“Our task is to HELP children communicate with the World using their potential, strengths and languages, and to overcome any OBSTACLE presented by our culture” Loris Malaguzzi

Dear CAECC families and other friends of ALMA.

Wow, where has the time gone? September is nearly over.

Let’s take a look at the many exciting learning engagements and experiences our children have had at the centre, with our team of educators and other facilitators.

Our educators continuously talk to the children about keeping safe, empowering our children with the skills to understand that they are in-charge of their own body. No one is allowed to touch them unless it is ok with them. We have shared various story books and had open discussions with the children on this topic.

“The Magic Moo Music Program” continues at the centre. The children get involved and really enjoy it. “Did you know that music is one of the few activities that use both sides of the brain (logical and creative)?” This means it helps build important brain connections, and the more connections we have, the faster we are able to think. Most importantly though, music is fun and if your child is having fun, their brain is open to learning.

Our excursion to the Reptile Zoo was exciting – both the children and teachers enjoyed learning about the different types of reptiles in Australia, especially the ones that live in Canberra. We saw what they eat and how they live. The children learned about biology, including reptile behaviour, and developed environmental awareness by understanding habitats and the impact of human actions. The children were able to ask questions and make new discoveries by going on a tour of the zoo.

We did an Incursion on Aboriginal Culture. Stories were told and natural materials used in the learning/activities. With these experiences it helps children learn to foster their cultural identity, build connections to Country and Culture, and understand the world’s oldest living continuous culture. It also promotes knowledge about reconciliation and respect for diversity. In their early years, a child’s ongoing development of identity is influenced by the content they learn, the ways in which they learn and the context they learn. The incursion was well presented, and the children were engaged in the learning activities.

In another incursion, the instructor got the children involved in acting out the story of “The three Little Pigs” followed by creating figurines from balloons. I know that the children really enjoyed this activity and learning. Through this activity, the children learned about varieties of colours, measurements (small and large, long and short) and shapes (round etc.)

Keeping Children Safe

This is a topic close to my heart. My goal is to foster a child safe culture in our educational environment, and I want to bring along the whole team, families and our community. This requires an ongoing process of quality improvement, putting children first in what we do, promoting their dignity and rights. Together, we can embed a culture that encourages the children’s voices to be heard, enables the children to make decisions, and creates a culture that promotes reporting where everyone feels safe and supported to report any unsafe practices.

I appreciate the work that the team of educators do day in day out and am grateful for their dedication towards the children, each other, and the families. At each staff meeting “Child Safety” is the first topic on the agenda, which helps remind everyone how important it is to know and understand this topic and take action when needed. It is everyone’s responsibility to keep children safe, and this extends beyond the centre to the community. If we see something that we believe is not right, we should do something about it.

Reconciliation Action Plan

I am looking to create a CAECC Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), which is a formal statement of commitment to reconciliation, using the Narragunnawali Platform. The first step is to form a small team of educators, parents and volunteers who will work together in putting this plan together. If you are interested in helping with this project, please contact me via director@caecc.edu.gov.au or let me know in person at the centre.

2026 Enrolments

In October, I will be sending out offers to families for 2026. Please fill in these forms when you get them and give them back to us as soon as possible to help us work out how many spaces we have in each of the rooms to enable families on our waiting list to start care for their children in 2026.

Utilisation

We are doing well with the numbers of children in each of the two rooms. We have quite a long waiting list for both rooms and when 20 of our children move to Mawson Primary School next year, it will open up space for families that are waiting to put their children in care. At the moment, we only have one spot on Friday in the Infant/Toddler room, but families are using this regularly when they need extra days.

Juliana Teaurima

Celebrating Our Brand Refresh

The Chinese Australian Early Childhood Centre is excited to share the news of our brand refresh. This process has been guided by the voices of our staff, families and committee members, as well as our long history within the ALMA community.

After listening to feedback from across our community, we made the decision to retain the original half-panda, half-koala character as the heart of our logo. This familiar symbol carries significant meaning for our centre’s history and identity. To reflect the vibrancy of our programs today, the character has been updated with a brighter colour palette that celebrates the energy, warmth and diversity of CAECC.

At the same time, our CAECC families strongly embraced the newly designed panda and koala characters. We are delighted to keep these designs as mascots for the centre, with plans for them to feature in our rooms and programs. They will help bring our bilingual story to life in fun and engaging ways for children. The characters are unnamed, we encourage our families to submit name suggestions for the two characters!

This brand refresh is not about starting over, but about evolving while honouring our past. It reflects who we are as a bilingual, culturally rich and inclusive centre, while also preparing us for the future.

Our New Website and Community Pages

We are also proud to announce that our refreshed website is now live: caecc.act.edu.au. This new site has been built with the generous volunteer support of ALMA committee members and showcases the vibrancy, diversity and bilingual spirit of CAECC. We encourage all families to explore the new website and share your feedback with us.

You can also stay connected with us by liking and joining our CAECC Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/chinesechildcarecanberra) where we share updates and events. In addition, we have created a Community Page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/483023967637751) where parents can share tips, stories and advice about raising bilingual Chinese children in Canberra. We warmly invite you to join and be part of the conversation.

New Members

We welcome the following new members:

·         Simon Sher and Hailey Liu and family

·         Iris Ko and Wilson Siu and family

2026 memberships

For 2026, we will be moving to an online system for managing ALMA membership and renewals. Watch this space and please bear with us as we make this transition.

Mandarin Community Tutoring Project

ALMA continues to coordinate this free project. Open to all adults who are currently learning Chinese or have learned the language in the past and would like to keep up their skills, the project introduces learners to fluent speakers of Mandarin who have volunteered to help. Tutor and learner then make their own arrangements to meet, usually one-on-one, once a week, at a time and place to suit both sides.

