Free workshops on offer for early learning services in WA

Popular physical development program KIDDO will be offered to all early childhood education and care (ECEC) services in Western Australia in 2023 thanks to support from Healthway and Lotterywest.

 

KIDDO is a physical literacy program, training and resources developed by the University of Western Australia to provide educators and parents with everything they need to help children aged from birth to eight years of age to develop the skills and confidence to be physically active. 

A number of ECEC service types are eligible for the program, including: 

 

• Long day care services
• Family day care
• Parent and child centres
• Kindilink programs
• Supported playgroups
• Outside of school hours care.

 

The program focuses on developing the capacity of educators in the ECEC sector to deliver physical literacy programs by providing them with the training and all the resources they need in one easily accessible location. 

 

KIDDO has been designed in line with the National Quality Standard and the Early Years Learning Framework. Research conducted around the program has shown that it increases educators’ knowledge and skills to deliver programs that encourage physical literacy as well as improving children’s skills and confidence.

 

The following resources are available at no cost to early childhood services in 2023:

 

• Face-to-face workshops and demonstration sessions

 

• Online professional development Certificate in Physical Literacy for all staff – choose from a 45-minute short course or a full Certificate of Physical Literacy

 

• Support and resources to implement the KIDDO physical literacy program in centre, such as intentional teaching plans, active play inspirations, skill information, activity database, design your own session tool

 

• 100s of physical activity ideas with supporting videos

 

• Dedicated parent hub to support families to develop physical literacy at home

 

• Access to the KIDDO milestone reporting tool.

 

To help services and educators to get started with the program, KIDDO is offering free, interactive, fun and engaging workshops around WA. Perth workshops will be offered at:

 

• Leederville: Thursday 9th March, 6:15pm-7:45pm. Get tickets
• Treeby: Wednesday 15th March, 6:00pm-7:30pm. Get tickets
• Bullsbrook: Wednesday 26th April, 6:00pm-7:30pm. Get tickets
• UWA, Crawley: Saturday 29th April, 9:00am-11:00am. Get tickets
• Coolbellup: Tuesday 9th May, 6:00pm-7:30pm. Get tickets

 

Workshops will also be offered in regional areas (locations below), with final dates, times and venues still to be confirmed. Readers who are interested in attending these sessions are invited

to email [email protected] with their service name and expected number of attendees. 

 

• Albany – Wednesday 5 April, 6:30pm-8:00pm
• Esperance – week of 22 May
• Kalgoorlie – to be confirmed
• Busselton – week of 12 June
• Katanning – week of 16 October
• Narrogin – week of 16 October.

 

An online workshop specific for family day care (FDC) services will be run on Thursday 30 March from 6:30-7:30pm. 

 

Those services who are interested in hosting a workshop for more than 30 people should get in touch with KIDDO via email to [email protected] 

 

All services who have at least two staff who attend a KIDDO workshop AND complete the online full Certificate of Physical Literacy will receive a KIDDO Champion Pack for their service. This includes:

 

• Posters
• Activity idea lanyards
• Hard-copy activity binder
• Beanbags
• Skill teaching cue cards
• KIDDO signage for display at service. 

 

To learn more, download the flyer. This project is supported by Healthway, Lotterywest, Goodstart Early Learning, the Department of Education (Early Childhood), the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries and the Department of Communities.