Early Childhood Development
The establishment of an early childhood development (ECD) site on Flower Valley farm was the first step towards a collaborative effort to provide ECD and professional development of practitioners on the Agulhas Plain.
The ECD programme also focuses on:
•establishing and coordinating Eco-Schools’ nodes.
•developing and piloting short courses in environmental education and ECD.
•training and mentoring practising and emerging ECD practitioners.
•developing collaboration and partnerships in the region.
Learning is at the heart of this project – both the learning and development of young children and the learning of those who work with them. The programme explores tools that will support practitioners in their efforts to engage children, the ECD centre and the local community in relevant environmental issues. This needs to be done in ways that are appropriate in terms of children’s age, development and culture.
Environmental education
Environmental education in the ECD site context provides a wonderful opportunity to work and support change on:
•an individual level (e.g. child to child, practitioner to child, child to practitioner),
•group level (e.g. school governing bodies, ECD site management and training), and
•systemic level (e.g. institutional arrangements, policy, partnerships).
When we understand the nature of the environmental crisis, the vulnerable position in which our children are placed becomes clear. It is important to find meaningful and appropriate ways to engage young children, families, ECD practitioners and other professionals to think and learn about the environmental and sustainability challenges we face.
Mentorship
The Flower Valley Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme successfully supported 17 ECD practitioners through a level 4 qualification in the years 2005 and 2006. In 2007 these practitioners further benefited from a short course in Environmental Education and ECD.
The programme acknowledges that training in itself is not enough to support practitioners in their professional development, and is thus in the process of walking with four of the qualified teachers on a mentorship journey. This journey is facilitated by an ECD professional with 15 years of experience in the field. Support includes reinforcement of the theory and practice through readings, tasks, exercises, observation visits and discussions, accessing opportunities for further professional support and development, one on one meetings, workshops and a formal process of monitoring and evaluation. The lessons learnt through this mentorship programme will be used to inform broader ECD professional development and capacity development projects in the Overberg and nationally.
For further information, please contact Gabbi Jonker – ECD project leader.
ECD service provider forum
During our years of work in ECD in the Overberg, it has been noted by service providers that one of the main gaps with regard to ECD is a lack of collaboration, communication, planning and action amongst stakeholders and service providers to strategically meet the needs of young children, their families and facilities. Flower Valley has established an ECD service provider forum working toward collaborative engagement, improving partnerships, communications, networking and service delivery.
The Forum meets every two months for deliberation, information sharing, issues identification, partnership formation, accessing learning and other relevant ECD opportunities, project development, role and responsibility clarification and plotting the way forward.
All service providers in the Overberg region, with special emphasis on the Cape Agulhas and Overstrand areas, are invited to join this worthwhile activity.
Forum members include:
• Enlighten Education Trust
• Rainbow Trust
• Department of Social Development
• Overberg District Municipality
• Flower Valley Conservation Trust
• WCED
• Food 4 Thought
• Zonia Louw – Play Therapist
• Early years services
• FCW Focus in the Family
• Elgin Learning Foundation
• University of Stellenbosch (health sciences students)
• Child Welfare
• Boland College
• Eduserve
Eco-Schools
Eco-Schools is a prestigious international award scheme developed by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) in 1994. Presently the Eco-Schools programme is active in 37 countries and in over 15 000 schools. It gives recognition to schools/sites that can show how they have improved the quality of environmental learning and sustainable management in their schools and community. Eco-Schools is a learning programme that encourages learners to actively take part in how their school is managed to the benefit of the environment. Practical steps are taken to reduce the environmental impact of the school following a simple process based on environmental management systems. The role of the node coordinator is to support each site and participants in realistic achievable needs driven planning and implementation of the Eco-Schools programme.
The Flower Valley Conservation Trust has been coordinating an Eco-Schools programme in the ECD context in the Overstrand and Cape Agulhas Municipal regions for the past five years, thereby giving support in the following ways:
- promoting team work and collaboration within the ECD site-based context
- promoting health and hygiene at ECD sites
- promoting the development of learning programmes based on ECD with an environmental perspective
- promoting whole school development, including grounds, management, quality of teaching and learning, infrastructure development and professional development of staff.