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3rd year of Affinity and UOW partnership yields strong results
Freya Lucas
Mar 14, 2025
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The parents of more than 15,000 children between the ages of three and five years of age have been given access to Australia-first data showing early indicators of success at Primary School and beyond thanks to a partnership between Affinity Education Group and the University of Wollongong (UOW).
Now in its third year, the partnership continues to yield positive results through an initiative known as the Early Years Toolbox (EYT). More than 250 Affinity centres across Australia have been involved in testing as part of the program, with Head of Education Jola Sung saying early outcomes of the testing are even more positive than 2024 results.Over 7,300 children are involved in the 2025 iteration of EYT in 2025, Ms Sung outlined, saying “Affinity's Early Childhood Teachers have really embraced this opportunity to incorporate the Early Years Toolbox as one of many meaningful ways we use to assess children’s learning, in areas that are shown to be predictive of later academic, social, emotional, cognitive and life outcomes.”
All centres owned and operated by Affinity Education Group have been provided with technology, training and fully funded access to the EYT, which offers children guided access to digital games that capture meaningful, developmentally sensitive data based on children’s engagement, and then tracks their improvement in key areas as they continue to play.
“The benefits our teachers see is that the EYT is aligned with international frameworks and curricula, and it has now become recognised as part of our Lifelong Learning Curriculum,” Ms Sung added.
Riley O’Neill, a Sunshine Coast Early Childhood Teacher with Affinity, experienced positive outcomes using the EYT with Kindergarten students in 2024, and has recommenced the program with his new class in 2025.
“Engaging the children is not a big challenge as the games are designed specifically to attract their curiosity,” he said.
“We only use each game for between 5-8 minutes per child, and that is plenty of time to capture data around their current skills and abilities.”
Families, he continued, have ‘absolutely embraced’ the opportunity to get an insight into their child’s abilities and skills in key areas.
Speaking on behalf of the university Professor Steven Howard said data collected between 2023-2024 showed children attending Affinity centres are achieving higher results in phonological working memory, expressive vocabulary and early numeracy than peers their age who also completed the EYT assessments.
“We’re so pleased to see the EYT being made available to so many thousands of Australian children through Affinity,” he said.
“Working memory and impulse control are two particularly critical areas for children to develop before they start school, and we will be keeping a close eye on improvements in those areas for children in 2025.”
EYT assessments are provided free of charge as part of the Lifelong Learning Curriculum School Readiness program, for enrolled children aged three to five years at Affinity Education Group centres around Australia.
To learn more visit www.affinityeducation.com.au
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