Our Preparing for Life Early Years Education team was delighted to celebrate this year’s Building Big Futures Graduation in the Coolock Library recently.

The graduation ceremony celebrates the amazing work each of our services have completed while taking part in various components of the Building Big Futures professional development programme.

Six local early-years services engaged with the Building Big Futures professional development programme this year. We are delighted to have an astounding 76 graduates this year also!

Three different components were delivered across 6 services including “Creating & Using Outdoor Learning Environments”, “Partnership with Parents” (HANEN) and “Nurturing Interactions”.

As part of our offerings, we also co-facilitate the “Early Talk Boost” early intervention programme within our community. This programme is a targeted intervention for children aged 3-4 years who need support with their language and communication skills.

To date, we have nine local early years services delivering Early Talk Boost and 86 early years educators trained to deliver this programme. The impact of this early intervention programme has been widely researched. In our local community alone, we have seen notable results with a large number of children making significant progress in their language and communication development.

We would like to sincerely thank all the services who took part in the programme, and who took the time to share their experiences and insights with us yesterday evening.  It truly is inspiring to not only hear about but witness the hard work and dedication from the early educators working on the ground each day.

The services who have continued to work with us and engage in our Building Big Futures professional development programme include

• Edenmore Early Education Centre
• Bonnybrook Early Education Centre
• Doras Buí
• Moatview Early Education Centre
• Learn and Play Preschool
• Darndale Integrated Childcare Services (Jigsaw)

We would like to thank the following people who made the time to join yesterday’s celebrations: Niall Sexton, Programme Manger, Preparing for Life; Eva Mills, Home Visiting Coordinator;, and Louise McCulloch, Research and Evaluation Coordinator, who continue to support the Early Years Education team and the work they do.

Secondly, to Paul Rogers, CEO of the Northside Partnership and Bernie Laverty, the National Manager of the Area Based Childhood (ABC) Programme who took the time to join us for this very special event.

Lastly, to Liam Murphy, the principal of Our Lady Immaculate Junior School in Darndale, who was invited to speak about the profound impact that Early Years settings have on young children, especially as they begin their journey toward primary school.

Liam highlighted the importance of early years provision stating that;

“First and foremost, early years settings are where learning truly begins. These environments are much more than a place where children go while their parents are at work – they are the first classrooms, the first communities and often the first place where children begin to see themselves as learners.”

Liam shared some beautiful insights into the valuable role that early year’s educators play in preparing children for school;

“That transformation doesn’t happen by chance. It happens because of skilled, intentional educators, because of reflective teams, and because of programmes like Building Big Futures that create the space, support, and structure to grow great practice”

He continued:

“You are not just preparing them for school; you are preparing them for life. And you are not just building big futures for children, but a stronger, more caring society for us all.”

Finally, we would like to extend our sincere thanks to the team at the Coolock Library who are always so supportive and helpful. And we would also like to give a shout out to Karolyne Doherty from Doherty Catering who provided the catering for the event and to The Cupcake Store who provided us with our very own Building Big Futures branded cupcakes!