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Department of Education and Training has released the March 2023 edition of the Early Childhood Update e-newsletter.

Kim Little, Deputy Secretary of Early Childhood Education, highlights Cultural Diversity Week and consultation opportunities for the Best Start, Best Life reforms.  Articles also cover support and resources for CALD families; teacher and ESK funding and grants; as well as free interpreting services for funded services.

You can subscribe to receive the updates here: Early Childhood Update | Victorian Government (www.vic.gov.au)

Have you ever heard the expression Explain it to me like I am 5? It is a popular phrase because we often need guidance that is immediate and accessible, just like five years olds. Increasing your cyber security literacy doesn’t mean becoming an expert, it just means becoming familiar with the day-to-day patterns and knowing what the general precautions and risks are.

Browse to it on our Tips page or from this direct link: Tip – Where to start with cyber security literacy

The Victorian Government has introduced the Kinder Tick logo to help families find funded and approved kindergarten programs. Funded services are encouraged to display the Kinder Tick on email signatures, websites, media and anywhere that will help families identify approved programs.

This tip explains how to add the email signature banner in Outlook.

Browse to it on our Tips page or from this direct link: Tip – Add the Kindergarten Tick to your email signature

Department of Education and Training has released the February 2023 edition of the Early Childhood Update e-newsletter.

With a message from Kim Little, Deputy Secretary of Early Childhood Education, articles on the Victorian Educational Leaders Conference, National learning framework updates, programs for teachers and Free TAFE for early childhood training, bush kinders and information sharing resources.

You can subscribe to receive the updates here: Early Childhood Update | Victorian Government (www.vic.gov.au)

This tip covers some end of year considerations for staff organising files, managing outgoing staff mailboxes and accounting for changes to file sharing tools etc. 

Browse to it on our Tips page or from this direct link: Tip – End of the year wrap-up

Department of Education and Training has released the December 2022 edition of the Early Childhood Update.

With a message from Kim Little, Deputy Secretary of Early Childhood Education, articles on the final days to order Three-Year-Old Kinder Kits for 2023, the upcoming Victorian Educational Leaders Conference and other important updates regarding the early childhood sector.

You can subscribe to receive the updates here: Early Childhood Update | Victorian Government (www.vic.gov.au)

This guide demonstrates how to password protect a PDF created in Microsoft Word or Publisher.

Browse to it on our Tips page or from this direct link: Tip – Password protect PDFs exported from Word

If your service shares a computer, network drive or cloud storage between staff, committee and volunteers, you might find it useful to restrict some Office documents from modification with a password or encrypt others for confidentiality. This tip will explain both how to encrypt a document and how to restrict modifying a document.

Browse to it on our Tips page or from this direct link: Tip – Password protect Office documents

Excel documents are often ‘living’ documents that are intended to be viewed and updated collaboratively.  To avoid users introducing errors to your documents, Excel’s protection options can lock or hide cells or formulas.

Browse to it on our Tips page or from this direct link: Tip – How to protect worksheet cells in Excel

Each year, many kindergarten staff need to transfer the contact details of enrolled families from an Excel spreadsheet into Outlook.  Within Outlook, staff often also want the family emails grouped into Contact Groups for each session or cohort of enrolments.

These two tips provide two methods of setting up the Contact Groups in Outlook:
Tip – Create Outlook Contact Groups from an Excel spreadsheet (quick copy/paste method)
Tip – Create Outlook Contact Groups from an Excel spreadsheet (advanced import method)

Make sure you are making a professional impression by setting up your email username correctly. This tip will explain how. As well as assisting with recognisability, this process also helps to ensure your mail isn’t mistaken for spam.

Browse to it on our Tips page or from this direct link: Tip – Update your email name in Outlook