Ask anything about practice, planning or compliance, and get a clear answer grounded in Australian frameworks.
Ask ECE doesn't guess. Every answer is grounded in current Australian frameworks and legislation, and names the guidance it drew on, in plain language you can check yourself.
Biting at this age is communication, not aggression. Stay calm and attend to the child who was hurt first, then give the biter the words they were reaching for, “you can say stop”, and watch for the trigger so you can step in earlier next time…
Every Answer Grounded in Australian Frameworks
No. It drafts and it informs, it does not certify. Check anything that matters against the regulations, your service or coordination unit, and your regulatory authority.
With you. Word files are built and streamed to you and never kept here, so downloading is the point rather than a convenience. Work in progress is held for a short time so you can come back to it, 90 days from your last edit for a planning cycle and three months for a curriculum plan, and then it is deleted.
As little as possible. A first name and the first letter of their surname, for example Mia S., and nothing more. Never a full name, a photograph, a date of birth or a health record. Blank forms print empty so they can be filled in by hand, and nothing about a child reaches the platform at all.
No. Every document it produces is a draft you review and own. It is there to save you the blank page, not to make the decision.
Anything that asks the model to write for you, such as a learning story or an A&R preparation report. Those buttons carry a gold border on soft gold, so you can always see what will and will not use a credit. Reading, searching and downloading cost nothing.
Ask ECE brings together the answers and the tools an Australian early childhood educator needs, in one place. Here is what each tool is for and how to get the most from it.
New here? Start with the Knowledge Engine for any question about practice or compliance, then explore the tools that match your role. Everything is grounded in current Australian legislation and frameworks.
Ask any question about early childhood practice, planning or compliance and get a clear answer grounded in Australian legislation and frameworks, with the sources it drew on.
How to use it: Type your question in plain English, the way you would ask a mentor, for example "what are the educator to child ratios for under twos in NSW". Read the answer, then ask a follow up to go deeper. Use the topic shortcuts if you are not sure where to start.
Turn your rough observation notes into a warm, professional learning story linked to the EYLF, ready to share with families.
How to use it: Enter the child's age group and your observation notes. Enter the child's first name and surname separately: we keep the first name and the surname initial only, for example “Mia S.”, and never ask for a full surname. Ask ECE writes the story; you review, edit and download it.
Build the written parts of a Strategic Inclusion Plan for the Inclusion Support Program: the inclusion practices narrative, community outreach, the care environment plan and progress notes.
How to use it: Work through each section, answering the tick box questions and adding a little detail where you can. Ask ECE turns your answers into the long form text for the IS Portal. Describe the setting and the practice, never a child.
Document a child's learning and progress, and draft family updates and assessment reports, across the EYLF, VEYLDF or MTOP.
How to use it: Choose your framework, then add each child using a first name and a surname initial only, for example “Mia S.”. Add your observations and reflections and Ask ECE helps you shape them into clear, shareable documents. The Child Portfolio is session only: use Save my portfolio to keep a file on your own device, and download the assessment report or family update to keep them.
Prepare for assessment and rating with self assessment support across the seven Quality Areas, and see where your practice is strong and where to focus.
How to use it: Work through the Quality Areas and describe your practice. Ask ECE helps you connect what you do to the standards and spot gaps before an assessor does.
Check award pay rates for early childhood roles under the current Fair Work rates.
How to use it: Work through the five steps: your classification level, whether you are permanent or casual, your usual hours, any weekend, public holiday or overtime hours, and any allowances you receive. It returns your gross and take home pay with penalty rates and allowances applied. There is also a plain summary of what educators can claim at tax time. Always free, no credits.
Plan and track learning against the EYLF outcomes across your program.
How to use it: Paste your recent programming, observations or planned experiences and Ask ECE rates your coverage across the five outcomes. Save a week to build a coverage trend across the term. We save only the five ratings and the date; your pasted notes are never stored.
Work through the five components of the EYLF planning cycle for a child or a group: observe, assess, plan, implement and evaluate, then export the whole cycle as a Word document.
How to use it: Open the Planning Cycle tab on the EYLF Dashboard and start a cycle for an individual child or a group. Fill the five components in any order, whenever the work actually happens: an entry with only the observation written is still a useful entry. Ask ECE can suggest outcomes and teaching strategies, review your cycle, and turn it into a one page team huddle handout. Use Start the next cycle from this to carry your evaluation into the next observation, which is what makes it a cycle rather than a form. Choose Child-led if the cycle started from the children's curiosity, or Teacher-led if you planned the focus. Both are valid ways to plan, and the choice only changes how the prompts are worded. In child-led mode you can also record what the children said in their own words, which folds into your observation. Entries are kept for 90 days after you last edit them, then deleted, so download anything you want to keep.
