The concept of multi-age teaching and learning was never something I considered when I set out on my early childhood career 14 years ago. I suppose when I think back the spaces were already configured and designed, with children’s ages being the factor when placing children in a particular room. Just the thought of this now, makes me a little uncomfortable because of my strong belief of children’s rights and advocacy. While I experienced family grouping, this was driven by the logistics of staffing, not children’s right to play with children of all ages and in the spaces they chose. Services across Australia group children together as they await educators to start their shift, and then when they arrive, children are moved like cattle to their assigned rooms. So my question is whose agenda is this, are we listening to children? Now I’m not saying that putting all the three and four year olds in one room is wrong, I’m just saying that we need to reflect on the reasons and benefits of this. Also what opportunities are we missing when we do group children by age? After careful consideration we opened all our doors to create one large space for children ages 12 months to 4 years of age. Our belief was that walls and doors should not be a barrier to participation, socialisation and collaboration. A few other significant factors supported this shift in thinking, firstly the pandemic socially isolated many of our children and families, so connection and the freedom to explore and be with siblings was important. Secondly the cultural complexities that many of our families bring, mean that closed doors and limitations are a common feature in their lives, we wanted to break this down. Not only are all rooms open, all outdoor spaces and corridors are open for children to play and learn wherever they wish. We see the image of the child as capable, confident and carefree. The last 6 months have seen many challenges, however the magical moments have definitely outweighed those challenges. Just today I watched on as a four year old supported one of the younger children to put on their shoes and jacket, they then took their hand and shared afternoon tea together. These moments are becoming a natural occurrence and I feel blessed that I am experiencing such empathy and compassion from children.If we did not consider the voices of children and their families, we would still have doors and walls, confining children to assigned rooms. We are lucky, we didn’t have to physically knock down walls, we just had to be brave enough to open the doors.