AECTEN – Australian Early Childhood Teacher Education Network

AECTEN holds regular cross-institutional meetings, collegial discussions, and sector engagement activities to ensure the currency, relevance, and quality of early childhood teacher education programs across Australia. In addition to ongoing virtual collaboration, members met in person for a national planning meeting, strengthening connections and setting shared priorities for advancing early childhood teacher education.

Child Safety and Child Protection in Early Childhood Education and Care – ITE Professional Learning Series

The child safety and child protection in ECEC ITE Professional Learning Series is a joint initiative of the AECTEN and the Early Childhood Professorial Advisory Council, designed to facilitate knowledge exchange among academics working in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) initial teacher education in response to child safety and child protection reform in the sector. The series comprises five 90-minute seminars delivered fully online as webinars, with participants able to attend the full series or opt in and out of individual sessions according to their professional learning needs.

1. Introduction to child safety, child protection and child safeguarding
   • Date: Wednesday, 17th June 2026
   • Addressing: What is child safety, child protection and child safeguarding; National Office of Childhood Safety Child Safe Organisations (10 principles)
   • Focus: NQF, NQS and ACECQA updates
2. Child safety and child protection in context
   • Date: Wednesday, 19th July 2026
   • Addressing: Preventing harmful/sexual behaviour; body safety; Consent, respect and body safety; Detect, disrupt and report harm
   • Focus: Mandatory training and reportable conduct schemes
   • Register Here
3. Insights and challenges in ECEC ITE
   • Date: Tuesday, 22nd September 2026
   • Integrating child safety and child protection into ECE programs. Responding to administrative burden when embedding child safety and mandatory reporting in ECE ITE programs
   • Addressing: ACECQA National Model Code for taking images of children in ECEC ITE
   • Focus: What institutional supports do ITE academics need to sustain up-to-date, confident teaching of child protection responsibilities?
   • Register Here
4. Responding to child safety and child protection reform in ECEC ITE
   • Date: Thursday, 8th October 2026
   • Addressing: Policy responsive reform in ECEC; ITE ECEC student guardianship
   • Focus: How and where is ITE ECEC student guardianship developing in our programs?
   • Register Here
5. Advancing the scholarship of child safety and child protection in ECEC and ECEC ITE
   • Date: Thursday, 5th November 2026
   • Invited presentations by 3 HDR students: What are the future knowledge needs in policy, practice and pedagogy regarding child safety and child protection in ECEC ITE?
   • Register Here

Webinar: Safety from the Start: Professor Daryl Higgins – 16 September 2025

As child safety continues to be a prominent concern in media and public discourse, it is heartening to see universities and educators come together with such commitment to raising standards and improving quality in early childhood education. Professor Higgins shared invaluable insights that challenged us to reflect deeply on our practices and reaffirm our shared responsibility to protect and nurture children from the very beginning.

Watch webinar here