Skool4kidz, one of several government appointed anchor operators of childcare centres in the heartlands, closed all its 13 centres on 24 March 2017 and sent 191 of their educarers and teachers for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) workshops at KLCII.

Principals, teachers and educarers attended three separate 7-hour workshops based on the Early Childhood Development Agency’s (ECDA) Continuous Professional Development Framework at KLCII’s campuses in Serangoon Central, Dhoby Ghaut, Yio Chu Kang and Jurong East.

The programmes were conducted by five highly-qualified and approved professional lecturers and facilitators, most of whom have extensive experience in the EC sector.

The Principals attended the workshop on “Engaging and Supporting Others through Team Cohesiveness” designed to develop team cohesiveness, including understanding how varied culture, personalities, strengths and needs can be leveraged for greater effectiveness. They were assigned tasks including writing a “Reflection Journal” and analysing a staff issue and preparing a report on it.

Teachers and educarers attended the “Empowering preschool educators with effective communications skills” workshop to enhance their verbal expression, presentation skills as well as professional writing skills. It was designed to help them communicate effectively with various stakeholders such as the children, their parents or family members, colleagues and community workers. In addition to classroom facilitation, the teachers took part in interactive activities and role play.

Educarers of toddlers participated in a workshop on “Music & Creative Expression for Routines and Activities for Infants and Toddlers”. They learned more about  the integration of music into their centres’ daily activities including using nursery song-game for back-and forth interaction, simple folk tunes to create own lyrics to execute in daily routines,  and different types of classroom instruments to develop musical interest in their young learners.  The workshop was filled with hands-on practice, role play and interactive activities.

Ms. Darshini Janakiram, Principal at Skool4kidz@Tampines Greenforest, said:   “Good, lively and hands-on. The trainer is very knowledgeable and shared in an interesting way her early childhood education career experience with us. Her session was very interactive”