Lions show pride in Fr McGrath!

KILKENNY Lions Club are generously supporting a Kilkenny community centre’s effort to expand its childcare centre.

 

The aim is to offer local families up to 20 more free morning playschool places in the new facility and at the same time see the Fr McGrath Childcare Centre pull off a Kilkenny or perhaps even an Irish, first.

 

In 2010 the Fr McGrath Centre will deliver a Kilkenny first when the 14 members of their Learning Tree Crèche childcare team become the first fully High Scope trained team in Kilkenny and one of the very few in the Republic.

The High Scope training programme is professionally regarded as one of the most successful child development programmes in the world for pre-school children. It focuses on giving children a fully rounded pre-school child development experience while teaching them to plan their own activities and resolve difficulties that emerge in their group.

With over 40 years of research establishing the programme as one of the most effective approaches to child development for pre-school children in the world, the local team hope to put their new training qualifications to good use to establish their very successful crèche at the forefront of professional quality childcare in Ireland.

County Childcare Encouragement

The Kilkenny County Childcare Committee was thanked by the community project for introducing them to the High Scope programme and for the contribution from them and FAS towards the cost of training every single childcare worker to deliver the High Scope curriculum.

Acting Manger of the Learning Tree Crèche, Brigid Dowling, told Kilkenny Alive: "Originally, mostly because of the considerable cost of the training, the project was planning to train all their staff over a three to five-year period. But thankfully, the Board of Management at the Centre was so impressed with the programme and the results with children that they decided to bite the bullet and find the funds to train all childcare staff as High Scope practitioners this year.’

Lions Sponsorship Support

Liam Carroll, President Kilkenny Lions Club said their group was deeply impressed with the work at the centre and the sponsorship support they were offering would not only help the group open a new five-morning a week playschool but would also benefit many other groups operating from the project such as the Community Savings Bank, the Men Alone Network and the local youth clubs that will all have access to the newly converted and refurbished space.

Liam said that the Lions Club delegation was surprised and deeply impressed with the range of services operating for families and children from the Fr McGrath Centre and the quality and professionalism of the services the project provided for children.

He added: "Their focus on early child development and their reputation as innovators in this field was largely why Lions had agreed to support them to carry out this major building conversion."

The Lions Club hold a meeting in Bollard’s, St Kieran's Street, Kilkenny on Friday, February 5 at 6pm to announce their support for a number of worthy Kilkenny groups and causes in 2010.

The Learning Tree Crèche’s new playschool is now opened and free places may still  be available for children starting primary school next year. For details parents can call Brigid or Christina on 056-7786961.