In 2015, worldwide coverage was generated when it was announced that recruitment was underway for a professor of Lego. This was the scene-stealing headline but the grant of £4 million (AU $6.8 million) given to the University of Cambridge by ...

After 18 months of flip-flopping, the government’s changes to childcare funding have finally passed the senate with the support of One Nation, the Nick Xenophon Team and independents Cory Bernardi, David Leyonhjelm and Derryn Hinch. The bill’s changes, which comprise ...

For far-reaching International Women’s Day, a chat between an early childhood leader, an anti-poverty spokeswoman and a gender equality researcher fittingly included a spectrum of gendered concerns. Sam Page, chief executive of Early Childhood Australia, Cassandra Goldie, chief executive of the ...

Last year, he palmed off responsibility for sanitising the family daycare sector to states and territories. But now, education minster Simon Birmingham has brought his own wet wipes. This week, he released new measures that aim to save the government ...

As childcare rebates run dry – more than 100,000 households are expected to reach their annual limit by June 2017 – families are increasingly turning to cheaper au pairs for childcare. Nicole Kofkin, chief executive of au pair agency Smart ...

Whether kids, parents or teachers like it or not, phonics tests will be introduced for year one students. Nationwide. Education minster Simon Birmingham considers them essential to detect reading difficulties early on. In an interview with Sky News in late ...

Education funding, like a bag of mixed lollies, is a medley. There are the preferenced red raspberries: universities; the average pineapples: the VET sector and schools; and, of course, the ill-favoured black jellybeans: preschools. This is the upshot of the Mitchell Institute ...

Liberal Democratic senator David Leyonhjelm has a new enemy: childcare educators. He described their role as “wiping noses and stopping the kids from killing each other”, and proceeded to blame escalating childcare fees on the industry’s professionalisation. “They brought in ...