Smart Attack Childcare
Award - £16,137
Council Area - Fermanagh and Omagh District Council
Smart Attack is situated in the Hospital Road community centre in Omagh. It serves a community with high levels of disadvantage and the setting reports that without Pathway Funding subsiding places parents in the area would not be able to afford to send their children. Last year with funding from Pathway the setting completed the Media Initiative For Children Respecting Difference Programme.
Smart Attack places great importance on the promotion of diversity, equality & inclusion. Therefore, it was decided to implement the Respecting Difference programme as this would be considered the best programme to promote inclusion & change attitudes towards those who are different - plus the setting knew that the children would love the puppets!
The setting recently had a child join who wears an eye patch and glasses. The other children were very inquisitive and asked lots of questions, noticing that this child was different. The child in question was a bit shy and needed to be reassured that "its ok to be different". That's where "Tom" one of our persona dolls. To help address this situation the setting introduced “Tom” one of the persona dolls from the Respecting Difference programme.
Tom tends to be shy and needs encouragement to mix with others. He wears glasses with a patch over his eye. The children loved Tom’s character. The children learned that Tom loves playing with the sand and water just like us and they picked out lots of similarities.
Through the use of the persona dolls, the children learned to accept and respect different cultures, combat discrimination and bullying. It helped increase the children's willingness to include others who are different and promoted and built positive attitudes.
