Professional Knowledge
Professional Knowledge covers what educators need to know to support children well: how children learn and develop, the diverse backgrounds and experiences they bring, and the approved learning framework, My Time, Our Place. This knowledge underpins every decision educators make and is the basis for programs that respond to each child.
What are the Standards?
This standard is about understanding the children in your care. That covers middle childhood development, their cultural, linguistic and family backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, inclusion needs, children’s rights and agency, and how life experiences shape wellbeing. In practice, it helps educators see what sits behind behaviour rather than just managing it, and spot when something changes for a child. It also helps them shape a program where every child feels they belong.
This standard is about knowing My Time, Our Place: its vision of belonging, being and becoming, its principles, practices and outcomes, and its cycle of observing, planning, implementing and reflecting. It gives educators a shared professional language to recognise learning in everyday moments, like a game of handball building persistence and fairness. It also lets them use documentation and evaluation so that what children say and do this week shapes what the service offers next.
Explore the Standards
S1: Know Children and How They Learn and Develop
Educators understand each child’s development, background, rights and experiences so they can include and engage every child.
S2: Know the Framework and How it Informs the Program Cycle of Planning and Implementation
Educators understand the Framework’s principles, practices, outcomes and program cycle, and use them to guide planning.