‘£3m available to pre-schools for new learning programme’ – O’Dowd
Education Minister, John O’Dowd, has launched a new £3million learning programme aimed at pre-school settings.
Funded jointly by the NI Executive and The Atlantic Philanthropies, the ‘Getting Ready to Learn’ programme will benefit from an investment of £3million over the next three years as part of the ‘Early Intervention Transformation Programme’ (EITP).
The scheme is open to applicants until 29th April 2016.
The Minister explained, “There is a wealth of evidence about the benefits of increased parental involvement in the early education of children. ‘Getting Ready to Learn’ will build on the existing strengths of pre-school settings and ensure that it becomes best practice for settings to help and support parents to take an active role in their children’s development.
“I have already established the importance of this with the ‘Education Works’ advertising campaign. Parents are a child’s first teachers and the importance of this early education cannot be overestimated. Parental involvement during the crucial informative years in a child’s life is essential to their educational outcomes.”
There are four learning programmes within the ‘Getting Ready to Learn’ scheme – Big Bedtime Read; Education Works in Pre-School; Happy and Healthy Kids; and Ages and Stages 3-4.
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Each programme provides a range of resources to encourage parents to get involved in their child’s education from the early years.
Minister O’Dowd added, “Getting Ready to Learn is an opportunity for all pre-school education practitioners to engage with parents and share their knowledge, skills and ideas to help parents support early learning at home.
“The four themes that schools can choose from all support my Education Works Campaign and I urge pre-school settings to become involved.”
Applications are available online from the Education Authority – http://www.eani.org.uk/grtl
Further information is available on the Department’s website: https://www.deni.gov.uk/articles/getting-ready-learn-early-intervention-transformation-programme
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