Aunt Madge Child Care
Early Childhood Education Month 2010 officially concluded on Wednesday, June 30 with education officials and participants declaring the observance a success.
The third year celebrations, that were spread over the month of June, ran under the theme Young Children: Heroes in Our Community, and sought to ‘pay homage to the island’s young children and their caregivers as they journey towards lifelong learning’.
The celebrations featured a number of traditional activities. These included a Family Day for all centres, a Practitioners’ Day Awards Ceremony at the Montserrat Cultural Centre, Goat Water Day at Look Out Nursery, Cultural Day at Brades Nursery, Rally/Fun Day at Little Bay and educational sessions at all centres. A radio call in show hosted by Head Teacher at the Brades Nursery School, Ms. Eurlin Jeffers, supported by the Honourable Minister of Education, Mr. Colin Riley and parents from the different early childhood centres.
Dr. Sheron Burns, Education Officer, Early Childhood in the Ministry of Education, gave her overall comments to The Montserrat Reporter (TMR), on the month’s overall activities. “it was very successful and according to the feedback from parents and the community, they were happy to see the things that we do with our children.”
Sheron Burns -Education Officer and Nealson Duberry- Youth Minister of Education
From Dr. Burns’ comments it was clear that the parents and the community participated fully with the children in the various activities, particularly at the Funday and the exhibition, where she said, “the musical instruments that were there, parents were playing them with the children.”
When asked by a TMR reporter if there was anything that came out of their 3rd year of early childhood celebration that needed improvement, Dr. Burns stated “we could do with more financial support…”
According to Ms. Jeffers in GIU report, feedback following the program (radio) indicated that there was quite a wide listenership to the programme and parents wanted to see more of that kind of local programming. Parents have requested a session on How to Plan and Prepare Nutritious Lunches for Young Children.
This will be taken into account in future planning. The Early Childhood section of the Ministry of Education aims to ‘build a strong and secure foundation for Montserrat’, it was reported.
