Educational Leadership
Leading practice in education and care, and coaching the people who carry it day to day.
Instructional Design · Educational Leadership · Child Safety
Learning that keeps the child in view.
Nicole Talarico — Instructional Designer, Resource Writer and early childhood consultant with over 20 years of active involvement in the early childhood sector. Educational leadership, curriculum development and child safety, carried with a social justice lens and an advocate's regard for children's rights.
Instructional Designer & Resource Writer
Early Childhood Consultant
Founding Director — Talarico Consulting
Founding Director — Medical Action Bag
ECA Victorian Branch Committee
Masters in Social Work (in progress)
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FoundationOver 20 years of active involvement in the early childhood sector, from local government children's services to consultancy and training
CraftInstructional design and resource writing grounded in educational leadership, curriculum development and child protection
ReachKeynote presentations at conferences nationwide, and a key contributor to professional learning calendars and local government development programs
IDPractice into resources
Professional Summary
Quality, with a social justice lens.
Nicole Talarico is a highly respected Instructional Designer, Resource Writer and early childhood consultant with over 20 years of active involvement in the early childhood sector.
Her career spans a diverse range of roles — managing local government children's services teams, leading a childcare field officer team, and serving as an early childhood consultant and trainer at Gowrie Victoria. She is the founding director of Talarico Consulting and Medical Action Bag.
She is best known as a passionate advocate for professionalism, children's rights and child safety, consistently bringing a social justice lens to her work.
In Practice
Where standards become everyday practice.
Core Expertise
Every discipline, one standard of care.
The capabilities behind every resource and every professional learning session.
Curriculum Development
Curriculum shaped so that what is planned is what children actually experience.
Child Protection
Child protection expertise applied to the systems, habits and conversations that keep children safe.
Child-Safe Environments
Guiding education and care services to create and maintain safe, inclusive environments for children.
Environmental Education
Environmental education written into the everyday program rather than added on the side.
Sustainability
Sustainability treated as a practice children take part in, not a policy on a wall.
Service Delivery
Helping teams exceed service delivery standards, and build the workplace culture that holds them.
Ethical Decision-Making
Coaching strategies and insights shared through early childhood sector publications.
“A commitment to quality, advocacy for children’s rights and leadership in early childhood education — in support of educators, children and families across Australia.The Talarico approach
The Practice
From the floor to the finished resource
How a Talarico project comes together.
Now
Instructional Designer and Resource Writer
Writing learning resources for the early childhood sector, with an advocate's regard for children's rights.
Listen
Start with the Service
Every piece of work begins with the educators delivering it and the children in their care.
Ground
Anchor to the Standards
Practice is written against the standards it must satisfy, never around them.
Write
Make it Usable
Resources written to be picked up on a busy floor, not filed away for an audit.
Coach
Build the Culture
Coaching strategies that create and maintain positive workplace cultures and strong community engagement.
Share
Give it Back to the Sector
Keynote presentations, professional learning calendars and active sector network groups.
Beyond the Desk
Advocacy, service & study
AdvocacyCommittee member and convenor of Special Interest Groups for Early Childhood Australia, Victorian Branch
ServiceA member of the National Reconciliation Advisory Group for Early Childhood Australia
StudyCurrently pursuing a Masters in Social Work in Child and Family Practice, with a focus on family violence
Let's collaborate
Practice that holds for children
From curriculum development to child-safe environments — put two decades of early childhood practice behind your next resource.