It Takes A Village Australia

🌱 It's World Environment Day! 🌱

Want to inspire children to connect with and care for the natural world and make it fun? We've got you covered! 👇👇

Explore easy and practical activity ideas to try in your early years and OSHC service from Child Australia:
📌 childaustralia.org.au/world-environment-day-in-elc-oshc/

If there's anyone who knows how to get children excited about nature, it's Costa the Garden Gnome! Costa shared a favourite online resource at the OSHC Conference last year... Dirt Girl World! 🪱

You'll find songs, tips, and activities to help you and the children at your service get grubby in nature! 🐞
📌 www.dirtgirlworld.com

Have you heard of colourful breathing? It's a quick and simple activity for all ages to find calm and regulate emotions in moments when we might feel overwhelmed. 💭

Display the 'Colourful breathing activity' poster from the Victorian Inclusion Agency (VIA) at your service as a gentle reminder for children and educators to take a breath when things feel hard. 🌀

Find your copy of this FREE poster + MORE inclusion resources to use in your room in last month's edition of Inclusion News:
📌 mailchi.mp/itav/your_inclusion_update_may2026

Don't forget to hit 'SUBSCRIBE' to get amazing resources, tools and strategies, thoughtfully curated by VIA's Inclusion Professionals, delivered straight to your inbox! 📨

Inclusion News is a VIA resource. The VIA program is delivered in consortium with KU Children's Services and Yooralla.

Today is Mabo Day – but who is Mabo? 🌿

Eddie Koiki Mabo was a Torres Strait Islander man whose advocacy efforts led to the overturning of the legal fiction of terra nullius, or 'land belonging to no one'.

Since then, First Nations peoples across Australia have made hundreds of successful native title claims to the land they and their ancestors have occupied for thousands of years.

Wondering how you can teach children about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and knowledge?

Read 'How to talk to young children about Aboriginal history and colonialism in an age-appropriate way' by Victorian Aboriginal Education Association Inc. (VAEAI) pp. 2–5 in VIA's Embrace magazine edition #16:
📌 viac.com.au/resource/embrace-magazine-16-digital-edition

Share what you learn with your team and explore the other VAEAI resources listed in the article together.

Looking for more? On pages 6–7 of this edition, you'll also find an inspiring story of an OSHC service's journey towards reconciliation, 'From unaware to advocate.'

🖤💛❤️

Who else is still sifting through all the goodies from last week's OSHC Conference? 🙋‍♀️

We're privileged to have had Professor John Tobin, Director of Studies at Melbourne Law School's Human Rights Program, deliver our final keynote presentation of the two days. 🤩

John took us on a deep dive into the legal obligations and practical implications for OSHC to create safe spaces where young people can thrive.

We only scratched the surface of what a rights-based approach looks like in OSHC, but John gave us heaps to chew on, like how can we…
🌟 Make sure ALL young people can thrive (and what are we doing to accommodate different needs)?
🌟 Centre young people's best interests – and learn from when this hasn't been done well historically?
🌟 Create safe environments for young people to come to things at their own pace?
🌟 Listen to and bring the views of young people into everything we do?
🌟 Stop and look at the world through the eyes of a young person?

John closed by inviting us to recognise how young people see the world differently from us, and factor that into how we shape their education and care environments. 💡

What next step will you be taking to centre the rights, interests and views of young people at your service? Tell us below! 🤔

Thank you, John, for sharing your incredible passion and expertise on the rights of young people with us! ✨

We can't wait until next year's OSHC Conference! Let's end on an uplifting thought from one of our first-time attendees:

'It seems kind of unreal that there is such a big conference for an industry most people see as a stepping stone... Hopefully this is a step in the right direction [for] the grander population and next generations seeing this as a worthwhile career!' 🎉

Did you hear? 4.75% minimum wage increase announced! Get up to speed with our FREE webinars. 🖥️

This week, the Fair Work Commission handed down its annual minimum wage decision. What does it mean for you and your team? 🤔

The Commission has awarded a 4.75% wage increase to all employees paid on awards, applicable from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.

For employees covered by the Children's Services Award, this is on top of the 5% gender undervaluation increase from 30 June.

PLUS: The Commission has awarded additional increases to employees at the lowest classification levels of Awards. For the Children's Services Award, this will impact level 1 and 2.

This annual minimum wage increase will also adjust the minimum rates paid to employees covered by the Worker Retention Payment.

🖥️ Want to know more? Join a FREE webinar to help understand and implement these changes in your service:

📅 Tuesday 9 June
🕑 11.30am
📌 cela-org-au.zoom.us/meeting/register/wzENEX9rQx-Ah846DM_45g

📅 Tuesday 16 June
🕑 5.30pm
📌 cela-org-au.zoom.us/meeting/register/qjsUjrFLRtCwPG9X4TU6EA

Look out for FREE downloadable wage rate sheets from the ITAV and CELA Workplace Relations Team in the coming days. 👀

If something goes wrong in your service… would your team know exactly what to do?

Or would there be hesitation, confusion – and risk?

For directors in early childhood and OSHC, incident reporting isn't just admin. It's accountability.

