Change the conversation about early learning: OAC CEO urges

The conversation around early childhood education and care (ECEC) needs to change “from helping families get back to work to being about high-quality early learning that also enables workforce participation”, Only About Children (OAC) CEO Anna Learmonth has told the Wentworth Courier.  

Ms Learmonth told the newspaper that “it has an absolutely materially positive impact on the transition [to school] and kids perform well in the later years of school,” citing her own daughter’s successful transition from an OAC service to primary school this year as an example of ECEC services helping with school readiness.

Ms Learmonth explained that in the last two months of the year, children attending kindergarten programs at OAC centres spend a week dressed in their school uniform and bring lunch boxes to preschool. OAC also organise visits to local public schools for the preschool children.

“It is supported by the literature that children have at least one year of preschool – we encourage two years of preschool,” she told the Wentworth Courier, supporting Early Learning And Care Council of Australia’s Launch into Learning campaign to provide children with two-years of high-quality, play-based learning before school.

OAC has 75 ECEC services across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and is a member of ELACCA.

To read the full interview with Ms Learmonth, click here.