New to working with young children?
Learn how to spend less time surviving and more time delighting in the joy of early childhood
From passion to profession:
Early childhood skills in 6 weeks
Confused about play-based learning?
Wondering how to guide children’s behaviour?
Need more support to thrive with children 0 to 8 years old?
With the Early Years Essentials course, you’ll hit the ground running in your incredible role of working with young children
Early Years Essentials takes trauma-informed practice and child development theory and translates it into the actual strategies, words and tools you’ll use every day.
With a focus on simplicity and wellbeing, we’ll kickstart your toolkit to become the joyful, skilled early years professional you want to be.
ENROLMENTS OPEN JUNE 2025
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Course starts June 2025
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6 modules over 6 weeks
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Weekly group mentoring
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Limited spots
How it works
Early Years Essentials is a structured course created by an ACECQA-approved Early Childhood Teacher with over 15 years experience working with young children.
Over 6 weeks you’ll learn the foundations of how to:
look after your wellbeing as an early years professional
build relationships with children, families and colleagues
guide children’s behaviour
support children’s play
promote equity and social justice
With on-demand videos, useful downloads and live group mentoring, you’ll uncover the key things that the best educators do every day.
Shouldn’t I be learning from experienced staff at my service?
Yep, and you still will be. But it’s hard for staff to focus on great mentoring when they’re supervising children, and we know that getting time off the floor or off class is always a challenge.
You can keep trying to grab moments of time to get back to basics with experienced educators. Or you can get the support you need with pre-recorded content to work through whenever suits you, and weekly group mentoring to answer all your questions.
Will my service support this learning?
All content is aligned with the National Quality Standard, Early Years Learning Framework and trauma-informed practices.
You can make the investment yourself and it’s tax deductible for you. It’s even better if your employer makes this investment.
Need some more help?
Here’s a TEMPLATE you can use to email your boss to explain why you want to do this course, and why it’s a great investment for them.
Kickstart your early years toolkit with Early Years Essentials
What’s included
Here’s what you’ll find in each module
Approx. 1 hour of pre-recorded content each week to learn when and where it suits you
Videos
Group mentoring
1 hour live video call each week to ask questions and put your learning into action. Can’t make it live? It’s recorded for you to watch in your own time.
Resources
Printable workbook, guides and templates to help you put your learning into practice
Course structure
Understand you
Self-regulation before co-regulation
Your strengths & triggers
What real self-care means
MODULE 1
Build relationships
Support secure attachment
Strategies for children
Strategies for parents & colleagues
MODULE 2
Guide behaviour
Model & teach expectations
Set calm, kind boundaries
Balance the needs of the group
MODULE 3
Support play
Encourage oral language
Intelligent materials & inviting play
Co-regulation and boundaries
MODULE 4
Understand play
Build child development knowledge
Extend children’s skills
Promote joy
MODULE 5
MODULE 6
Promote equity
Equity & social justice in practice
Inclusive spaces
Early years professionals as activists
Who’s it for?
Early Years Essentials is for anyone new to working with children aged 0 to 8 years, or wanting to join the early years profession.
This course is for you if you’re working with children in an early learning service, school or community services organisation, or want to be.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a paid or volunteer role, a school-leaver or a career changer. You can work at your own pace and ask questions during the live Q&A calls to get the support you need.
Experienced teachers new to the early years, graduate teachers or pre-service teachers
Teachers
Playgroup leaders
Parent volunteers and allied professionals leading playgroups aimed at upskilling parents
Educators
Teaching and learning assistants, early childhood educators, inclusion support educators
Trainees
Bridge the gap between study and the reality of being on the floor with children from day one
Who’s it not for?
This might not be for you if your service has its own induction process that gives you the foundational skills for the strategies and tools used with children at your service. Work through that first, then come back here if you still want more.
It also might not be for you if you’re a very experienced and skilled early years practitioner. Still not sure? Check out my Smiles & Skills Guide. If none of that is new to you, or you don’t need more help to implement it, save your money.
Hi, I’m Amy
I’m an ACECQA-approved and NESA-accredited Early Childhood Teacher. I’ve worked with young children and their families in schools, early learning services and community service organisations for over 15 years.
I have qualifications in primary teaching, early childhood education, English as an Additional Language, Australian Indigenous perspectives, training and assessment, and breastfeeding education.
I’ve had the privilege of learning from early years legends like Kathy Walker, Barbara Brann and educators from the Reggio Emilia Education Project. This cemented my love of working with young children aged 0 to 8 years, where we can truly share in the joy and wonder of childhood.
My story
I moved to the Northern Territory as a graduate primary teacher and spent 12 years working in public schools and community service organisations in remote Aboriginal and urban multicultural communities. I started my career in the early years, with a Year 2/3 class. I was completely overwhelmed and baffled by the behaviour of 25 seven-year-olds! I cried every day for the first week.
But luckily, I had very patient and skilled mentors who modelled strategies in my classroom, talked through why children do what they do, and helped me set up the rhythms and routines the children needed. When I had my own baby, I gained a whole new appreciation for what incredible little learners young children are. Children thrive when we work with their natural development, not against it.