People sometimes wonder what the tutors gain from this project. Responses over years have included expanding their social circle, practicing English, learning more about language teaching, and helping to promote knowledge about Chinese language and culture. The tutors therefore see the project very much as an exchange from which all parties can benefit.

For more information about the project and how to get involved, as either a tutor or a learner, visit the Mandarin Community Tutoring page on the ALMA website https://www.learningmandarincanberra.org/ or email us at canberraalma@gmail.com 

Mandarin radio program on Community Radio 2XX

This weekly radio broadcast, coordinated by ALMA, aims to promote the use and learning of Mandarin and to keep Chinese-speaking listeners informed about local events and other information they may be interested in. The program usually includes fun songs and a short story or fable, which the presenters discuss in both English and Mandarin to aid language learning and comprehension. You can hear us on Friday evenings between 7pm to 7.30pm on 98.3fm or listen online - live or later as a podcast - at www.2xxfm.org.au.

Parents or teachers are welcome to send in recordings of songs or short pieces by children for inclusion in the program. Hearing themselves on the radio is a great way to encourage children to speak and practice the Mandarin they are learning at home, preschool or school. We also welcome community announcements related to Chinese language and culture. Email for submissions: canberraalma@gmail.com

Opportunities to maintain or develop your Mandarin

Chinese conversation for intermediate-level speakers

10.30am-11.30am every Friday at the Canberra Southern Cross in Woden. There is no set program, the group, which at the moment includes more native speakers than learners, chats about topics of interest that week. Free and coordinated by volunteers.

For more information, phone Claire at 0412 305 538 or email her at pingpingdandan8@gmail.com

Mandarin Friendship Hub 中文之友会 ‘a gathering of friends of Mandarin’

An online community for intermediate and advanced learners of Mandarin who are interested in meeting people from all over the world. Organised by a small group of experienced Mandarin teachers from Australia, the group meets online every Thursday 8-9pm Melbourne time. Attendees must have proficiency level in Chinese at least HSK 4 or above.

More information https://sites.google.com/view/zhongwenzhiyouhui/home

Community language schools the Canberra area 

Did you know that there are five community-led language schools currently operating in the Canberra area? All run classes for children at weekends or after school hours. Several also offer classes for adults. You may have seen students from these schools performing at the recent Moon Festival in Civic or the Chinese Language Day in Australia celebration at the Albert Hall. The schools – in alphabetical order - are

·         Australian School of Contemporary Chinese 澳大利亚标准中文学校

·         Canberra Chinese School华夏中文学校

·         FCCCI Chinese School 华联社中文学校

·         Queanbeyan Chinese School 昆比亚中文学校

·         TACA Mandarin Language School 澳洲坎培拉台灣同鄉會華語學校

For more information: https://www.learningmandarincanberra.org/community-language-schools.html

Our Story: Aboriginal–Chinese People in Australia

·         Focus Gallery, National Museum of Australia (NMA)

·         9am to 5pm daily until 27 January 2026

·         Free and open to all 

This exhibition sheds light on the little-known history of Aboriginal and Chinese relations in colonial Australia. It explores themes of identity, survival, resilience and cultural connection, tracing these enduring legacies from the gold rush era to today.

Curated by artist and researcher Zhou Xiaoping, this project draws on historical records and scores of oral histories collected by Zhou and a research team. Some families can trace their Chinese connections back eight generations and were delighted to be able to share their stories with the broader Australian community.

More details at https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/our-story 

Bilingual Toastmasters Club for Canberra

The aim of Toastmasters International is to empower individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders. There are plans to establish a bilingual club in Canberra. To find out more, come along to a presentation by a team of Toastmasters members who will showcase how both languages can be seamlessly integrated into a Toastmasters meeting.

·         Sunday 12 October 11am - 12.30pm

·         Ainslie Football and Social Club, Wakefield Avenue, Ainslie

·         Free and all welcome

Contact Jo at tsai.ying.jung@gmail.com to register or for more details

ANU Classical Chinese Music Ensemble Concert

·         Sunday 12 October 2pm-4.30pm

·         Australian Centre on China in the World auditorium, Fellows Lane, ANU campus

·         Cost $20/$15 concession/$5 child under 10/$40 family (2 adults + up to 3 children)

·         Booking: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/1460818

This is the annual fundraising concert for the Ensemble, a Canberra based Chinese group who perform with traditional Chinese instruments such as erhu, pipa, dizi, guzheng, zhong ruan and yangqin. Anyone living in Canberra with an interest in playing (or learning to play) Chinese classical and folk music are welcome to join. For more details: https://anuccme.com/

Did you know that there are two special days when the Chinese language can be celebrated in Australia?  One is 20 April - the United Nations (UN) Chinese Language Day and the other is 1 September - Chinese Language Day in Australia.

The UN Chinese Language Day was established in 2010. It aims to increase awareness and appreciation of the Chinese language and its contributions to world culture and history, to support the use of Chinese as an UN official language, and to promote multilingualism more broadly. The day also celebrates Cangjie (倉頡 or 仓颉), a mythical figure who is credited with inventing Chinese characters approximately 5,000 years ago.

Chinese Language Day in Australia was launched in Canberra on 1 September 2023. It was initiated by the Chinese Language Teachers' Federation of Australia, with the aim of encouraging young Australians to learn Chinese. The federation is the peak body of state and territory Chinese Language Teachers' Associations and has about 4500 members, who are teaching over 180.000 students across Australia. At the third celebration of Chinese Language Day in Australia at the Albert Hall on Saturday 6 September, we heard that the date was chosen because it was the first day of Spring in the Southern hemisphere so heralded growth and new beginnings.