Early Childhood in Northern Ireland

1
Early Childhood in Northern Ireland

• Stranmillis University College
• Child Centred Early Childhood CETL Group Meeting
• Sheelagh Carville

2
The Local Context - Education

• Traditionally, a rather formal approach to EY
• An early start to statutory school 4 yrs 2
  months 5 yrs 2 months
• Pre 1998 - low levels of funded, pre-school
  provision below half of eligible children
• Currently, a changing and dynamic scene Pre
  School Expansion Programme, 1998
• Approx. 9,000 extra places created in a range of
  sectors (statutory, voluntary private)
• A new approach to the Foundation Stage
  Enriched Curriculum, seeking to disseminate
  developmentally appropriate practice for Yrs 1
  2 of primary education.

3
The Local Context - Childcare

• Very patchy
• Shortage of provision for 0 8 age range
• The majority of care is by family members
  largely unregulated or private providers
  expensive
• No policy initiative to roll out of Early
  Excellence Centres or Extended Schools
• Sure Start on a smaller scale.

4
The Place of Stranmillis

• BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies
• 270 students on both full and part-time pathways
• Taught in Belfast, but also at Omagh College and
  Monaghan VEC
• Using face to face teaching, V/C delivery and
  QoL.
• Graduates 170 F/T 280 P/T since 2000 making a
  significant contribution to the development of EY
  services in NI
• ITE route with EY options
• PGCE EY (3 8 years)
• M level provision a new MA (ECS) in September

5
Student Portfolios

• Modular assessment by Personal/Professional
  Development Portfolio (PP/DP)
• A mechanism for charting personal development
  against professional experience in EY settings
• Based on making theory/practice links
• Completed through observations and reflections.

6
Pilot

• CETL pilot a poster presented
• Placement tasks focused on each modules content
• Students using employment based contexts (P/T)
  provided placements (F/T) to gather observations
  (recorded in a journal)
• Plans to pilot this as an e-journal format.