Join Session 2 of our FREE 'Child safety reforms made practical' series:
💻 Get incident reporting right: Lead with clarity, reduce risk

📅 June 3 | 10:00 AM (AEST)

This practical session will show you how to:
✓ Recognise exactly what must be reported (and when)
✓ Put simple, reliable systems in place – even with limited time and resources
✓ Ensure your team raises concerns early (before they escalate)
✓ Lead confidently through incidents without second-guessing

💬 Live Q&A with experts – get answers specific to your service
🎥 Register once = get recordings of the full series (including Session 1)
🎟 100% free

This session is built specifically for early childhood and OSHC leaders navigating child safety reforms.

Don't wait until an incident tests your systems.

Register now and be prepared:
👉 itav.org.au/event/child-safety-reforms-made-practical-3-part-interactive-webinar-series/

Glenn Manton brought his signature authenticity and humour to Wednesday's first keynote session for Day 2 of the OSHC Conference, inspiring attendees to lead with connection, care and playfulness. 🚀

Drawing on years of working with young people, schools, families and communities as a speaker-educator and youth advocate, Glenn shared 9 tangible shifts educators can make to deliver exceptional OSHC programs. 🎯

Jam-packed full of relationship-building gems, some of the standouts were:
⚡Knowing your team's strengths – Start by asking them what energises and what drains them!
⚡Being present in a young person's life and appreciating what matters to them (Hint: it will be different to what you think!)
⚡Answering families' top questions: Is my child okay, are they seen – and can you be trusted?
⚡Inviting your broader community into the OSHC space to share something new with young people (the more obscure the better!)

Which reflective question or shift stirred something in you? 💫

Glenn also revealed 3 values he always comes back to before stepping into any space to develop genuine relationships and communicate well with others: Authenticity, generosity and vulnerability. 🍃

Didn't get all your questions answered? Get in touch with us and we'll make sure they find their way to Glenn and he'll get back to you.

We echo the words of some of the attendees:
💬 'Thank you so much for the tips, presentation and self-reflection.'
💬 'Thoroughly enjoyed your session and lots to reflect on.'
💬 'Thank you, Glenn. I have gained a lot to reflect on at our program both individually and as a team.'

🎶 The time has come, to say fair's fair, to pay the rent, to pay our share. The time has come, a fact's a fact, it belongs to them, let's give it back! 🎶

This morning, we were honoured to have Aboriginal Elder Uncle Trevor Gallagher and his family join us again at our Preston office on Wurundjeri Country to acknowledge National Reconciliation Week (NRW) 2026. 🖤💛❤️

Uncle Trevor put it aptly when he said, 'Reconciliation is like the keys on a piano – the black and the white – the only way to get that piano working properly is if they harmonise together.' 🎹

Marli, our RAP coordinator, asked Uncle Trevor, 'How can we be better allies?'

'Through participation, like showing up at events and at marches. By being culturally appropriate, like using the Aboriginal name Birrarung when referring to the Yarra River and by calling out racism when you see it,' encouraged Uncle Trevor.

Our ITAV choir then reassembled to sing the classic land-rights anthem 'Beds Are Burning' by Midnight Oil for Reconciliation Australia's Voices for Reconciliation. See a snippet of our rendition below! 🎤✨

Afterwards, we shared a lovely morning tea and time to connect. Our CEO Daniela shared, 'ITAV works really hard on reconciliation all year, and having the board, some of our children and some of our members joining us here today ensures the ripples reach out even further.'

A BIG thank you, once again, to Uncle Trevor and his family for your ongoing guidance, support and generosity.

A special mention to the following for coming along and sharing this time with us:
☀️ Annie, Manager of Family and Children's Services at La Trobe University Community Children's Centre
☀️ Linima, Assistant Manager and Educational Leader at La Trobe University Community Children's Centre
☀️ Ranita, Coordinator at Brunswick East Primary School OSHC Service
☀️ Board members Linda, Bruce, Brian, Christine, Sigi and Janine (online).

Uncle Trevor will be doing a talk at Footscray Library during NAIDOC Week. Keep an eye out for more details to come! 🤩

💥 OSHC friends: That's officially a wrap! 💥

Don't know about you but we're still unpacking all our learnings from the incredible mix of presenters who shared with us at The OSHC Conference 2026 over the last two days! 🤯

Day 2 was just as chock-a-block with moments of deep reflection and growth, leaving our team and many attendees buzzing about the passion, skill, and care that make our OSHC community so special – and the many small (and big!) ways we can strengthen our practice. ✨

We're curious... who in the Day 2 lineup challenged YOUR thinking?
💡Speaker-educator, media personality and youth advocate, Glenn Manton on relationship building
💡Melbourne Law School Human Rights Program's Professor John Tobin on child rights
💡The lively debate between Merri Creek Primary School OSHC educators and young people
💡Bravehearts' Kate McGill on keeping children safe at our service
💡Be You's Nicole Lees on educator wellbeing
💡Our very own OSHC experts, Lucy Harberts and Sharon Goodwin, on community partnerships
💡The Indigenous Literacy Foundation's Zoe Cassim and Justine Clarke on First Nations literacy
💡Hydon Consulting's Catharine Hydon on co-design and collaboration in OSHC.

An enormous THANK YOU to all the presenters, organisers, and attendees for making this year's conference so impactful! ⚡⚡

Tell us, which presenter or session sparked something NEW for you? 👇👇