Tag: preschool teacher

Hidden job market in early childhood education and care

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

Most educators looking for work in early childhood head straight to SEEK, Indeed or Jora, refresh the page every morning, and wait. Fair enough. That is what we are all taught to do. As a journalist, I always try to find sneaky ways or hidden vacancies.

This will surpise you 🙂 A lot of the best positions are filled before anyone writes an advertisement.

Centres often fill vacancies from their own pool, from so-called sister cenres, director’s network; and … through a recommendation, a placement student who impressed everyone, a casual relief educator who already knows the room, or someone who simply introduced themselves a few months earlier. This is what I mean by the hidden job market. It relied on relationships and timing, and you can absolutely get into it.
Your goal is to become the first person a director thinks of when a position opens up.

1. Make a list of services you would love to work at. I usually start with the local exceeding or even excellently rated services.

Start before there is a vacancy. Research the services that actually match your values, then get to know them properly. Read their philosophy, look at their programs, notice how they talk about children. Drive or walk past and observe some practices.

✓ Long day care ✓ Kindergartens and sessional services ✓ Montessori or Reggio-inspired centres ✓ Bush kinders and nature programs ✓ Community-based services ✓ Not-for-profit organisations

2. Introduce yourself

Most directors respect an educator who is initiative and engaged in the job search. Send a short, warm email with your resume attached, your availability, your qualifications or expected completion date, and a couple of honest lines about why their service interests you.

3. Use your placement network

Professional experience is one of the strongest pathways into your first job, and the connections outlast the placement itself. Stay in touch with your supervising teacher, the educational leader, the director, the educators you worked beside, and your university peers. Do not burn the bridges!

From my experience, placement is one of the best ways to get hired.

4. Join relief agencies

Casual work builds your experience and your confidence at the same time. It also puts you in front of directors across many services, which means people know your name and your practice before a permanent role ever opens.

https://www.vic.gov.au/register-recruiter-find-early-childhood-jobs

5. Attend professional events

Early Childhood Australia events, local network meetings, council professional learning, conferences, workshops, university networking evenings. These rooms are full of educational leaders, and vacancies get mentioned out loud long before they get advertised.

6. Build your professional job portfolio

Your reputation starts well before your first permanent position. Keep your resume current, your LinkedIn profile updated, your Working With Children Check ready, and your references organised so you can move quickly when something comes up.

I always bring my folio or ipad with photo evidence to the important interviews.

Here is my video on how to create your portfolio

7. Tell people you are looking

So many opportunities arrive through ordinary conversations. Mention it to friends, family, lecturers, placement mentors, previous employers and classmates. Someone usually knows a service that needs an educator. That’s how I found my first job actually.

8. Be specific about what you want

“I’m happy to do anything” is too vague. Let’s use the manifestation approach here and calibrate our brain to help up to find the best opportunity for us.

Try something closer to this. “I’m looking for a graduate Early Childhood Teacher position where I can keep developing my practice in play-based learning and build strong relationships with children and families.”

That sentence gives someone a real picture, and real pictures stick.
Your brain also loves it!
9. Follow up

Contacted a service and heard nothing back? Send a polite follow-up a week or two later. It reads as professional and interested, and it puts your name in front of them a second time.

One last thing

Your next job might never appear on a job board at all. It might begin with a placement, a casual shift, a recommendation, a conversation at a workshop, or one short email to a centre you have admired for months.

Make yourself visible while the vacancy is still hypothetical. That is where the hidden market lives.

Cheers, Storykate

Forager Pedagogy – well, that’s something new

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

Today I’ve learned about a new approach called forager pedagogy. This pedagogy is grounded in First Nations perspectives, which, as you know, are an important part of the EYLF and the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework. Our core curriculum documents.

A foraging approach means you are someone who forages. Picking mushrooms, berries. Something very cultural for me. I grew up in the country, in the environment called tundra, in the Arctic North, and I foraged a lot. I used to walk on country. It’s something I keep enjoying, because for me it provides a lens of relaxing, of mindfulness, of being with myself while being deeply connected to something bigger than I am.

Walking is the easiest way to relax, to become more mindful, to feel grounded

So let’s talk about the theory behind it.

The core idea of foraging is to look for something. In literature, they call it look for traces of ghosts of what is now gone. Following marks, seeking out, paying attention. You shift perspective up and down, from the sky to the ground, far into the distance and then up close. Your eyes relax. Your gestures become more animal-like. You move your body the way other non-human animals do. You also recognise how you have become separated from all of it through boots and clothes. That gives you a sense of grounding, at least it does for me.

Adopting this lens matters if you’re looking to welcome more First Nations perspectives, country-based learning and play-based pedagogy into your practice. The EYLF now encourages us to do all of this.

Think about how you can use this pedagogy to create more presence, or refiguring presence, as they say in the research and in the book on children and nature. I really like the idea of relational kinship, which goes back to being with country and to First Nations perspectives, where country is a living entity, and where family, ancestors, lore and spiritual beliefs are all part of it. Lore here is something like law and regulations, or moral law. This way you become part of something bigger, and you provide reciprocal care. You look after country, and country looks after you.