A library of printable worksheets, templates, cards and posters to use with the children, filtered by age, EYLF outcome, learning area and resource type.
How to use it: Browse the library and narrow it down with the filters, choosing up to two learning areas at a time. Browsing is free; sign in to download. These are general teaching aids, so review and adapt them for the children in your room.
Build a ready to run activity plan with EYLF links, the pedagogical thinking behind it, step by step guidance and safety notes.
How to use it: Describe what the activity is about, then set the age group, activity type, setting, group size and duration. List the materials you already have and the plan will be built around them. Each plan includes a short Theory in practice note explaining the pedagogical thinking, which is useful for documentation and quality improvement. Where there is no genuine theoretical link, it says so rather than forcing one. The result is a starting point, so review and adapt it before you run it.
Make a printable poster, colouring page, chart or illustration for your room.
How to use it: Describe what the image should show, then choose the image type and age group. Images never include copyrighted characters, brands or real people, and are available to download for seven days, so save what you want to keep.
Support for early childhood students, including help writing observations and understanding the frameworks.
How to use it: Bring an assignment question or an observation you are working on and get grounded, framework linked guidance.
Find and post early childhood roles across Australia. Posting is free.
How to use it: Browse current roles, or if you are an employer, post a vacancy for free from your account. Each role gets its own shareable page.
Starting points for the policies your service needs, written for the Australian context.
How to use it: Choose the policy you need and adapt the template to your service.
A set of tools for family day care, built around the two things nobody else covers: whether you can take another child right now, and what you owe, to whom, and by when.
How to use it: Open it at /fdc. Numbers check works out whether you are within regulation 124 right now, counting your own children under 13 where no other adult is caring for them. What is due tells you the next obligation that carries a date, one at a time rather than as a list, and keeps National Law and Family Assistance Law separate because they are different regulators. My service holds the few facts the rest is worked out from. Your childcare management software remains your record of attendance and session reports; this is the part it does not tell you.
A calendar of significant days and celebrations to weave into your program.
How to use it: Open it at /calendar to plan ahead for cultural, seasonal and community moments.
See who is on, room by room, across the week, and who can cover when someone calls in at 6am.
How to use it: Open it at /roster. Add your rooms and your people first, marking who holds first aid, anaphylaxis and asthma, because that is what it checks before anything else. Build the week, then when someone calls in, open their shift, choose a reason from the list and pick who covers. Anyone who closes the room's first aid gap is listed first. Suggested meal break times appear below the grid, based on the Children's Services Award, and you set the actual time. It never tells you whether you are in ratio, because a roster knows who is scheduled, not who walked in. Available on the Director plus 2, Centre and Centre Pro plans.
Keep your evidence, critical reflection, room notes, mentoring conversations and quality improvement goals in one connected place, with every entry linked to the National Quality Standard elements it evidences.
How to use it: Add an entry and choose what kind it is. Link it to a quality improvement goal where one applies, because that link is what lets someone follow the thread from what you noticed to what changed. Nothing is recorded against an element unless you put it there. Write about an educator or colleague, never a child. Available on the Educational Leader, FDC, Director plus 2, Centre and Centre Pro plans.
Draft support for a Kindergarten Inclusion Support application, for Victorian services only.
How to use it: Open it from a child in your Child Portfolio. It uses that child's portfolio detail plus the behaviour, trigger, risk and frequency information you add, and you review and edit everything before submitting to the KIS portal. Session only, first name or initial only, nothing is stored.
See what your role actually involves, because title, qualification and scope are three different things and the gap between them is where good practice slips.
How to use it: Pick your qualification and setting, and add your state to sharpen the title and registration detail. You get your role, how your scope sits next to the role beside you, and what good practice looks like for you.
Practical, regulation grounded guides on ratios, pay, child safety and compliance, written for the sector.
How to use it: Search or browse by topic, and sort by relevance or newest. If you have a specific question rather than a reading need, the Knowledge Engine will usually get you there faster.
A short list of the organisations you actually need: regulatory authorities, peak bodies and support services.
How to use it: Use it when you need to go to the source. ACECQA for NQF guidance and assessment and rating, the Fair Work Ombudsman for pay and entitlements, Early Childhood Australia for professional learning and the Code of Ethics, and your own state or territory regulator for anything jurisdiction specific.
