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FOSTER CARE WIN
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Fostering support
AEU Industrial/Research Officer Mika Tippins illustrates how assisting individual members can achieve policy changes for all.
96th, 97th and 98th birthday. When she passed away the kindergarten children formed a guard of honour at the funeral.
Continuing the journey
COVID threw a spanner in the works but the regular ongoing ‘joint sessions’ have continued with the Roseview residents. The current Executive Officer, Director of Nursing and Midwifery at Southern Flinders Health, Crystal Brook Hospital has decided that the program is so valuable that he has scheduled regular meetings with kindergarten staff to make it work.
Eleven children have had their flu vaccination so that they can continue to visit and meet the requirements for aged care visiting. But to be inclusive, when weather permits, they meet on the hospital grounds. The children involved in the original project are now working with a new batch of kindy kids for the next stage of the project.
The kindergarten has also received quite significant funding as a result of lobbying local politicians for beautifying the footpath and making it a space where they can all engage.
Local MP Geoff Brock and Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan have both supported the kindergarten in their lobbying. They received $15,000 from the Department for Education and through a grant application to Country Arts SA, sponsored by the Crystal Brook Community Association, they received another $18,912 to engage a professional public artist to create handmade clay tiles to tell the story and highlight the intergenerational connection between the kindergarten children and
In August this year I was assigned the matter of an AEU member who had acquired the foster care of a baby and subsequently applied for foster carer’s leave from the Department for Education (DfE) on half pay. His application was refused because the DfE, which controlled the policy, did not allow for this.
At the time, foster carer’s leave could only be approved up to 20 weeks on full pay. This is despite half pay being an option for adoption, surrogacy and maternity leave under your School and Preschool Education Staff Enterprise Agreement 2020 (EA20). Foster caring is a viable pathway to adoption.
Adoptions have steadily declined over the past decades, which led a parliamentary inquiry last year to recommend national law reform which would make adoption easier. Some hold that the current laws make the process difficult to navigate. Some reforms have occurred; for example, same sex couples have been able to adopt children since changes to the Adoption Act 1988 in February 2017.
In response to the member’s call for assistance the AEU developed a detailed and legally justified, rights-based argument in a letter to DfE on behalf of the member and his family. DfE was persuaded and the policy was changed to allow successful applicants to take the leave on half pay over 40 weeks in line with other leave in the EA20.
This is another example of the AEU working behind the scenes for its members. It’s not wrong to speak up. If you are considering fostering a child then contact the AEU’s Information Unit to make sure you know your rights before starting the process. n
the Roseview residents.
As Director, Karena Wilson said in her application:
“There is a need to capture this wonderful intergenerational connection within the community. There is a sense of timeless history and voice of the Roseview residents that can be honoured. Beautifying this environment along the garden bed with art will bring love and joy to the community who gather in this space. The art project will weave an incredible intergenerational story into the fabric of the Crystal Brook community.”
They are now lobbying for an RAA Regional Safety Grant for 30 metres of hand railing along the length of the footpath to make it safer for the older folk and we hope they get it.
I know this is one great example of the type of members we have all over the state making a fantastic contribution to the lives and wellbeing of children and young people through the public education system. Congratulations to Director Karena Wilson, Teacher Cammie Noonan and Early Childhood Workers Olivia Pilkington, Kyra Hogg and Ros Wardle for the fantastic work you are doing. n
PUBLIC EDUCATION
AWARDS
You can read more about work of educators honoured in the 2021 Public Education Awards at:
8: www.education.sa.gov.au/
working-us/teacher-initiatives/ public-education-awards
AEU Information Unit: P: 8172 6300
Mondays: 8.15am – 5.00pm Tuesday to Friday: 10.30am – 5.00pm E: info@aeusa.asn.au
1839 1860 1871 1875
Trinity Church infant school A government ‘infant school’ opened by Mrs Catherine Francis (pictured). Introducing the ‘kindergarten system’ Compulsory schooling for Non Aboriginal children
1879 1887 1905
First course of Kindergarten instruction in SA Creches established Initiating free kindergartens
1905
Kindergarten Union of South Australia established
1907 1912
Adelaide Kindergarten Training College established The Kindergarten Union of South Australia’s free and private kindergartens
1918
The Kindergarten Union of South Australia opens a Montessori school
1955
Golden Jubilee of the Kindergarten Union of South Australia
Early years to recent times
Early childhood in South Australia, including times prior to the establishment of the colony, has a remarkable history. Now seemed an appropriate time to create an overview of this history so that the public and those who currently work in the sector, or who are entering the early childhood profession, become aware of that history and the work of those in whose footsteps they follow.
