About Smart Start
Smart Start is a movement of parents, educators, families and friends who believe that all children should have access to high quality and affordable early learning.
The Smart Start campaign was launched by Goodstart Early Learning in 2014, in response to changes to the National Quality Framework. Since then we’ve fought for affordable, high quality early learning for all children in Australia. The Smart Start community launched a petition which was delivered to the Senate with over 15,000 signatures, they emailed their local MPs and they got active in their early learning centres to put pressure on the Federal Government to make quality early learning more affordable for parents and families.
In 2017, after three years of campaigning by over 26,000 parents, educators, families and friends, Parliament passed legislation that made early learning more accessible for over a million Australian families.
We continue to campaign to make early learning accessible and affordable for all Australian children.
Smart Start works closely with many organisations with the same goals as us. We all want a quality early learning system that benefits children, families, communities and Australia. Our children are the future of Australia, we should be providing every opportunity for them to learn and thrive.
About Early Learning
The ages of 3 to 5 are critical in the development of a child’s brain.
Right now, 1 in 5 children in Australia starting school behind. The good news is, we know how we can change this statistic; research shows that children who access quality early learning are:
- more likely to start school ready
- less likely to repeat a grade
- more likely to complete high school and further education
- more likely to be employed at a higher wage.
That’s why the Smart Start community campaigns for high quality, affordable early learning for all children aged 3 and 4.
