In this chapter I reveal both internal and external forces on the early childhood education centre. First, I examine the educational routine as well as the nature of the bilingual programme and its implementation by focusing on the actions and attitudes of the educators in the bilingual early childhood institution Fritzkidz. Educators' practices show a deep conflict between their language expectations and actual use. Then I show how some of these issues are based on the centres' development and the bilingual programme's recency (within the centres and in Australia more generally). The chapter goes on to explore the challenges faced by a pioneering not-for-profit organisation offering bilingual education, such as an ideologically unfriendly environment, and shows how these hurdles are mediated by larger linguistic ideologies and sociopolitical conditions, which are intrinsically tied to power and capital relations. The chapter analyses the ways in which the ideological environment of Australia's monolingual mindset and the global hegemony of English influence and shape the construction and presentation of the bilingual child-care centres. The closing section discusses the implication of forces acting on bilingual early childhood education in Sydney.

4.1 The Bilingual Programme

4.1.1 The daily routine

The educational routine at Fritzkidz was shaped around free play and intentional teaching time, rest and mealtimes, as well as indoor and outdoor activities. Every room in both centres varied with regard to how much time they dedicated for each of these phases, when they initiated a phase and in what way it was carried out (see Table 4.1). Intentional teaching times focused on a different outcome every day and were based on the Australian Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (see Subsection 2.3.2). To achieve the outcomes, the groups in both centres ran weekly or fortnightly themes. These periods of intentional teaching under different themes such as the observed topics ‘Christmas’, ‘animals and pets’ or ‘healthy nutrition’, which functioned as an umbrella for the daily activities, usually occurred at so-called ‘group times’.