quality Framework.
- LDC – Long day care, a child care centre who enrols children 0 – 5years old.
- AWT – Refers to the “Actively Working Towards” status of a student on the journey to completing their qualification. It is a requirement of an individual enrolled in training be classified as AWT to be counted toward ratios.
- OSHC – Out of School Hours Care, a service that enrols children school aged, 5-12years old. Usually before and after school.
- A & R – Assessment and Rating, The process by which services are assessed and rated by their regulatory authority against the National Quality Standard and given a rating for each of the seven quality areas and an overall rating based on these results.
- HOLISTIC – Holistic approaches in early childhood education focus on nurturing the whole child, addressing their physical, emotional, social, cognitive, and spiritual development
- PEDAGOGY – means the function or work of teaching: the art or science of teaching, education instructional methods. In simple terms, it is what an individual educator does to influence learning in others.
- RATIO – Is the number of qualified or AWT carers required to be on the floor based on the number of children in the room. Each state has it’s own ratio requirements under the NQF.