Milburn Community Playgroup
Award - £15,000
Council Area – Causeway Coast and Glens
Milburn Community Playgroup is situated in the Milburn estate in Coleraine. It is an area of high deprivation and falls under one of the 10% areas of social deprivation according to the Coleraine Neighbourhood Renewal Area. The playgroup already have a preschool in the morning but wanted to expand pre-pre places for their afternoon session. There was huge interest from parents in pre-pre places but when parents found out that they would have to pay fees many withdrew as they could not afford to pay. The Pathway Fund grant was used to subsidise the child places and open up access to children who otherwise would not have been able to take up a place in an early years setting.
Busy Bees, as the pre-preschool service has come to be known, is now a thriving group of 20 pre-preschool children. The staff team are trained in the Incredible Years approach which strengthens parent-child interactions and supports parents in promoting children’s social, emotional and language development.
The younger aged children and their families often require support with various issues such as toileting, speech and language, routines and early intervention programmes. The pre-pre sessions are smaller in size which means the staff team can really focus in on individual needs and offer assistance and support where required.
The younger aged children are building confidence and resilience prior to beginning the preschool sessions. They are also familiar with their environment and each other which helps with the settling in process.
Parents are delighted with the opportunity to be able to send their child to the group and will often highlight to the staff team the progress that they see in their child. They are also able to communicate with the staff team and share information from home across the social media app, Class Dojo.
