Education & Training
Early Childhood Teacher
Early childhood teachers teach pre-school children and help them to achieve early learning goals.
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Entry-level education
Bachelor’s degree
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Job outlook
What does an Early Childhood Teacher do?
Early childhood teachers teach pre-school children and help them to achieve early learning goals.
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Work activities
As an early childhood teacher, you would:
- teach children prior to them starting primary level schooling
- work to standards set out in the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)
- deliver and assess against the EYLF
- motivate and stimulate learning, especially learning through experience
- develop children's curiosity and knowledge
- support the development of basic skills, including physical coordination, speech and communication
- support the development of literacy, numeracy and language skills through a mixture of play and learning activities
- develop children's curiosity and knowledge
- monitor children’s progress, and identify and deal with any issues
- help identify if children have special needs, and refer them to other professionals such as speech pathologists
- work closely with other professionals, such as social workers, on child protection issues
- attend meetings and training courses
- discuss the aims and desired outcomes of education programs with parents.
Early childhood teachers work in government-owned preschools, long day care centres, and community kindergartens or childcare centres.
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Key skills and interests
To become an early childhood teacher, you would need:
- the ability to relate well to children and their parents or carers
- a commitment and a desire to help children’s development
- good literacy and numeracy skills
- excellent organisational and time management skills
- creativity for designing learning and play activities
- the ability to manage groups of children in a class situtation
- to be able to deal with challenging behaviour
- an understanding of the laws around keeping children safe.
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Working hours and conditions
Working Hours
You would normally work a standard number of hours during the week, Your working hours will vary depending on the type of setting you work in. State funded and community preschools are normally open during school hours, whereas long day care centres usually offer extended hours, including during some school holidays.
Conditions
You would also spend time outside of your standard teaching hours planning, preparing and assessing activities, and attending parents' evenings and training sessions.
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How to become an Early Childhood Teacher?
Entry Level Education
In public schools, early childhood teachers are generally required to have at least a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or a related field. To get into these courses you usually need to gain your senior secondary school certificate or equivalent, with English.
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Job outlook
Employment of early childhood teachers is projected to grow faster than the average for all occupations.
Growth is expected due to a continued focus on the importance of early childhood education and the growing population of pre-school aged children.
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