Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership, in partnership with County Waterford Library Service and Waterford County Childcare Committee are proud to present “Developing Language and Creativity through the Arts in the Early Years – A Collaborative Approach”, a seminar to share and explore the learning from the recent collaboration of these groups to promote and support the development of language and creativity through arts in the early years.

The seminar is to be held at the Coast Guard Station, Tramore, Co. Waterford on Monday, November 28th, 2011. A full schedule is available here.

.

The aim of the day is

• To share the learning from the collaboration between County Waterford Library Service, Kids’ Own and Waterford County Childcare Committee.
• To describe the programme of activity that took place and the impact on parents and children participating and those facilitating/delivering the programme.
• To be informed about national policy in relation to literacy.
• To explore how we can support the implementation of national policy at a local level, working with key stakeholders in a time of stringent resources.

The speakers who will feature at the seminar are:

Catherine Hynes

Catherine Hynes is a Principal Officer in the Department of Education and Skills with responsibility for Early Years Education Policy. In a unique inter-Departmental collaboration, her unit is co-located with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs and works very closely with the ChildCare Directorate. The implementation of the free pre-school year and with it the requirement that pre-school leaders should hold qualifications on the National Framework of Qualifications was heavily influenced by the work done by the Early Years Education Policy Unit in developing a Workforce Plan for the Early Childhood Care and Education Sector.   Catherine represents the interests of the Department of Education and Skills on committees such as the National ChildCare Coordinating Committee, the National Childcare Advisory Council and the National Early Years Access Initiative.

Paddy Lavelle

Paddy Lavelle is Chief Executive Officer of County Waterford Vocational Education Committee.

His responsibilities include second-level schools, adult and further education and training. He was involved in the first board of the Waterford County Childcare Committee and continues to support the work of the committee through various initiatives, especially in providing FETAC level 5 and 6 courses for Childcare workers.

Tracy McEneaney

Tracy McEneaney is currently Acting Executive Librarian with Waterford County Library Service, based in Tramore Library.  Tracy is the librarian with responsibility for children’s services within the County.

Áine McKenna

Áine McKenna is a research psychologist currently undertaking a PHD in Child Health Psychology at the University of Ulster. Her research interests include the role of relational resilience processes in the maintenance of Child Health and Wellbeing. She has previously worked as an Early Years Worker and Storyteller for Donegal County Childcare Committee and Donegal Library Services. In addition to this she worked as a Fás Le Chéile facilitator for the HSE.  Fás Le Chéile is a Parenting Programme run by the Health Promotion Unit throughout the North West. She is a native of Kerry but currently resides in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.

Polly Minett

Polly Minett  is an artist and an artist educator, with more than twenty years experience in arts residency programmes, both in Ireland & the UK.  She has a Masters Degree from The University of Birmingham in Applied Linguistics, where she specialized in devising teaching resources for ‘active learning’ based curriculums.

Since moving to Ireland in 2001 Polly has worked on numerous arts education projects including Kids Owns ” Rannta na Deise” , The Crafts Council of Ireland’s Craft in the Classroom & FACT programme,The Butler Gallery Artist in Schools Programmes & and Kilkenny County Council Arts Office one year community arts residency “Layers & Imprints”

In 2006 Polly became the Project manager for The Craft Council’s Primary Level Education Programme. Since taking up this position, she has worked together with colleagues to develop the CCoI’s CRAFTed programme, with a specific focus on developing good collaborative practice and integrated learning methodologies.

Rose Murphy

BA (ECS) MSoc. Sc. (Youth & Community)

Coordinator of Waterford County Childcare Committee, Rose is in post since 2002 prior to which she worked as an early childhood care and education tutor with County Cork VEC, family support worker with HSE South and early childhood care and education practitioner/manager in community based services in County Waterford and Dublin.  Shown to provide the best outcomes for children, Rose in her work has placed a strong focus on the Continuing Professional Development (CDP) of early childhood care and education practitioners and the development of quality and professional practice within childhood care and education settings.