Free wellbeing resources built for educators by recognised Australian organisations, gathered in one place.
How to use it: Browse the resources and follow the links out to Be You, Beyond Blue, Smiling Mind, the Black Dog Institute, WellMob and others. Crisis support numbers are listed at the top of the page. If today feels too heavy, please use them: Lifeline is 13 11 14, and in an emergency call 000.
A short check on how ready your service is for assessment and rating, with a checklist emailed to you afterwards.
How to use it: Open it at /audit-ready and answer honestly, since a flattering score helps nobody. You choose whether to receive marketing emails; the checklist is sent either way.
Professional development courses and CPD programs from Australian ECE training providers.
How to use it: This one is not live yet. Leave your email to be notified at launch. What is coming includes EYLF V2.0 implementation, assessment and rating preparation, and trauma informed practice.
When you use a tool that involves a child, enter their first name and surname separately. We never ask for a full surname: we keep the first name and the surname initial only, for example “Mia S.”, and never a photograph, date of birth, address or health record.
Tools differ in what they keep. The Planning Cycle saves your entries so you can come back to them, and deletes them 90 days after you last edit one. Editing an entry starts the 90 days again, so work you are still using is not lost. The Child Portfolio and the Strategic Inclusion Plan are session only and keep nothing at all once you leave.
Either way, download anything you want to keep. Ask ECE is a drafting tool, not your service's record keeping system.
Ask ECE is a professional support platform made for Australia's early childhood educators, to give you grounded answers, practical tools, and a little time back in your day.
ECE stands for Early Childhood Education, the work of educating and caring for children in their earliest, most important years, from birth through to school age.
The name says exactly what the platform is for. When you have a question about ratios, the NQS, the EYLF, pay rates or compliance, you bring it here, you ask; Ask ECE answers, with information grounded in current Australian legislation and frameworks.
Ask ECE was created by an early childhood professional who is passionate about improving standards across the industry, and about reducing the burnout that so many early childhood professionals face every day.
Educators spend too many unpaid hours buried in paperwork, second-guessing regulations and hunting through dense documents for a single answer. That time should belong to the children, and to the educators themselves. Ask ECE exists to take the heavy lifting out of the admin, so the people doing this vital work can do more of what they trained for, and carry a little less.
In one place you can ask any ECE question and get a clear, sourced answer; check your pay under the Children's Services Award; prepare for Assessment & Rating; write your self-assessment and build your QIP; turn rough notes into EYLF-linked learning stories; map your programming across the five outcomes; and browse jobs, policies and wellbeing resources, all built specifically for Australian early childhood professionals.
Grounded in Australian law. Answers draw on current national and state regulations, the NQS and the EYLF, not guesswork.
You stay in charge. Our tools assist your professional judgement; they never replace it. You always review and decide before acting.
Privacy by design. We collect as little about a child as possible: a first name and a surname initial, never a full surname, photo or date of birth, and we delete it 90 days after you last work on it.
Made for the sector. Proudly Australian, and shaped around how educators, directors, students and family day care professionals actually work.
Every Answer Grounded in Australian Frameworks
No. It drafts and it informs, it does not certify. Check anything that matters against the regulations, your service or coordination unit, and your regulatory authority.
With you. Word files are built and streamed to you and never kept here, so downloading is the point rather than a convenience. Work in progress is held for a short time so you can come back to it, 90 days from your last edit for a planning cycle and three months for a curriculum plan, and then it is deleted.
As little as possible. A first name and the first letter of their surname, for example Mia S., and nothing more. Never a full name, a photograph, a date of birth or a health record. Blank forms print empty so they can be filled in by hand, and nothing about a child reaches the platform at all.
No. Every document it produces is a draft you review and own. It is there to save you the blank page, not to make the decision.
Anything that asks the model to write for you, such as a learning story or an A&R preparation report. Those buttons carry a gold border on soft gold, so you can always see what will and will not use a credit. Reading, searching and downloading cost nothing.
Australia needs 21,000 more early childhood educators. Browse current vacancies or post a role at your service.
Calculate your exact pay under the Children's Services Award 2010. Instant, accurate, free.
The Children's Services Award 2010 sets minimum pay rates for early childhood educators in Australia. Pay rates are reviewed annually by the Fair Work Commission.
Your actual pay may be higher if your employer has an Enterprise Agreement (EA) in place. Always check with your employer or the Fair Work Ombudsman if you're unsure.
Early childhood teachers (ECTs) are covered by a separate award, the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020, so teacher rates are not shown here. An Educational Leader allowance may also apply on top of these rates where that role is assigned.
