Floor time for babies and toddlers: why freedom of movement matters
Dr Emmi Pikler was a Hungarian paediatrician who, in the 1940s, established a residential nursery in Budapest. She and her team developed the Pikler approach through decades of watching infants move. What they observed – carefully and systematically – is that when infants are given the freedom to move without adult interference, they don’t just develop physically; they develop grace...
What is infant and toddler pedagogy and why does it matter?
Infant and toddler pedagogy is one of those terms that can sound abstract until you start to sit with what it actually means in practice. At its simplest, it’s the thinking and values that underpin how we care for and educate children in the first three years of life. But in reality, it shapes everything – how we set up...
The power of cautious curiosity: An approach to AI that aligns with ECEC
A 2023 report on AI’s impact on the future of teaching and learning, advised educational leaders, “to avoid romancing the magic of AI.[1]” Easier said than done though – novel or new exciting technologies have often made us feel this way (AI is no different here) however, we also sense that this interferes with our ability to critically assess them....
End of Year Tips
End-of-Year Tips for Educators Wow, it’s getting to the end of the year already. Congratulations on all of your hard work! We hope you and your families enjoy using Storypark at your service. We’ve put together some handy tips and information to continue to make things as easy as possible for you throughout the holiday season. Note: If your service...
Communicating what you do to safeguard children
While recent events may have put child safeguarding under a more refined lens, families have always sought to understand how ECEC providers commit to keeping their children safe. Ideally high transparency means everyone in the community knows and models what they do to protect children, however this needs to be backed up by frequent and varied communication – it doesn’t...
Educator use agreements: How educators can take ownership of children’s digital safety
ECEC settings that practice and display a high-level of care around the digital safeguarding of children, often consider three core areas of management: Risk, technology (devices and software) and people. While each area has its own complexities and considerations, managing people can be significantly strengthened by bringing them on the journey as willing partners, rather than relying on top-down solutions...
From policy to practice: Working through children’s digital safety in ECEC
Wanting to provide practical resources for anyone on a children’s digital safety journey, Storypark’s pedagogical team has developed a free workbook to help you put children’s digital safety policies into practice: In a community-led approach to children’s digital safety everyone from administrators to IT professionals, educators and families are invited to bring their knowledge and experience to the table, creating...
What does a holistic, community-led approach to children’s digital safety look like?
Storypark has always had children’s digital safety at the heart, however like the vast majority of the ECEC sector, recent events in Australia have given us pause to deeply reflect and evaluate our contribution. Our discussions led us to a powerful guiding question: What does a holistic, community-led approach to children’s digital safety look like? This question emerged from reflection...
How Storypark AI has been designed to help educators safeguard children’s data
Storypark AI is here and we are excited to harness the strengths of artificial intelligence (AI) while providing a set of considered, safe tools specifically designed for ECE. In creating a set of principles to guide the impact of any AI tools we create, a commitment to protecting children’s data as well as openness and honesty was always going to be...
Putting our AI Commitments into action: Storypark AI is coming in March
This past year at Storypark, alongside many of the ECE organisations and services we partner with, we have been researching and exploring the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. As a result of this journey, we are very excited to get closer to introducing Storypark AI to educators, managers and leaders as a set of tools specifically designed for ECE....