Coolaney inspires new project
THE children in Réalta Beaga Pre-School in Coolaney have been showing what they love about their community and why they are proud to call Coolaney home.
The children along with teacher Aolish Gormley were taking part in a project about their local community over the past couple of weeks.
It was a great way to learn more about their area.
Aolish explained how the project saw the children set out on an adventure in their area, visiting the places they love and the places that are special to them.
Aolish said: “Réalta Beaga Pre-School is strongly influenced by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, an Italian approach to Early Years Education.
“The Reggio approach sees every child as strong, confident and competent with their own ideas, and opinions.
“The adult’s role is to work collaboratively with the chil- dren, providing starting points for the young people to explore and develop their own thinking and ways of learning.
“Conversations were the starting point for the project, the children shared their thoughts and opinions about where was important to them and where they would like to visit.
“I just listened carefully to all the wonderful things they had to say and the project took off from there”.
She added: “The Reggio approach values the importance of building relationships within the community for the children.
“Taking the children out to explore their local community was a really simple way to make them aware of the wider world, also by helping children to learn about the world of work and the different jobs people do.
“This will help them develop a growing understanding of what it means to be a citizen in their community,” Aolish added.