Our Christmas message and gift to you: The Sector’s top 5 articles of 2018

It is hard to believe The Sector website launched only ten weeks ago. Since then we have written 367 articles, curated 6 newsletters and had over 25,000 visitors come to the site. We are thrilled with that response and deeply appreciate the support and encouragement we have received from everyone involved.

 

This week will see our last full coverage for the year and what a year it’s been.We finally saw the implementation of the biggest subsidy change in a generation, we saw a new minister come and an old one go, and after three hard years we finally got an indication that sector operating conditions may be on the up.

 

With the year wrapping up, that leaves us to wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy new year. It’s been wonderful to receive your feedback through social media, emails and phone calls, about the difference The Sector is making to your working weeks. We are pleased to  leave you with a little gift – our top 5 most popular articles since launch – as chosen by you. Enjoy!

 

We, and The Sector, will be back to full coverage on 7 January 2019.

 

Kind regards,

 

The Sector Team

 

The Sector’s 2018 top five most popular articles

 

In fifth place, the above award wage provision for early childhood teachers at G8 attracted attention, and discussion within social media. Read more about the provisions here:

 

G8 commits to above award for ECTs

 

In position number four, an opinion piece by Sandi Phoenix, from Phoenix Support for Educators. The topic of expelling children from education and care certainly attracted attention. If you’re interested in sharing your thoughts with us as a contributor in 2019, please get in touch.

 

Expelled – Why banishing a three-year-old says more about the service than the child

 

In third place, a research piece about the challenges of making friends for children with autism, and why this is particularly an issue for girls. We are pleased to work with researchers from Macquarie University to share their findings, and look forward to bringing more of their work to you next year.

 

Friendships are particularly challenging for girls with autism, research finds

 

Our runner up this year focused on regulations and safe sleep, with a study from the University of Queensland finding that the majority of Queensland services were not following safe sleep guidelines – of particular interest given the anniversary in October 2017 of changes to the regulations around sleep in education and care settings.

 

Majority of QLD ECEC services not following safe sleep guidelines

 

Coming in at number one, the article which received the most attention in 2018 was a review of breaches of the laws and regulations, and associated penalties, brought against Australia’s largest commercial provider of before and after school care services,Camp Australia.

 

Camp Australia hit with second six figure penalty for law breaches