Research in Effective Education in Early Childhood - REEaCh Centre

We are pleased to announce the publication of the REEaCh Centre’s 2025 Annual Report.
We invite you to access an online copy of the report, which is available on our website:

Publications Publications

We are delighted to congratulate Dr Anne Kennedy on being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australia Day 2026 Honours this week — a remarkable recognition of her significant service to early childhood education and to the community.
The REEaCh Centre is proud to work with Anne through her role with us as an Honorary Fellow. This award reflects Anne’s incredible contribution to early childhood education and her long‑standing commitment to supporting children, families, educators, and communities. Anne’s knowledge, leadership, and generosity continue to make such a positive impact on our work and across our sector.

The Faculty of Education at the University of

Children's right to strong wellbeing is essential to highlight not only in Children’s Week but in everyday practice. Here, teachers reflect on children's right to be heard as a central pillar of their wellbeing: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/18369391251337791

A wonderful evening last night celebrating children's art explorations of Country and Wurundjeri seasons, followed by a powerful lecture from Prof Melitta Hogarth, talking about the important work of Ngarrngga and the opportunities and barriers faced by EC educators when embedding Indigenous perspectives. Our warmest thanks to everyone who joined us for this important conversation.

Register now to attend the 2025 Jenny Leaper Lecture & Children’s Artwork Exhibition Opening!

https://www.linkedin.com/events/2025jennyleaperlecture-children7363392484678250498 g

2025 Jenny Leaper Lecture & Children’s Art Exhibition Opening | LinkedIn Refreshments from 5:30pm, lecture begins at 6:30pm. Early Childhood education policy mandates that every child participates in an educational journey that nurtures their confidence, fosters creativity, and lays the foundation for lifelong learning success. In this vision, all children become engaged...

Fantastic Post-Doc opportunity in Early Years and Childhood Studies. Join the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne!

Find out more:

go.unimelb.edu.au

This NAIDOC Week, as we reflect on the theme 'The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy', we celebrate the skills, strength, and knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early childhood educators who continue to lead the way in creating meaningful, culturally grounded learning experiences for children.

At the REEaCh Centre, we're privileged to work alongside many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators and communities. One partnership we're particularly proud to highlight is with the incredible team at Kulila Indigenous Kindergarten in Toowoomba, whose expertise and dedication have achieved something truly remarkable.

Over the past two years, this strong team of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators worked with our researcher, Dr Hannah Stark and speech pathologist Prue Smeaton as they have implemented the The Hanen Centre Learning Language and Loving It program. Their outstanding work was recognised nationally as finalists in the 2024 HESTA Early Childhood Education & Care Awards Advancing Pedagogy and Practice category.

Their success demonstrates that meaningful change happens when professional learning is built on trust, delivered in familiar spaces, and honours existing relationships and cultural knowledge.

The results speak to their professional excellence: sustained improvements in educator-child interactions that continued months after the program ended. Children's language development, social connections, and confidence flourished under their skilled guidance, showing what's possible when cultural safety and educator expertise come together.

This research, now accepted for publication in the Early Childhood Education Journal and presented at national conferences, demonstrates what we already know: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators bring invaluable expertise, cultural wisdom, and innovative approaches that benefit all children.

Their commitment to culturally safe, relationship-centred learning creates environments where children thrive academically, socially, and culturally. We're grateful to learn alongside such dedicated professionals across all our partnerships.