Longford County Childcare Committee host 'Empowering Brighter Futures' showcase

Longford County Childcare Committee (LCCC) recently hosted a free event entitled ‘Empowering Brighter Futures’ for Early Years Practitioners and Parents. 

The event featured two keynote speakers, John Lonergan (former Governor of Mountjoy Prison) who gave an inspirational talk on parenting. 

He highlighted some simple but insightful tips such as ‘focusing on your child’s strengths’, ‘chatting with your child whether they are three years or 13 years – chatting rather than reacting will keep you informed’, ‘support children in making decision’ and remembering as the adult ‘your reaction will dictate what happens next’.  

Dr Maresa Duignan (Department of Education and Skills) also spoke on the new Early Years Education Focussed inspections. Maresa highlighted that need for early years services to ‘make their practice visible’ to parents and inspectors alike. 

Eimear Carron Coordinator with Longford CCC said, “The messages from both speakers related to the content of LCCC Leaders in Quality Initiative so it was a very fitting final event.”

The `Empowering Brighter Futures’ event also celebrated the achievement of Co Longford Early Years services who completed the LCCC “Leaders in Quality” initiative which is a continued professional development (CPD) programme.  

Ms Carron   continued, “This programme has been well received by early years services and is yielding marked improvements within a short timeframe, which in turn supports high quality childcare provision within the county.”

The following were awarded:

ABC Childcare - Participation, Play, Quality Interactions

Catkins Nursery - Participation, Observations, Learning Stories

Child’s Play - Participation, Aistear in Action

Lámh Beag - Participation, The Importance of the Learning Environment

Longford Montessori - Participation, Interactions, Partnership with Parents

Little Angels - Participation, Aistear in Action

Naoi Rath Ré - Participation

Scallywags - Participation

Teach na Leanaí - Participation, Equality and Diversity, The Importance of the Learning Environment