Seminar on School Readiness and Success

An innovative Child to Child’s step approach

May 2013

Child to Child organised a one-day seminar at the Institute of Education in London, to raise awareness of our School Readiness and Success programme ‘Getting Ready for School’.

Getting Ready for School was developed in partnership with UNICEF to respond to the lack of early childhood education in many low income countries. It was designed to increase access, retention and performance in line with Millennium Development Goal 2 – increasing University Primary Education.

Child to Child Director, Tricia Young, is discussing the Child to Child approach with a group of participants.

Child to Child Director, Tricia Young, is discussing the Child to Child approach with a group of participants.

 

The seminar focused on sharing the lessons learned from the pilot in Yemen, but also reflected on the experience of implementing Getting Ready for School in 6 countries between 2007-2010 (including: Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tajikistan, China, East Timor). Adapted versions of Getting Ready for School continue to be implemented in Sierra Leone and Pakistan.

The seminar opened with a keynote speech from Dame Tessa Jowell who reflected upon her time as the Minister in the previous Labour administration responsible for setting up the SureStart programme. Presentations were then heard from:

  • Dr. Martin Woodhead (Professor at the Open University Young Lives Study) who explored the correlation between early childhood education and poverty reduction;
  • Dr. Sue Rogers, Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Education, who looked at the importance of quality adult child interaction, relationships from birth through to schooling and the importance of play in early development;
  • Ms. Caroline Arnold, Director of Education at the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) who shared the impact of AKF’s Early Childhood Development approaches to transforming young children’s lives; and
  • Mr. Leonardo Yanez, Programme Officer at the Bernard van Leer Foundation, who shared learning from Innovative approaches to early learning in rural indigenous communities of Peru.

The session was chaired by Susan Durston, Education Specialist, Child to Child board member and former UNICEF Chief of Education.

In the afternoon, Tricia Young, Child to Child’s Director, Christiana Brown, its Programme Manager, and Gulzar Kanji, Expert Early Childhood Education Advisor, presented an overview of Getting Ready for School.

Following this, participants engaged in group work in order to explore:

  • How to use the results from the Getting Ready for School pilot evaluation to make a case for early childhood education globally and nationally.
  • How to scale up Getting Ready for School to bring lasting benefits to more children.
  • How to strengthen the child participation element in Getting Ready for School and ensure that participation is a feature of other early childhood education approaches.
  • What role could be played by Getting Ready for School in national governments’ provision of a comprehensive early childhood education for poor children.