Redirection in focus as Queensland supports educators with positive behaviour guidance

Redirection is one of eight practical strategies being highlighted by the Queensland Department of Education to help new and emerging early childhood educators positively guide children’s behaviour and strengthen everyday practice.

The Queensland Department of Education is supporting new and emerging early childhood educators to build their confidence in positive behaviour guidance through its Educator Essentials video series.

Designed for educators working with children aged three to five years, the eight-video series provides practical strategies for working with children, with each video focusing on a different aspect of positive behaviour guidance.

One of those strategies is redirection.

Rather than being presented in isolation, redirection sits alongside strategies focused on building relationships, creating supportive environments, communicating expectations and responding positively to children’s behaviour.

The Educator Essentials series is grounded in the role positive relationships and effective communication play in children’s learning and development.

According to the Department, respectful interactions that uphold children’s rights can help educators create inclusive learning environments and develop strong and supportive relationships with children.

The redirection resource forms part of this broader approach to positive behaviour guidance.

Other topics addressed across the series include:

• making connections and building relationships with children
• setting up the environment to support positive behaviour
• responding positively to children’s behaviour
• setting expectations
• giving clear instructions
• helping children make a different choice
• using appropriate body language, gestures and facial expressions.

Together, the strategies provide new and emerging educators with practical areas to consider when reflecting on how they respond to and guide children’s behaviour.

The inclusion of redirection alongside relationship building and environmental design also reinforces that behaviour guidance involves more than responding after a behaviour occurs.

How educators communicate with children, the relationships they develop and the environments they create all form part of the Department’s approach to supporting positive behaviour.

For educators, this means considering redirection as one strategy within a broader repertoire of practices rather than as a standalone response.

The Educator Essentials resources encourage educators to consider how their interactions and environments can support children’s participation and learning.

The videos have been developed particularly for new and emerging educators, providing practical guidance that can be considered in everyday early childhood settings.

They also form part of broader work under the Queensland Early Childhood Workforce Strategy, aligning with the Positive Behaviour Guidance Coaching Program.

For service leaders and experienced educators, the resources may also provide a useful starting point for professional conversations with team members about behaviour guidance practices.

This could include reflecting on when redirection is used, how educators communicate expectations to children, and how relationships and the learning environment influence responses to behaviour.

The Educator Essentials videos are aligned with the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (EYLF), Queensland kindergarten learning guideline 2024 (QKLG) and National Quality Standard (NQS).

A supporting fact sheet provides additional guidance and practical tips and identifies connections between the strategies and these frameworks.

For educators, these links provide an opportunity to consider behaviour guidance not simply as a response to individual incidents, but as part of broader professional practice supporting relationships, inclusion and children’s learning.

The redirection video and other Educator Essentials resources are available through the Queensland Department of Education’s early childhood resources and You Tube.