You can also think of the forager lens as noticing ways of communication. Children are still acquiring language, so we can look at how plants, animals, mushrooms and mycelium communicate. What signals, what warnings, what conversations are happening?

One of the easiest things to do is walk. That gives you sensory attunement as well. When you’re tired, you can sit down and sit with country, or sit on a stump while you’re picking mushrooms, which is completely natural. While you do it, you can listen to the earth’s heartbeat. You can lie down and look at the sky, at the clouds, and feel the wind.

This is something I encourage you to start doing with children. And by yourself.

The tired ones, and why boundaries are professional

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

I want to talk about the people who leave.

Over the years, I have watched a lot of good educators walk away from this work: colleagues I once stood beside on the floor, students I taught thirteen years ago, and people I studied with back in 2010. Most of them still loved working with children: watch them grow, support their learning. They left because they were exhausted. No one had informed them that exhaustion was a workplace issue and not a personal failing.

I know that tiredness from the inside. There was a stretch where I fell asleep anywhere I sat down, missed appointments, and caught every illness going around. I developed asthma and chronic allergies during those years. I walked into a glass door once, and I tripped over toys more often than I would like to admit, because I was moving through my days half awake. At night I took the documentation home and lay awake planning the next week in my head. I was completely drained, and I was calling it commitment.

Here is what I understand now that I did not understand then. There are two traps waiting for us, and both look like virtue.

The first is the one Anne Stonehouse pointed to, the belief that we are “nice ladies who love children”. It sounds like a compliment. It also strips the profession of its knowledge, its training and its claim to fair conditions, because love is treated as its own reward.

The other trap is the superhero, the educator who absorbs everything, sets no limits, and treats their own depletion as proof of how much they care.

Self-care is what protects you from both traps and keeps you in the work for the long run. By self-care, I mean something practical and often uncomfortable. This includes being assertive at work and knowing your rights and your award. It also involves speaking up about ratios, breaks, workload, and pay, both in your own centre and across the wider profession. Protecting your health is part of your professional practice. A drained educator cannot do this work well. Often, they cannot stay in it.

So here is what I would ask you to think about. Where in your work have you been told, in words or in silence, that caring means having no limits? What changes if you treat your own wellbeing as part of your professionalism? Consider it a necessity rather than a reward once everyone else is looked after.

Storykate 🪇💌

What the documents call us, and why it matters

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

I want to show you something small that changed how I read our own curriculum frameworks. I went looking for the word each one uses for me, the person standing in the room with the children. The three central documents gave me three different answers.

The Early Childhood Australia Code of Ethics (2016) calls me an early childhood professional. It defines that as a person who works professionally with or on behalf of children and families. What strikes me is how the Code is written. Its sections are a run of statements that begin “I will.” They read as promises in my own voice. The Code names me as a professional, then asks me to claim that name by committing to it.

The national framework, the EYLF, uses a different word. It calls me an educator. It builds my professionalism out of what I do, describing educators who make professional judgements by drawing on their knowledge, the context of each child, and critical reflection. The word educator holds the degree-qualified teacher and the Certificate III educator inside one term. Which is very inclusive… I also think it created shared language for us.

Here in Victoria, the VEYLDF also says early childhood professional, and it uses the term most broadly of the three. In that framework, the word covers anyone who works with children from birth to eight, and it names nurses, teachers, family support workers and allied health staff alongside educators. Victoria treats the profession as a community of many disciplines. I like the approach of community of practice, this makes ECE profession “relational”.

So notice what happened. Three documents, and I was handed three names before I had chosen one for myself. None of them made teacher the obvious default.

Here is what I would ask you to think about. Find the word each of these documents uses for you, then sit with the one that fits you least. Whose definition of your role have you been carrying without noticing?

The new VEYLDF approved framework: what changed?

~ Storykate ~ Leave a comment

If you’re applying for an educator role in Victoria, there’s one document the panel expects you to know before you walk in. It’s the VEYLDF, and in government-funded kinders it isn’t optional. Here’s the part most applicants skip.

Download the new framework here 👇🏻

Ochre Artwork by Annette Sax (Taungurung), developed in collaboration with Dr Sue Atkinson AM (Yorta Yorta). Photography by Hunter Callaghan. © State of Victoria (Department of Education) 2026.