View current rates at Fair WorkThe Australian Government funds a wage increase of 15% above the applicable award for eligible early childhood workers (10% from December 2024, then a further 5% from December 2025), plus funding toward on-costs. On 17 June 2026 the Government committed a further $3.6 billion to extend it for another two years.
It is paid to eligible providers as a grant through the Child Care Subsidy System and must be passed on to workers as higher wages. It is a top-up on top of the award rates this calculator is based on, so your take-home pay may be higher than the figure above.
Eligibility sits with the provider, who must hold Child Care Subsidy approval. From the 17 June 2026 announcement, Family Day Care and In-Home Care workers are eligible for the first time, starting from July 2026 (criteria to be confirmed); previously only centre-based day care and outside school hours care were covered. To keep the funding, services must cap their fee increases and meet the National Quality Standard on safety. Always confirm your pay with your employer and the Fair Work Ombudsman.
Educators spend their own money on the job more than most. The ATO publishes a guide for teachers and education professionals, and this is a plain summary of it. It is general information, not tax advice, and your own circumstances decide what you can actually claim.
This is a summary in our own words of the ATO's occupation guide for teachers and education professionals. Read the full guide at ato.gov.au.
Not tax advice. Ask ECE is not a registered tax agent and cannot advise on your return. What you can claim depends on your own circumstances. For anything beyond the general position, talk to a registered tax agent or the ATO.
Write your self-assessment across all 7 quality areas, prepare for Assessment and Rating, and turn the gaps into your Quality Improvement Plan.
50+ templates customised for your state. Generate, download, and customise for your service in minutes.
EYLF explainer, observation writing, assignment help, placement guides, and qualification pathways, all in one place.
This work matters, and so do you. We've gathered trusted, professionally-built wellbeing resources made specifically for educators, all free, all from recognised Australian organisations.
Enter your rough observation notes and get a complete, EYLF-linked learning story in under 30 seconds.
Build your SIP around barriers, strategies and actions, then have it checked before you review it with your Inclusion Professional. About your service and your program, never an individual child.
Digital portfolios linking observations to EYLF outcomes. Share with families. Privacy by design.
Invite your educators to share your centre plan. Every seat draws from one shared credit pool, and you can add or remove people at any time.
Browse courses and CPD programs from leading ECE providers across Australia.
Approved providers, peak bodies, regulatory authorities, and support services for ECE professionals.
Analyse your EYLF programming and see your documentation gaps and strengths. Paste your recent program and Ask ECE maps it across all five EYLF V2.0 outcomes, so you can see where you are strong and where to add more.
Downloadable worksheets and templates to use with the children. Filter by stage and age, EYLF outcome, learning area and resource type to find what fits your room.
Describe your activity and Ask ECE will build a ready to run plan with EYLF links, the theory behind it, step by step guidance and safety notes. Review and adapt it before use.
Describe what you need and Ask ECE will create a poster, colouring page, chart or illustration you can print. Each image costs 8 credits and is available to download for 7 days.
Questions, feedback, or help getting started? We would love to hear from you and will get back as soon as we can.
The best way to reach us is by email. Click below and your email app will open with our address ready to go, or write to us directly at hello@askece.com.au.
Email hello@askece.com.auStart free. Upgrade when you need more. Cancel any time. All prices include GST.
Billed monthly, GST included. Cancel anytime, with access continuing to the end of your billing period. Subscriptions and unused credits are non-refundable, except where a remedy is required under the Australian Consumer Law. See our Terms for details.
Every Answer Grounded in Australian Frameworks
No. It drafts and it informs, it does not certify. Check anything that matters against the regulations, your service or coordination unit, and your regulatory authority.
With you. Word files are built and streamed to you and never kept here, so downloading is the point rather than a convenience. Work in progress is held for a short time so you can come back to it, 90 days from your last edit for a planning cycle and three months for a curriculum plan, and then it is deleted.
As little as possible. A first name and the first letter of their surname, for example Mia S., and nothing more. Never a full name, a photograph, a date of birth or a health record. Blank forms print empty so they can be filled in by hand, and nothing about a child reaches the platform at all.
No. Every document it produces is a draft you review and own. It is there to save you the blank page, not to make the decision.
Anything that asks the model to write for you, such as a learning story or an A&R preparation report. Those buttons carry a gold border on soft gold, so you can always see what will and will not use a credit. Reading, searching and downloading cost nothing.
Professional support for early childhood educators.
What is changing in your sector, in your inbox, not more than once a fortnight.