Shine Bright staff converged on Mildura SuniTAFE to attend the 2025 Mallee Early Years Conference with keynote speaker Dr Justin Coulson, a psychologist, author, media personality and leading voice in parenting in Australia.
Michelle Riordan, Shine Bright Irymple Kindergarten (Early Childhood Teacher & Nominated Supervisor) and Georgie Goddard (Shine Bright Advisor), presented a workshop at the conference titled Empowering Voices Through the Learning Wall, a collaborative and inclusive way of documenting learning that captures the voices of children, families, educators and the community, creating a living and responsive record of the shared learning journey.
Pictured right: Shine Bright staff left to right, Alex Wheeler, Georgie Goddard and Kayla Enever with keynote speaker, Dr Justin Coulson.
Other workshop topics were:
- Compass Children’s Consulting: Flipping the lid: Responding with Connection, Not Correction Presented by Krystal Gallace (Compass Children’s Consulting)
- Mallee Domestic Violence Service: Recognising and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse Disclosures/Concerns Presented by Eli Miller, Principal Practitioner (Mallee Sexual Assault Unit) & Marnie Hedley (Snr Worker Mallee Sexual Assault Unit)
- Sunraysia Community Health Services: Gestalt Language Processing Presented by Emily Leslie (Sunraysia Community Health Services – Speech Pathologist)
Shine Bright Regional Manager, Alexandra Wheeler, attended the conference and said she has renewed perspectives on how children learn and that feeling discomfort in learning is a normal part of learning for us all.
“Justin Coulsen reminded us not to set ourselves impossible standards but to tune into children’s basic psychological needs. He explained that meeting the basic needs of children is not the same as indulging them.
“He encouraged us to ere away from Emotional Focused Coping and to instead focus on Solution Focused Coping, a small but subtle shift.
“Even as adults, depression and anxiety come from ruminating over and over on negative thoughts. Dr Coulson encouraged us to use strategies to distract ourselves from this by thinking positive things” she said.
Pictured: Shine Bright staff at the 2025 Mallee Early Years Conference
Belinda Schultz, Shine Bright Chief of Education said; “Distraction is one of our tried and tested positive behaviour strategies that we use with children. In the moment, looking at and focusing on something else can be a great tool for us all.
“Dr Coulson acknowledged the challenge in early years settings of tuning into the needs of many children, all with differing needs, and the importance of forming relationships with parents to quickly ascertain individual children’s needs,” Belinda said.
Justin’s address at the conference centered on how children flourish when we minimise control but maximise warmth and involvement and establish healthy boundaries. He reminded the audience that their job is not to fix children, but to create an environment that supports their growth and development. He explained that our job as educators and parents is to stay stable, especially when emotions are high because this is when intelligence is low and vice versa.
Dr Coulson stated that emotions are contagious, we need to be calm so that others can catch our emotions.
“We learned that you are not responsible for a child’s emotions (unless you are). Emotions don’t need to be fixed, they are like waves, going in and out”, Belinda said.
In terms of practical strategies for regulating ourselves, Dr Coulson suggested starting by noticing smells, sounds, walking, being in nature. He suggested saying what you see and feel. For example, you could say to yourself, You’re having a really rough day – huh?, then give yourself or others time to process your observation. The idea is to solve problems together – support not solve. He suggested that if a child gets stuck, you could say, I have a couple of solutions, would you be okay if I shared them? How does that feel for you?
Alex Wheeler said that the central premise of Justin’s address sits perfectly with the Shine Bright philosophy of making every moment matter.
“Alongside the children in our care, our ‘job’ is to find the joy in the many small moments that make up big days for young learners.
“The team came away from the conference so motivated to try some of Justin’s practical strategies for how to create structure that supports a child. We were reminded that involvement teaches lessons about worthiness, belonging and feeling cared for.
“I loved learning about the desire to get better at things being especially innate in children, and therefore, the importance of giving children the opportunity to experiment, play and build skills, which is exactly what kindergarten is for. Autonomy in a structured setting is everything,” Alex said.
50+ Shine Bright Swan Hill and Mildura and surrounding staff attended the Mallee Early Years Conference, and the learnings will be shared in the 41 services the Early Years Manager operates in central and northern Victoria.