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/childhood/providers/edcare/Victorian-Early-Years-Learning-and-Development-Framework-VEYLDF-2026.pdf

The changes at a glance

Area2016 version2026 version
Practice Principles8 principles7 principles
Integrated teaching and learningOne of the 8 principlesA standalone element with its own section, brought to the front
Fifth principleEquity and diversityEquity, diversity and inclusion (names neurodiversity)
Professionals principlePartnerships with professionalsPartnerships between professionals
Planning cycleCollect information, Question/Analyse, Plan, Act/Do, Reflect/review (from EYLF 2010)Observe, Assess, Plan, Implement, Evaluate (from EYLF 2022)
In practice tablesNoneA Do / See / Reflect table for every principle and for transitions
First Nations knowledgeOne Ochre Artwork and one story descriptionCultural Knowledge Stories woven throughout, with a new artist, Robert Barnett
Key termsGlossary sat at the backKey terms section up front: child safety, cultural safety, families, child voice, early childhood professionals, play
Child Safe StandardsNot namedNamed, sitting alongside the National Quality Framework
NeurodiversityNot mentionedNeuro-affirming practice named as part of inclusion
Ecological ModelProminent, full Bronfenbrenner diagram (Figure 2)Referenced in text, less visually central; the Cultural Knowledge Stories carry the relational message
School links and mapsIllustrative Maps to the Victorian Curriculum F to 10Learning and Development Maps, plus a link to the Victorian Teaching and Learning Model 2.0
The five OutcomesFive outcomesSame five outcomes, names unchanged, now with “This is evident when children” indicators
SustainabilityCovered broadlySplit into three dimensions: environmental, social, economic
Overall shapeLong, with five appendicesStreamlined, ending at Transitions and Continuity of learning

There’s a framework Victorian kinders have to follow, and half the people applying mention it without ever really understanding it. Let me show you the bit that actually matters

1. planning cycle

EARLY YEARS FRAMEWORK · VICTORIA The Planning Cycle VEYLDF 2026 aligned with EYLF 2.0 Documentation happens throughout the cycle 1 Observe watch and listen 2 Assess make sense of it 3 Plan choose the next step 4 Implement put it into action 5 Evaluate reflect, what next? A Storykate resource storykate.com.au

The single biggest shift for your audience is the planning cycle rename. It moves from Collect, Question and Analyse, Plan, Act, Reflect to Observe, Assess, Plan, Implement, Evaluate, which now matches EYLF 2022. 1. The planning cycle has new words.

The old cycle ran Collect information, Question and Analyse, Plan, Act or Do, Reflect and review, drawn from the 2010 Educator’s Guide. The 2026 cycle runs Observe, Assess, Plan, Implement, Evaluate, drawn from the updated EYLF 2022. Same intent, refreshed language, and it now lines up with the national framework so educators are not juggling two vocabularies.

If your templates, headings or observation labels still say “collect” and “act or do”, they are due for a refresh to Observe, Assess, Plan, Implement, Evaluate.

2. Integrated teaching and learning is now its own thing

In 2016 it lived inside the eight principles. In 2026 it steps out as a standalone element with its own section near the front, which is why the principle count drops to seven. The three approaches carry through, with a small wording tidy: child-directed play and learning becomes child-directed learning, guided play and learning becomes guided learning, and adult-led learning stays as it was. The framing also shifts, with the Woven Strands Cultural Knowledge Story now illustrating how the three approaches interlace from a Victorian First Nations perspective.

For planning, this means a weekly program should make the three approaches visible and show the intentional call about when to follow, when to guide and when to lead.

3. Equity and diversity grows into equity, diversity and inclusion

The fifth principle gains inclusion in its name, and the text names neuro-affirming practice that recognises and values neurodiversity. Nothing in the old version blocked inclusive practice, though the 2026 wording makes it explicit and asks you to plan adjustments as a matter of course.

4. New Do, See, Reflect tables

Every principle now comes with an In practice table split into Do, See and Reflect. That gives you a ready scaffold for reflection, and a neat way to evidence your practice against each principle for a Quality Improvement Plan or an assessment and rating visit.

5. Cultural Knowledge Stories run right through

The 2016 book had a single Ochre Artwork by Annette Sax with a story by Dr Sue Atkinson. The 2026 version deepens this considerably, with a suite of stories tied to framework elements: the Fern for pedagogy, the Woven Strands for integrated teaching and learning, the Yam Daisy or Murnong for planning, Ochre Mountain for assessment, Scar Trees and Message Stick for the outcomes, and River Stepping Stones for transitions. Robert Barnett, of Yorta Yorta descent, joins as a collaborating artist. First Nations perspectives are embedded across the whole document rather than sitting in one place.

6. Key terms and Child Safe Standards move up front

The 2026 version opens with defined key terms: child safety, cultural safety, families, child voice, early childhood professionals and play. It also names the Child Safe Standards explicitly, sitting alongside the National Quality Framework. That reflects the current regulatory setting and connects neatly to the child safety and child protection distinction educators are asked to hold.

7. What did not change

The five Learning and Development Outcomes keep their names: strong sense of identity, connected with and contribute to their world, strong sense of wellbeing, confident and involved learners, effective communicators. The reflective, relationship-centred spirit of the framework is intact. If your resources already speak the Outcomes language, that part carries straight across.

My notes and thoughts

The 2026 framework text is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, so you may quote and paraphrase it with credit to the State of Victoria (Department of Education).

Cheers, Kate / Storykate