In The Field
Professional development
ABC Kids resources support ECEC educators to cope with fire, flood and other disasters
Freya Lucas
Jan 09, 2024
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Educators in the New South Wales Blue Mountains are using a newly developed toolkit from ABC Kids Early Education - Helping Hands: Disaster Resilience Early Education Tool Kit - to better support and prepare children for the emergency season.
At Blaxland Preschool, which is surrounded by towering eucalypt forest, educators discuss nature and weather patterns with children often, having open conversations about emergency planning…just the kind of conversations the tool kit was created to inspire.Topics such as how the bushland surrounding their homes is looking, the fire danger rating system, and emergency planning are freely shared between children and educators, in line with expert recommendations which say that such conversations should be free flowing and led by children.
The toolkit, developed by a dedicated team at the ABC led by the ABC’s Laura Stone, a former early childhood educator, is a free resource for parents and educators which collates audio-visual content and other resources for early educators and families.
The toolkit was created in partnership with the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) and includes material from the Red Cross and Emerging Minds as well as the ABC.
"It helps to put everything under one easily accessible umbrella on the ABC Kids website, and it's there all the time for people to dip into whenever they need," Ms Stone said.
Access the toolkit here.
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