yblive Summer 2009, Out and About
Incredible Years Wales, Annual Conference, March 2009
Earlier this year Miriam Nolan, St. Joseph’s Junior School, joined the Incredible Years Team Elaine Fahy, Mary Mc Hale and Breege Breheny to attend the Incredible Years Annual Conference in Wales. The Conference “Using evidence based programmes to support parents, children and teachers” brought together IY enthusiasts from across Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England. The one day conference provided information on Incredible Years research activity and presented overviews of the developments of the programme in England, Russia and Ireland.
It was particularly interesting to hear about the collaborative work being undertaken with Bangor University and the Welsh Assembly Government under the Parenting Action Plan for Wales that now includes support for both the Parent and Teacher programmes across Wales thus making the programmes widely accessible. In Wales Incredible Years continues to expand with parent training programmes being delivered in all twenty -two Authorities and teachers trained in fourteen Authorities.
Read more about Incredible Years in Ballymun that also involves schools, teachers, children and parents at www.youngballymun.org
NESF ‘Child Literacy and Social Inclusion’ Conference, June 2009
The National Economic and Social Forum ( NESF) held a Conference on “Child Literacy and Social Inclusion” in The Royal Hospital, Kilmainham on June 16th 2009 which was attended by Martina Gannon and Duana Quigley of our Write-Minded (literacy) service. Professor Kathy Hyland from University College Cork delivered the keynote address. A draft report from the project team was presented jointly by Policy Analyst, Dr Jeanne Moore, and Chairperson, Dr Aine Hyland. A round table discussion on the report recommendations then took place. The report addressed the fact that despite many interventions there has not been any significant overall shift in levels of severe child literacy problems in disadvantaged areas over the last 25 years. There was much discussion around the area of our “Expectations” as a society in relation to literacy development, and this quotation from Michelangelo inspired robust debate, “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it”. The conference was chaired by Dr Maureen Gaffney who fielded a lively question and answer session!
The World Forum on Early Care and Education, Belfast, June 15th – 19th
The 2009 World Forum marked the 10th Anniversary of World Forum Foundation. Over 600 early childhood administrators, trainers, caregivers, public officials, and advocates from 70+ countries gathered in Belfast for the 2009 World Forum to exchange ideas about the quality of services for young children in diverse cultures and settings around the world.
The Forum was hosted by Early Years, the early childhood agency working in Northern Ireland and in Europe and it was a really dramatic and memorable conference for the diversity of participants and themes ranging from brain development in infants through country reports on the realisation of children’s rights to scaling up research projects and transformations in outdoor environments.
youngballymun, CDI Tallaght West and Archways presented a workshop on ‘Improving Outcomes for Children: Advocacy and Programmes’ and we spoke on deciding on evidence-based practice, embedding practice in established community settings, innovation in action and the links between advocacy and practice.
Secondary Talk, London, July 8th 2009
The Write Minded team- Martina Gannon and Duana Quigley -travelled to London on July 8th to attend a training course at The Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists on “Secondary Talk”. This course was delivered by, “I CAN” (www.ican.org.uk), the UK charity that works to foster the development of speech, language and communication skills in all children. In some post-primary schools as many as 75% of young people have inadequate language skills to access the curriculum and wider school life. “Secondary Talk” was developed to ensure support for all post-primary pupils in this area. It was attended by Speech and Language Therapists and Teachers from the UK and Ireland.
The course was dynamic and interactive. It delivered a range of practical approaches and strategies which will support teaching and learning in post primary schools and educational centres.
The picture shows from left Duana Quigley, Oral Language Development Officer, Write Minded; Mary Hartshorne, Head of Expert Advisory Services, I CAN; Glenn Major, Assistant Project Manager Secondary Talk, I CAN; Martina Gannon, Literacy Coordinator, Write Minded.
