Due to their pivotal role in developing quality teachers, student teacher placements have been considered a cornerstone of initial teacher education (ITE). International preservice teachers in Australia must simultaneously make sense of the local culture, adjust to new pedagogical practices at university, and negotiate the complex regulatory and policy frameworks that underpin early childhood education and care (ECEC) in the Australian context. For all these reasons, internationalstudents often experience more acute challenges in placement than local students do. When international students enter the placement space, they carry embedded and embodied culturalvalues and ideas about education and care. As the author proposes, if we want excellent teachers, practice needs to be embedded in all units of ITE, providing students with continuous relationships with the sector (which is very much in need of a hand anyway!) and other stakeholders, such as families. One way practice can be embedded is for universities to organize playgroups for community residents and staff where, under a lecturer's guidance, students can experiment with different theories and approaches in their practice.