We recently received the very exciting news that the CCC educator team have been named as finalists in the 2016 HESTA Early Childhood Education & Care Awards. The category in which we have been nominated is Advancing Pedagogy & Practice which recognises early childhood educators that have significantly advanced early childhood education and care through demonstrating innovation, quality improvement and enhanced outcomes for young children. Our nomination particularly emphasised the use of action research by our educator team to enhance our teaching practices and children’s learning outcomes. These are national awards and very prestigious in the early education sector so we are all thrilled to have reached this final stage of judging. I will now be joining Mel, Natalie and Caroline at the Early Childhood Australia Conference in Darwin (where they will be presenting some of their research practice) and we will attend the Awards Dinner on Friday evening where the various Awards winners will be announced. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
Postscript: We had a great time at the ECA Conference and at the Awards Dinner. We weren’t the overall winner of our category but felt very honoured to be included as finalists – we were in very impressive company.