Emigrating to Australia - Early Childhood Teacher

[MagicalMrsMistoffelees]

Early Childhood (Pre-Primary School) Teacher appears on the Skilled Occupation List for emigrating to Australia.

Does anybody know what exactly this is?!

I am a Reception teacher in a primary school with a BA in English Literature and a Primary PGCE and am unsure whether I qualify or not.

[WhatTheActualFugg]

All I know is that children start school in Australia at 5-6, not 4-5. I would guess this role is a Kindergarten place for the equivalent of an EYFS teacher.

[WhatTheActualFugg]

All I know is that children start school in Australia at 5-6, not 4-5. I would guess this role is a Kindergarten place for the equivalent of an EYFS teacher.

[OccamsRaiser]

Early Childhood education refers to the period before children start school (so as the PP has said, anything before 4-5 in most states)

Education is controlled by each state, so depending on where you intend to emigrate, there are different 'names' for things. In Queensland, for example, the year before children start school, they will attend Kindy/Kindergarten, many of which are run through nurseries/long day care centres but some of which are separate or within a school. The idea is that this helps to prepare children to go into first year of school (which is called 'prep' in Qld, but different states have different names - i.e. NSW calls that kindy... confused yet?)
www.qld.gov.au/education/earlychildhood/programs/pages/about.html

But the short answer to your question is that as a reception teacher, you would doubtless be qualified to work as "Early Childhood (Pre-Primary School) Teacher" for visa purposes.

[TerrorAustralis]

My sister was an early childhood teacher, in Western Australia until recently. She could teach kindergarten (before primary), pre-primary (the year before grade one and now technically the FYOS - in the new Australian curriculum this is being called foundation) or grade 1. I think it may even include up to grade 3, but she always taught kindy or pre-primary.

OccamsRaiser is correct in that each state having it's own Education Dept confuses things and things are done slightly differently by state. School starting age for one. Name of FYOS for another.

In WA all the places I mentioned are run by the Education Department, so all teachers are university qualified. In Victoria 'kinders' are run privately or by councils. The Education Dept only runs school from foundation year (called prep in Vic).

My DS is 4, turning 5 this year and if we were in WA he would be in pre-primary/foundation this year. Note that foundation is not compulsory, but in practice almost all children would be enrolled.

This link might help. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Australia
As I mentioned there is a national curriculum being developed and there are moves towards a common school starting age and nomenclature etc., but it's taking a long time because every state wants to keep doing it their own way!

[TerrorAustralis]

What I neglected to say in all of that is yes, I am certain you would qualify!

[SavoyCabbage]

I have just come back from Australia and I'm a primary teacher. I wasn't able to teach early childhood.

I was in Victoria where an early childhood teacher is a kinder(garten) teacher. In Victoria there is three year old kinder and four year old kinder usually in purpose built buildings but sometimes in all day childcare centres.

A lot of children don't go to kinder as its not cheap and the hours can be very inconvenient if you work or have other children. I think it was twelve hours a week when my dd was there but I seem to remember they increased the hours. The government I mean. So a kinder teacher would be with three year olds part of the time and four year olds part of the time. When they increased the hours there was a bit of a shortage of teachers.

[SavoyCabbage]

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/news/archive/Pages/ecteacherreg.aspx

Here is a link. It will probably vary state to state though like people have said.

It might have changed since l looked into it. I've a friend who is a kindergarten teacher and she is qualified to teach to grade three but she is Australian and did her degree over there.

[MagicalMrsMistoffelees]

Thanks for all the advice and info!

I actually lived in Australia 1996-1998 and studied for a diploma in childcare and education so you'd think I'd have half a clue about the education system. But no - it's baffled me for a while and I'm confused about whether I qualify or not!

[chloeb2002]

There will be a suggested organisation who will assess your skills and arrange registration or you. Try that?