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Positive Schooling and Child Development pp 383–398Cite as

Children’s Rights to Healthy Development and Learning in Quality Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia

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Abstract

Increasing international attention is focused on children’s rights to participation, protection, and provision, in contexts that promote children’s healthy learning and development. Optimizing children’s life chances by promoting children’s health and safety, and physical and psychological well-being is being prioritized by governments and national agencies in a range of countries. An example is Australia’s National Quality Framework, a legislative and policy vehicle driving a significant national reform agenda for the health, well-being, and learning of young children in Australia. Established in 2012, the National Quality Framework was designed to raise quality and drive continuous improvement and consistency in Australian ECEC (long day care, family day care, preschool/kindergarten, and outside schools hours care services). This chapter examines Australia’s national agenda for optimizing children’s life chances for health development and learning. It considers empirical evidence and policy initiatives that focus on children’s health, safety and development, and the promotion of their growing competence, confidence, and independence. The chapter considers the Australian Government’s national resource, the ‘Get up and Grow Guidelines’ (for children’s health and well-being), based on the national Healthy Eating Guidelines and the Physical Activity recommendations for children in ECEC contexts. In considering strategies for achieving national goals, the chapter identifies key enablers and barriers to optimizing children’s life chances for health development and learning.

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  1. School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education, Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Ann Farrell

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  1. Ann Farrell
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Correspondence to Ann Farrell .

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  1. Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India

    Sibnath Deb

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Farrell, A. (2018). Children’s Rights to Healthy Development and Learning in Quality Early Childhood Education and Care in Australia. In: Deb, S. (eds) Positive Schooling and Child Development. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0077-6_20

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