Our Consultancies

Executive Consultancies

With almost 30 years of experience in early childhood education and care, Dr Deborah Harcourt leads the APECC team in providing high quality consultancy services in Australia and abroad. With a range of possibilities to suit individuals through to large organisations and corporations, there are many ways to engage with our leading thinkers in early childhood.

Individual Consultancy

Individual consultancies enable centre/school/organisational leaders to have a program of learning tailor-made just for you. Depending on what issue/challenge or skill you are seeking to explore, Deborah can work with you to ensure your successful leadership.

You have inspired me beyond words...Mojo is back...your approach to children and their voice has bought me back!

- Beth Mason, Centre Director, Melbourne, Victoria -

On Site Consultancy

On-site consultancies enable a group of educators who work on the one site to engage in practice change as a team. This consultancy can be planned to suit the individual centre and can be offered as an in-room mentoring project and/or after hours seminars.

I just wanted to thank you for inspiring my team to do better...there has been such a motivational change in each and everyone of us.

- Rupa Huque, Centre Director, Perth, Western Australia -

Organisation and Corporate Consultancy

As an Executive Consultant, Deborah is able to provide larger organisations and corporations in the field of early childhood education and care with opportunities to have dedicated time set aside to work on special projects that they may not have the in-house expertise to manage. These consultancies are usually designed in 3, 6 or 12 month blocks of time.

You made some real positive changes to the culture and understanding of many of our employees...Your work is inspirational and has certainly opened up the hearts and eyes of many.

- Kellie Moore, Area Manager, Queensland, Australia -

International Consultancy

Deborah is an experienced international consultant and has worked with organisations in the UK, India, Indonesia, and China. Based in Singapore from 2000 - 2008, Deborah has had an opportunity to engage in professional conversations with hundreds of educators and leaders. These consultancies are usually designed in intensive modes of work over shorter peiords of time bewteen 1-4 weeks.

contact us today

reconfiguring quality

This is our signature consultancy work

A huge thank you to Deborah Harcourt for her ongoing support for our team at Flinders Early Learning Centre. Through her inspiring professional development and passion for stretching our thinking and making children's thinking visible, to the important people in their life plus the community we all live in, has created an authentic professional learning community committed to research through deep listening and collaborative learning. Interestingly today I updated our QIP and our journey with this planned PD focusing on educational documentation has been amazing. Our second year of sustained PD with Deborah has developed a huge relaunch of the way we plan, observe and inquire with young children. Now the parents and families are excited too. Awesome! So grateful my team attended the Autumn Intensive professional research opportunity in May 2016 and 2017, and will return for the third instalment in 2018.

- Vivienne Walsh- Director, Flinders Early Learning Centre -

Who have we been working with?

We have been working with a range of clients across Australia - from very big to very small. Our clients include:

Goodstart Early Learning

Guardian Early Learning Group

Learning Blocks, Sydney

Flinders Early Learning Centre, Sunshine Coast

St Peters Girl's Collegiate Early Learners Centre, Adelaide

Konomi Kindergarten, Sydney

Zetland & Moore Park Group, Sydney

Pacific Lutheran College, Sunshine Coast

Kindermarlee, Queensland

Banora Point Preschool and Child Care, Tweed Heads

Kingaroy Early Childhood Centre

Mother Duck, Brisbane

Grace Street Kindergarten and Early Learning Centre, Melbourne

TAFESA

Churches of Christ, Queensland

Scots Early Learning Centres, Hobart

The Friends School, Hobart

Kindyland & Baby Land Group, Gold Coast

Northside Community Services, Canberra

Australian Childcare Association

Bronte EEC, Sydney

Early Ed Resources

The Raintree School (Bangkok)

The Anak Atelier (Bali)

Green Beginnings, Sunshine Coast

Ananda Marga River School, Maleny

Early Childhood Australia (NSW)

European International School (Ho Chi Min City)

Rosie's Early Leanring Centre, Gold Coast

The Garden House (Singapore)

Nido Early Learning, Melbourne

Woombye Early Childhood Centre, Sunshine Coast

Wellington College (China)

Internationally, we are working on an exciting new school project in Malaysia - stay turned for a 2019 opening!

We can support your team on a range of projects including:

curriculum development
mentoring
on-going professional learning
design and development of new builds or major renovations
study groups
retreats

Deborah is also available for keynote addresses, seminars, workshops and staff development days.

Learning Blocks Child Care Centres have had the wonderful and inspiring opportunity to work closely with Deborah over the past six months working towards our journey of being inspired and provoked by the principles of Reggio Emilia. During this time the educators have been challenged and inspired to reflect on their relationships with children, how they view children, how to use spaces effectively, how to ask children questions, how to trust children, how to document children's learning and most of all how they can encourage children to be the competent child. These are just some of the areas the educators have shown improvement in from working with Deborah. We have taken small but significant steps which has made positive changes in all areas of children's learning and overall running of the Centres. The children are more engaged, educator/child/family relationships are stronger and educators are more confident and less stressed. We look forward to continue to be inspired by Deborah in our journey towards being the best we can be.

- Jerome and Bernadette Barrientos - Approved Providers Learning Blocks Child Care Centres, Sydney - 2016 -