3,4,5 Learning Years
3.4.5 Learning Years (aimed at children aged 3-5, parents and early childhood service providers)
- Mia Grange
3,4,5, Learning Years fact sheet
The youngballymun Early Years Service has two strands:
- Strand I is an area-based strategy aimed at supporting quality practice through the implementation of Siolta – the National Quality Framework For Early Childhood Education.
- Strand II supports school readiness in preschool children through the delivery of the Highscope curriculum.
Strand I works with early childhood development and education services to enhance quality service provision through supported implementation of Síolta - The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education. This service is designed in collaboration with local children’s services providers and is delivered in partnership with Barnardos.
A Siolta Early Years Quality Coordinator (Joanne Waters) supports early Years Settings in the Ballymun area to engage with the Siolta Framework. The service will contribute to outcomes for children and their parents and strengthen the knowledge and practice base of early year’s service providers.
Strand II is in service design; this phase will be completed in September. Key action areas identified to date in service design include; training, implementation supports and ongoing coaching.
What is Siolta?
Siolta is the Irish word for ‘seeds’. The symbol of seeds is used to capture the concept of this framework as a developmental tool to support services on a journey towards achieving their potential in terms of quality provision. The framework defines a number of quality standards for services, supports services to identify their strengths and areas for improvement in relation to these standards and supports them to achieve standards of quality.
Siolta is a set of national standards for Early Childhood Education involving a quality assurance programme (QAP) which is intended to provide support and guidance for all those working with, and on behalf, of children. The framework is applicable to different types of childcare services working with children from 0-6 years. It is a unifying Framework for the diverse range of Early Year’s provision in Ireland and different manuals are available for different types of settings:
• Full and Part-time Daycare
• Sessional Services
• Infant Classes
• Childminding
HighScope
The second strand of youngballymun Early Years Service works in tandem with Strand I which supports the implementation of Siolta. The second strand has now begun and includes the implementation of the HighScope Curriculum Approach, an evidence based programme to support children’s readiness for school. Strand II provides both educational training and implementation and site mentoring support to services using the HighScope Curriculum Approach over a two year period.
The service is designed in collaboration with local early childhood services and is delivered in partnership with Barnardos. The I.H.A training (Implementing the HighScope Approach) commenced in October 2009 and will be completed in October 2010. It consists of 12 training days for both practitioners and service managers. A HighScope Coordinator has also been appointed and is currently in post to provide the mentoring and role modelling support as required. As part of the service design evaluation process a baseline programme quality assessment (P.Q.A) has been carried out on each service involved in the training and implementation programme and will provide the settings with current programme quality levels. A site visit using the same assessment tool will also be carried out to evaluate programme quality and implementation of the curriculum on completion of the HighScope training programme. Use of the P.Q.A will provide service staff with the opportunity to self evaluate their progress throughout the programme.
As a comprehensive researched based system which includes child instruction staff development and accountability assessment, HighScope meets the underpinning principles and standards of Siolta -the National Quality Framework for Early childhood development and Education.
Click here to view further information on HighScope curriculum
For further information on 3,4,5 Learning Years, please contact:
Joanne Waters - Early Years Quality Coordinator
Phone: 01 883 2154
Email: joanne@youngballymun.org
Antoinette Gibbs - HighScope Coordinator
Phone:01 883 2164
Email antoinette@youngballymun.org