To track this history is it necessary to look in many places, in academic references, in buildings and of course most of all, in people.
This is a history essentially of women who understood and fought for the right of children to have an education, believing education to be a critical element in the creation of a democratic South Australian society. The central role of women is foregrounded, including Lillian de Lissa, Lucy Morice and Alitja Rigney, and many others, who worked on this early years educational democratising project.
The history spans pre colonisation until the present day and acknowledges that prior to European invasion Aboriginal First Nations educated their young children to enable them to be successful members of their communities. The history is not all about successes. It reminds the viewer of laws which attempted to divide Aboriginal children from their families, culture and language, and also of the exclusion of Aboriginal children from formal education.
We hope you find it to be as fascinating as we have. n
Associate Professor Victoria Whitington is Dean of Programs, Education Futures at the University of South Australia.
The full history can be found at:
8: www.unisa.edu.au/about-unisa/ Our-History/early-childhood-learning/
Unfinished business
In his final column as Branch Vice President, Dash Taylor Johnson reminds us about keeping the bastards honest!
Continuous improvement with finite resourcing. Something doesn’t add up!
OK, I get it. We can learn from our mistakes. We can learn from our experiences. We can reflect on how we’d do things differently if we had another chance.
But living this phrase is a conundrum of its own.
I mean, improvement is a desired outcome, but is it realistic for there to be infinite improvement? I think not.
The frustration then comes when the Department for Education and TAFE keep upping the ante. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not suggesting that we flatline, without wanting to be better and do better. But the incessant ‘world class’ rhetoric and expectation of competitive efficiencies ultimately are distractions from addressing the essence of best-practice management – looking after your workers!
Bottomless pits
We are not bottomless pits with endless capacity. There are good reasons why world records can take a very long time to be broken.
The pace of educational work is frantic and unrelenting. We are presented with assertions that we are letting our students down if we can’t adopt, accept and absorb change.
But change isn’t the issue – it is how it is implemented and supported. The Department’s own ‘Employee Mental Health & Wellbeing’ procedure identifies the change process as a psycho-social hazard. It also assigns responsibilities to respond promptly to any reported instance of a psychological injury. So what can we do?
Assert our rights
Firstly, we have Enterprise Agreements that outline our industrial rights to help us manage workload and change. These describe entitlements and processes to address concerns as an individual, a sub-branch and a system. Part 5 of the 2020 Agreement for preschool and school employees is all about workload and Part 3 is about communication, consultation and dispute resolution.
In addition to the work health and safety features in Clause 3.6, the Work Health and Safety Act 2012 legislates expectations for employers and workers. (Preschool and school leaders are workers, by the way). Elected health and safety reps have powers to support change within this Act.
But do we ever assert our rights? Do we report psychological injuries? Do we hold our employer accountable?
Yes, but not as often as we could, nor as we should, which conveniently sends the message that everything is fine. This is not effective in holding anyone accountable. Instead allows more change, more expectations. More, more, more!
Ask questions
There are many points of accountability: enterprise agreements, policies, procedures and recently the ‘road maps’ (think ‘One in Four’ reforms) and Workforce Strategy commitments (think ‘Country Workforce Strategy’ with “we will” statements).
It is up to us all to ask questions of our employer and our union, to seek updates, and to challenge the change process. Without this, it will be more of the same. Unfinished business? Definitely.
A calendar year doesn’t mean the end; the holidays are simply a pause in operations.
I know that there are many areas of union business that I have started, am involved in, that will still be ‘live’ when my term ends this year.
In 2022 we will have a state and a federal election, we will have adapted to life with COVID, and enterprise bargaining discussions for TAFE and public schools and preschools will be in play. As a union, we are more important than ever and as always, you are at the centre of it. n
