Tryall Fund trains early childhood practitioners

Western Bureau:

Some 21 early-childhood practitioners from six early-childhood institutions in Hanover were given a refresher session in the 'Success by Six' programme at the Sandy Bay Basic School last week.

The session was funded by the Tryall Fund, the charity arm of the Tryall Club, which comprises homeowners at the luxurious property, among other contributors. The Tryall Fund operates as a non-profit organisation.

The Success by Six programme, which deals with literacy, numeracy, nutrition and the physical development of the infant and basic-school children, covers children from three to six years old.

Parental training sessions are also held periodically under the programme.

According to Jacqueline Smith, programme administrator at the Tryall Fund, there are approximately 250 such students from within six schools in the parish, who are benefitting under the programme at present.

MODEL SCHOOL

"We have adopted the Sandy Bay Basic School as our model school, and from that we have moved into five other schools within the parish. Our hope is to get into all the schools over time," explained Smith.

The refresher session was targeting the literacy aspect of the programme implemented since 2013 and dubbed 'Success Phonics'.

"This programme came into being because in the year 2013, we realised that a lot of our children were going into primary schools unprepared. The mandate of the Early Childhood Commission is that they should be able to merge into learning... our part in this is to bring them up to speed with understanding the alphabet," added Smith.

The programme, which was developed in Syracuse, New York, has been reaping benefits in the parish, as based on annual assessments carried out, it has been found that all the students who have been exposed to the programme have developed into excellent readers by the time they reach primary level.

Smith pointed out that teachers at the primary level within the parish are all scrambling for students graduating from the schools that have implemented the Success by Six programme, as those students have been found to be the better readers at that stage.