Looking after young children, whether as a family member or professional, is an under-valued and under-respected job. But we truly do have huge roles in little lives. I created Early Years Essentials so that anyone interested in helping children to thrive can learn the foundational skills that young children need us to have, right from the start.
Awards & recognition
Why your boss wants you to do this course
Experienced staff don’t always have the skills they need to go back to basics with new staff in a way that’s supportive and encouraging.
Providing extra non-contact time for staff mentoring is always a challenge in our under-staffed and under-resourced sector.
The National Regulations allow trainees to work for up to 3 months before beginning their study. Your director might not want to make that investment until you’re both sure that this work is for you.
Once you start your early childhood qualification, there can be a big gap between your studies and the reality of being with children immediately.
Early Years Essentials is a shortcut to the strategies and words you need to effectively guide behaviour and support play-based learning with young children.
What’s it like working with Amy?
“You’re non-judgemental and offer good advice, with no pressure. You listen…and then we just come out with the solutions to things!”
Bianca, Year 1 Teacher
“The hour we’d get after the observation is the most effective, because all the questions I had, you could answer it so it would help me the very next week or the next day.”
(Another) Amy, Year 1 Teacher
“When I was really struggling, you built me up and made me feel I might even have something special to give.”
Marg, Preschool Teacher
Who I’ve helped
My guarantee
I reckon Early Years Essentials gives you the support you need to feel motivated, joyful and effective when working with young children. But if you’re not happy with the content, I’ll give you a full refund within 7 days of the course start date.
Your investment options
Opens June 2025
All prices are GST inclusive
One payment
$497
• Full 6-module course
• Access to 6 group Q&A video calls
• One year’s access to all course content and any updates made that year
• Payment on sign up
Two payments
2 x $250
• Full 6-module course
• Access to 6 group Q&A video calls
• One year’s access to all course content and any updates made that year
• First payment on sign up, second payment 3 weeks later
Payment plan
10 x $50
• Full 6-module course
• Access to 6 group Q&A video calls
• One year’s access to all course content and any updates made that year
• First payment on sign up, then one payment a week for 9 weeks
Bonus
Be one of the first 5 people to sign up and get a BONUS individual 15 minute mentoring call with me.
This can be taken at any time throughout the course, and we can cover whatever you need.
FAQs
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All content aligns with the Early Years Learning Framework, National Quality Standard and current best practice in early childhood pedagogy.
If your Principal or Director wants a quick chat or email confirmation, please email me with their name, phone number and email. Or they can contact me on 0423 383 854 and info@amyjo.com.au.
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The Early Years Essentials course is a six-module online course that gives people the skills they need to start working effectively with children aged 0 to 8 years.
The course is aimed at early childhood educators, playgroup leaders, program leaders and teachers.
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There’s a workbook and templates where you can make notes and do the exercises. This is only to help you put the learning into practice. But you don’t submit anything and I don’t mark anything.
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You can go slower than the group, but not faster. The course is structured over 6 weeks with a module released each week. Once the modules are released, you can work through them however you like.
You can ask anything at the group call, even if it relates to a different module than the one scheduled that week.
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The next round is planned for June 2025.
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Yes, it does. I send you a certificate to confirm the total hours and type of professional learning you've participated in.
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If you’ve worked through the first module and decided it’s not for you, I’ll happily refund your payment in full.
Refunds must be requested within 7 days of the course start date. Your access to the course will be cancelled as soon as I receive your request and the refund processed immediately.
No refunds are provided after the first 7 days, and we don’t provide pro-rata refunds for cancelled accounts. After the initial refund period expires, we’ll continue to process any remaining payments if you have selected a payment plan. This is because you’ve taken a space in the course that could have been opened to someone else.
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Two hours. One hour to work through the videos and complete the exercises, and one hour for the group Question & Answer call.
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If you’re submitting a Recognition of Prior Learning application, this course could form part of your evidence.
There is no automatic transfer of credit points fro this course.
With a focus on simplicity and wellbeing, we’ll kickstart your toolkit to become the joyful, skilled early years professional you want to be
The fine print
All course materials including training videos, checklists, worksheets, downloads and other resources are subject to copyright and are the property of Children’s Work Australia.
They may be used for the purposes of this course, but may not be copied, edited, repurposed, shared, transmitted or broadcast in any way without express written permission, unless otherwise indicated. They may also not be commercially exploited, re-sold, or sub-licenced. Any content mentioned or shared in this course that belongs to other organisations or individuals retains the full original copyright, and is included in compliance with this copyright.
By purchasing this course, you agree to the above, along with our Supply of Service & Acceptable Use Policy.
Your investment options
Opens June 2025
All prices are GST inclusive
One payment
$497
• Full 6-module course
• Access to 6 group Q&A video calls
• One year’s access to all course content and any updates made that year
• Payment on sign up
Two payments
2 x $250
• Full 6-module course
• Access to 6 group Q&A video calls
• One year’s access to all course content and any updates made that year
• First payment on sign up, second payment 3 weeks later
Payment plan
10 x $50
• Full 6-module course
• Access to 6 group Q&A video calls
• One year’s access to all course content and any updates made that year
• First payment on sign up, then one payment a week for 9 weeks