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Let’s Count has been reimagined to meet the needs of busy ECEC professionals
Freya Lucas
Mar 26, 2024
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The Smith Family has relaunched its popular Let’s Count program, not only to align the program with the revised Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) but also to make sure the program is easily accessible to as many early childhood professionals as possible.
Let’s Count is underpinned by recognition that all children can be powerful mathematicians.
“We know that early childhood professionals are increasingly busy and trying to meet a number of demands on their time,” a spokesperson said.
“When we sat down to re-work Let’s Count, we looked at the needs of not only those working in the early childhood sector, but also of the broader community contexts in which families and children work, live and play.”
The revised EYLF provided the perfect opportunity to examine the latest early learning pedagogies and practices in maths learning, and for The Smith Family to undertake an 18 month ‘deep dive’ and comprehensive review of the program, partnering with The Stronger Smarter Institute and Peridot Education.
Starting from the perspective that all children are competent and capable learners, and that we should all hold high expectations for their learning, the review helped the Let’s Count team to identify several priorities, central of which was to maintain and enhance Let’s Count’s relationships and strengths-based pedagogical approach for all participants.
The review also emphasised the development of strong, positive, collaborative, and respectful partnerships among family members, communities and early childhood educators (or other community professionals) as being paramount to success, because these relationships provide the context in which children grow, learn, and develop.
As part of the review, the team identified the need to make sure that Let’s Count’s pedagogies and practices are culturally inclusive and are implemented in a culturally safe way, so that all children and families, irrespective of their culture, can see themselves represented and have agency in their learning.
Extending this thinking, the team have also worked to ensure that Let’s Count reflects and includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge and explores First Nations ways of knowing, being and doing linked to rich cultures and identities.
Professional learning and opportunities for facilitators have been developed to ensure that they understand the significance of the Let’s Count principles and pedagogies and how these look in practice, and to emphasise the deep commitment The Smith Family has to promoting high (yet appropriate) levels of intellectual challenge for all young children in supportive environments and by parents and educators enacting strengths-based approaches.
Let’s Count is offered by The Smith Family free of charge to all early childhood professionals.
Since its launch in 2009 the Let’s Count Program has been completed by 10,250 early childhood professionals, mainly educators who in turn reach as many as 292,000 children Australia wide.
Learn more about Let’s Count here.
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