Educational Leaders, we salute you and support you!

The role of educational leader is definitely not for the faint hearted. Not only do educational leaders need to have a thorough understanding of how best to support children in their growth and development, they also need to be able to know how to support adults in their growth and development as educators. Also, ACECQA has identified a clear link between the effectiveness of the educational leadership in a service (Quality Area 7) and effectiveness in Educational program and Practice (Quality Area 1). So no pressure on all the Educational Leaders out there!

Reflections of Pedagogy: A private space for Educators to critically reflect on any aspect of their programming and practice, linking to Principles, Practices and National Quality Standards. Educational leaders can provide feedback, and then educators are able to respond to that feedback. Clear evidence of a commitment to continuous improvement by all educators, and mentoring from the Educational Leader.

Program Comments: A space for Educators in a room to comment and reflect on the program, share ideas, celebrate successes, and engage in conversation with each other. This sharing space can provide the Educational Leader with valuable insight into what is happening in each room, providing support, encouragement and mentoring to the whole room.

Evaluation of Experiences: A space for Educators to reflect on the effectiveness of planned experiences in achieving intended outcomes. Another space for Educational Leaders to provide encouragement, support and feedback.

Diagnostics: Program Quality Indicators provide the leadership team with an indication of the extent to which educators are engaging with EarlyWorks’ programming tools. On one screen Educational Leaders can see statistics regarding outcome comments, linking, children’s individual planning cycles, and Educator engagement in critical reflection.  Used effectively, the Diagnostics can assist the Educational Leader in knowing which Educators might need more guidance with documentation to ensure the documentation matches the quality of what is happening in the rooms.

Planning Cycle Reports: Educators and Educational Leaders can see at a glance which children have evident planning cycles in EarlyWorks, and can generate individual planning cycle reports for every child!

Generate Summative Assessments for every child: With the click of a button, create a report showing all of the outcome comments added for a child in any date range. A brilliant way of monitoring each child’s progress over time.

Individual and Room Profiles: On one screen see all of the outcomes planned, and outcomes observed for a child or whole room in any quarter. Also see a checklist of all developmental milestones checked for an individual child.

Child Alerts: See at a glance how many observations, planned experiences and journals each child has been included in and when the last entry was made.  This has been described as a ‘safety net’ for ensuring no children slip under the radar.

Staff Alerts: Educational Leaders are provided with an overview of staff activity (observations, experiences planned, journals, outcome comments and reflections of pedagogy) for any given timeframe. With one extra click, see the date and time the documentation was completed, and if required, click to view or edit the documentation. Another way EarlyWorks supports Educational Leaders in supporting Educators who may need extra guidance or professional development in order to produce quality documentation.

Staff Room: Educational Leaders can set up a staff room within EarlyWorks that is only visible to staff to share professional reading, ideas, comments, and communication with educators.  Using the insight gained through EarlyWorks, Educational Leaders can share readings, and pose questions for reflection that will help Educators continuously improve, delivering quality teaching and learning experiences the best outcomes in terms of children’s learning and well being.

These are just some of EarlyWorks’ functions that directly support Educational Leaders in their role of mentor, leader, curriculum expert, guide, and creator of professional communities. We also offer free ongoing train the trainer support to our Educational Leaders so that they can be supported in supporting the staff, children and families in their service’s community.