The Great Early Years Make Off - Ballybeen Women's Centre

After a couple of unprecedented years, Early Years the Organisation for young children, thought it was time to shift the focus to the strengths and positive features of the Early Years sector which, as we know, is full of resourcefulness, ideas and ingenuity.

We decided to host our own version of the popular baking competition which we called The Great Early Years Make Off. We devised our own recipe for the challenge which was to create play provocations around the popular book “ I Love You to the Moon and Back”. This was a broad brief and we looked forward to seeing how the book would be interpreted.

We were delighted to get wonderful entries from all parts of the Sector. If you have ever watched the show, you will know that getting the balance of ingredients just right is a critical part of each baking round. Ballybeen Women's Centre managed to get their flavours and balance just perfect.

The judging panel were very impressed with Ballybeen’s video submission and the wonderful blend of energy, joy and compassion of the children and staff, who used the book as a launchpad for some very beautiful and intentional activities to support their own and each other’s emotional and social growth.

It is obvious from how the children interacted with each other that Ballybeen Women’s Centre is a place that really puts children at the centre of their practice.

All videos were shown at our conference in June as part of Infant Mental Health Week which was very fitting and we hope to make them available to the wider sector as a resource inspiring others in the Sector

Keep up the good work.