Warning: The content on this website discusses trauma and may be distressing to some readers. If you find this topic distressing, please prioritise your well-being and choose whether to engage with the material.
It seems like we hear about trauma everywhere these days, including in the EYLF V2.0.* This framework lays out what is expected of early childhood education (ECE) service providers, teachers, and educators and describes trauma-informed practice as a responsive practice relating to childhood trauma. This is an important new inclusion.
However, trauma does not only impact children. It impacts all people. A trauma-informed approach in ECE should therefore acknowledge the prevalence of trauma more broadly, including its impact on service providers, teachers and educators, and its impact on teachers’ and educators’ interactions with children, families, and colleagues.
From this perspective, trauma-informed practice must include supportive strategies that promote therapeutic spaces across the entire ECE service to create a responsive educational environment for children. However, achieving this in practice is complex. Addressing trauma in the early years requires specialised knowledge and skills, most of which are not included in teacher education programs and are costly if accessed via professional learning programs. Many professional learning programs also focus exclusively on developing practitioners’ skills for responding to child behaviours arising from trauma.
We invite you to join us for a program of experiences that have been designed using interdisciplinary perspectives and that will support you to navigate the emotional journey of implementing trauma-informed practice in early childhood settings.
During our 2024 events, one thing that many people asked for was support to provide in-service training for their own staff after attending one of our workshops. In response to this request, during 2025 we are running six FREE hands-on workshops at the Albury/Wodonga CSU campus AND we are providing all of the content and resources that you would need to run the same workshops at your service, including all of the hands-on activities (accessed via this website). That means that if you are unable to attend a workshop in person, you can still access the workshop resources via this website. There will also be a full-day on-campus symposium to extend the workshops on the first Saturday of Children’s Week in October 2025.
Please access our Schedule of Events here so that you can save the dates, see what the topics are, and share the information with interested colleagues.
Across all events, we prioritise the wellbeing of those working in, or studying to work in, early childhood settings. Together, let’s slow down, listen from the heart, and challenge traditional curricula to create spaces of unconditional positive regard. We see you. We hear you. We understand the layers of complexities you face. We care.
Please email if you have any questions or would like more information about attending the workshops. You will find our contact details via the link at the bottom of the page.
*Reference
Australian Government Department of Education (2022). Belonging, Being & Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (V2.0). Australian Government Department of Education for the Ministerial Council.
