Another Virtual Wellness Summit has come to an end! Thank you to everyone who came along — truly, the success of our Virtual Wellness Summits continues to excite and astound us! Each time we host our Wellness Summits we have the pleasure of witnessing such an inspiring and impressive commitment to the early childhood education sector. It’s fantastic to see that this commitment is unwavering throughout the challenges we have all faced over the last year or so.

As well as being inspired by our attendees — educators, directors and owners from all over the country — it has to be highlighted just how much we were all able to take away from the presenters at the Virtual Wellness Summit 2021.

A Holistic Approach to Documentation

Alina Dan imparted a wealth of information to support educators in taking a holistic approach to documentation in early childhood education. It goes without saying that everyone was pretty excited to hear Alina’s insight into documenting more by writing less! Alina’s approach supports educators in creating meaningful documentation by acknowledging the unique educator journey alongside that of the child. We explored the true purpose of documentation along with various ways to show developmental progress. Alina also brought many new ideas to us all around the topic of behaviour management, looking not only at how to manage behaviour but getting to the roots of what affects behaviour.

 The Power of Imagery

Shoshi Jacobs is an art therapist and a beautiful artist herself! Her area of interest and expertise lies within her beliefs around how we can utilise imagery and symbolism to heal, educate and connect with ourselves and one another. Her presentation ‘The Power of Imagery’ delved into the many incredible benefits of art for children, including increasing self-esteem, communicating feelings, accessing creativity and so much more. A truly insightful look at valuing the power of the creative process rather than ability or end result.

 Tips for Effective Assessments

We hope also that everyone enjoyed Galina’s presentation on falling in love with assessments! Galina provided tips and advice to minimise stress in planning and undertaking assessments with children while also getting the most from them. Assessments are of course critical in early childhood education planning assessments that are effective in helping us discover what children know and understand based on what they say, draw, do, make or write can ensure we have the best information to know where children are at with their development and learning.

Not only did Galina provide some great information on assessments, she also led us in some energetic, hands-on music training. The music training not only revitalised us all, it also provided some great tips to revitalise the music sessions ran in centres and proved once again how powerful music can be. 

A giant thank-you to everyone who joined us at the Virtual Wellness Summit 2021 and we cannot wait to see you all plus even more wonderful, dedicated educators at our next summit!