The Kindergarten Teaching Excellence Approach

Introducing the Kindergarten Teaching Excellence Approach

The Kindergarten Teaching Excellence Approach represents a major shift in how professional learning and practice development is designed and delivered for Victorian Funded Kindergarten services.

Early childhood professionals now have access to tailored, high-quality courses and supports—available on demand—to meet their individual learning needs.

The Kindergarten Teaching Excellence Approach is designed for all professionals working in Victorian Funded Kindergartens, including educators, teachers, educational leaders, and service leaders—regardless of the type of setting or organisation. All supports are fully funded by the Victorian Department of Education, ensuring broad and equitable access.

This initiative builds on past work and introduces a practitioner-led system of support designed to continuously improve teaching practice and outcomes for children.

About the Kindergarten Teaching Excellence Approach

The Kindergarten Teaching Excellence Approach was designed to improve child learning and development outcomes through 2 key objectives:

1. Foster rich ‘serve and return’ interactions between early childhood educators and children, within warm, respectful environments.
2. Develop intentional play-based teaching practices, underpinned by current subject matter knowledge.

The Kindergarten Teaching Excellence Approach will achieve these objectives through focusing investment across 5 priority areas. There are 5 priority areas to focus on. These areas are:

1. Improve continuity through deeper collaboration using aligned learning progressions.
2. Build a research base and improve access to, and use of, high-quality evidence.
3. Expand teacher and educator skills and knowledge of content and pedagogy.
4. Embed assessment to improve reflective practice and continuous growth.
5. Strengthen leadership to prioritise teaching and learning.

Why a Teaching Excellence Approach?

The Best Start, Best Life reforms are transforming early childhood education in Victoria. With Free Kinder now available for Three- and Four-Year-Olds, it's more important than ever to support high-quality teaching.

Teaching Excellence builds on a long-standing focus on practice improvement, starting with the launch of the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework in 2009.

This new approach introduces a more sophisticated, collaborative system of professional support—developed with input from educators, sector leaders, and experts—designed to strengthen quality at every level.

Key actions to deliver the Kindergarten Teaching Excellence Approach

There are three key actions that reflect the department's initiative in delivering professional learning and development. These actions are:

1. Early Childhood Hub: A new online platform providing educators, teachers, and leaders with access to the right resources, training, and supports at the right time.
2. Significantly expanded professional learning: A growing suite of professional learning programs are available. New courses and resources will be added based on the evolving need of users and the sector.
3. Professional Practice Support Categories: Support categories have been developed to ensure there are supports available for all career stages from new graduates, to experienced teachers and sector leaders. The categories include:
   • Build: On-demand resources for core skill-building, knowledge refreshers, and levelling up practice using evidence-based approaches.
   • Embed: In-service supports for collaborative team development and embedding strong leadership, culture, and shared philosophy.
   • Innovate: Advanced in-service support for experienced leaders aiming to improve practice across entire services.

Each category is backed by current research and designed to elevate reflective practice, professional conversations, and ultimately, outcomes for children.

About the new Early Childhood Hub

The Early Childhood Hub will allow early childhood professionals to enrol, complete, and track their professional learning over time. Courses and supports will be delivered under the three professional learning categories of Build, Embed and Innovate. There will also be an area to connect with the latest Research. This will ensure that programs on the Early Childhood Hub will:

• Cater to different skill levels and experience in the sector.
• Provide various delivery modes that suit different learning needs.
• Be based on the latest research and adult learning methodologies and be updated as research changes.

For more information contact our Early Childhood Hub Helpdesk via email earlychildhoodhub@education.vic.gov.au or visit: earlychildhoodhub.vic.gov.au