ELAA in the media

21 April 2019:  ELAA Deputy CEO, Tina Martin, featured in an article by AGE journalist, Madeleine Heffernan, on the question of what is the best age for children to commence school. The article discusses a recent trend in some states indicating parents are opting to let their children do an extra year of preschool so they will be older when they commence school. Tina comments on key signs that indicate a child is ready to transition from kindergarten to school.

Read the article

Early Learning Association Australia (ELAA) has negotiated on behalf of early childhood services with the Australian Education Union (AEU) and United Voice to develop an enterprise agreement to replace the Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Assistants Agreement 2009.

A new proposed agreement titled Victorian Early Childhood Teachers and Educators Agreement (VECTEA) 2016 has been negotiated reflecting terms and conditions agreed between the parties, including salary rates and classifications. The VECTEA 2016 and summary document is available to download below.

In line with the requirements of the Fair Work Act 2009, all teachers and educators employed in services who will be covered by the proposed agreement will now be asked to participate in a voting process. The voting process commenced Wednesday 16 March and shall close Tuesday 22 March.

ELAA has prepared and posted an Employer Voting Pack for early childhood services and their teachers and educators who are particpating in the VECTEA 2016. The Employer Voting Pack is also available to download from the member's section of this website.

Please contact our Member Services team on (03) 9489 3500 or elaa@elaa.org.au, for information on the voting process.

• VECTEA 2016
• VECTEA 2016 summary document
• National Employment Standards (referred to in the VECTEA 2016)

In consultation with the AEU, ELAA has decided to extend the time of the EBA ballot period for voting on the proposed new enterprise agreement (VECTEA 2016).

This is to ensure that all eligible employees of services that are part of the agreement have the opportunity to cast their vote.

As the bargaining representative of the almost 500 employers that are parties to VECTEA, ELAA wants to ensure that all eligible employees are able to exercise their right to vote on the agreement in line with the requirements of the Fair Work Act.

In recent days, it has come to our attention that a small minority of employees has not been provided with the agreement and/or had adequate time to consider it and cast their vote within the required timeframe (i.e. 7 days) under the Act.

Due to the coming Easter break and term holidays, we have therefore agreed with the AEU to extend the ballot process until 5pm, Friday 15 April, 2016.

Please note that all ballots must reach the ELAA office by 5pm on Thursday, 21 April. Together with representatives of the AEU, ELAA staff will then count the ballots and a result will be declared shortly thereafter.

While we understand that this extension will delay finalisation of the agreement, ELAA and the AEU have agreed that this extension is in the interests of fairness and equity for all eligible employees across the early childhood education sector.

Please note that services that have already made the ballot available to their staff as per the previously advised timelines are not required to ask their staff to vote again.

Completed ballots should be sent to ELAA as soon as possible where they will be collated and included in the counting process.

Please contact ELAA staff on 9489 3500 for more information.

Shane Lucas Chief Executive Officer

ELAA has released its 2016-2017 Budget submission to the Victorian Government. The submission points to short and long-term investments which are necessary to build on the strong early learning foundations already in place in Victoria.

• Read the full submission
• Read the media release

To build the Education State, we are calling on the Government to use the 'Ten Principles' for an Early Education State developed through a wide ranging sector conversation, hosted by ELAA on 14 September 2015, as a framework to guide and inform the reform agenda in ECEC over the next ten years.

• Read the full submission
• Read the joint media release and the Ten Principles

The ELAA board and staff were delighted that members, parent volunteers and colleagues from across the early learning sector joined us for the 2015 ELAA AGM.

This year’s meeting was addressed by the Victorian Minister for Families and Children, the Hon Jenny Mikakos MP, and Aileen Ashford, Chief Executive Officer of Children’s Protection Society, along with key members of her team, on the critical work the Society does with vulnerable children and families.

Read the ELAA media release

ELAA and McArthur were pleased to present the 2015 McArthur Early Childhood Volunteer of the Year Awards at the ELAA AGM on 29 October. These awards acknowledge the significant contribution of volunteers in early childhood services. We were overwhelmed with nominations this year, making the task of choosing a winner a very difficult one. The announcements were as follows:

Winner

• Jaime Rae from Seaford Kindergarten, Seaford

• Brea Gray from Clare Court Children's Service, Yarraville
• Renae Whiting from Alfred Nuttall Kindergarten, Fairfield
• Suzie Hotchin from Summerhill Park, Glen Iris
• Elissa Simmons from Glenroy West Kindergarten, Glenroy

All qualified early childhood teachers who are employed or engaged as an early childhood teacher in a Victorian education and care service, or a Victorian children's service need to be registered with the Victorian Institute of Teaching from 30 September 2015.

• Early childhood teacher application form
• Click here to go to the VIT website
• VIT Circular 29 October 2015

The 2015-16 Victorian State Budget released today confirmed the new Labor Government’s election commitments to support children in early childhood education and care services.

Read the media release

The Age published a feature recently that discussed the importance of early learning in influencing children's long term learning abilities and outcomes. ELAA CEO Shane Lucas and Jo Geurts, CEO of ECKA both stressed the importance of local and international research which consistently demonstrated the co-relation between the evidence based learning and practice.

Read the article here