OMEP
Organisation Mondiale pour l’Éducation Préscolaire
World Organization for Early Childhood Education
Organización Mundial para la Educación Preescolar
2015 OMEP Ireland Annual Research Conference and AGM Saturday 25 April 2015 – University College Cork Conference Theme: Conference Schedule “Together for Children” 8:30 -‐ Registration 12:00 – 12:50 Lunch Collaborative Actions that Support and Empower Children 9:30 -‐ Opening 9:45 – 12:00 Keynote speakers 13:00 – 14:00 Keynote speaker 14:00 – 16:00 Strands and Workshops 16:30 AGM CONFERENCE RATES €30.00 -‐ OMEP Members and Conference Presenters €80.00 -‐ Non Members – includes complimentary OMEP membership €25.00 -‐ Unwaged and Students (please bring Student ID) Includes tea/coffee at Registration; light lunch; water/fruit in the afternoon Please email us your dietary requirements at [email protected] CPD Certificates will be issued Key note speakers Aoife O’Shea; Coordinator of Happy Talk Hailing from Cork, Aoife O’Shea is a speech and language therapist and teacher and has been working with children since 2002. Coordinator and Senior Speech and Language Therapist of Happy Talk since 2014, and working on the project since 2011, Aoife works with a dedicated team of speech and language therapists, as well as many community based partners. Happy Talk is a language development project for children aged 0-‐6 living in disadvantaged areas in Cork City. Happy Talk develops targeted programmes for Junior Infants, Preschools, Crèches, Baby Clinics, as well as resources to promote a Language Rich Environment. These programmes are offered universally to all children aged 0-‐6, along with their parents, Early Years Educators and teachers. Happy Talk is supported by Tom Cavanagh of Tomar Trust, Cork City Partnership, Cork City Council, Tusla, HSE, Cork City Childcare Company, Barnardos, Cork ETB and UCC. Lucy Connolly is an Early Childhood Specialist. Initially, she operated her own pre-‐school for a number of years, prior to her involvement in education and training. She has worked in the area of early years education and care in Ireland for the last 30 years. She worked with Early Childhood Ireland as a Siolta Mentor on the Quality Assurance Programme and with the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment on the Aistear in Action Initiative. She is a HighScope Trainer, with endorsement in The HighScope Preschool Educational Approach, and is qualified to practice as a Marte Meo Colleague Trainer. Therese Reynolds has worked in Early Years settings since 1995 and worked with families facilitating the PEEP programme in Galway city and county since 2009. She has a BA (Hons) in Early Childhood Studies and Practice from NUIG with a specific focus in her dissertation on family support. How a child is parented has an insightful impact on the child’s future life, and in turn it influences how the child will parent his/her own children. Therese is currently an Early Years Specialist with Better Start and as a PEEP trainer with Peeple building on the skills and understanding of practitioners in supporting parents/carers with their children's learning and development from birth. KirstenTyrrell has worked with children and families in varied settings in Ireland, the UK and Spain since 1981 and is currently an Early Years Specialist with Better Start. She has a BA (Hons) in Early Childhood Studies from UCC and an MSc with Distinction in Social Inclusion and Early Years from Queens University, Belfast. She was very active in parent and toddler groups when her own children were young and was introduced to PEEP when running a parent and toddler group as part of her role as Child and Family Development Worker with Barnardos. PEEP fitted smoothly with the format of parent and toddler groups and offered an extra dimension to the parents. When the opportunity arose to become a trainer and share the simple yet effective ways that a PEEP group engages with parents, Kirsten took this next step and recently completed her trainer induction. PEEP is celebrating 20 years with new training and a renamed organisation-‐ Peeple, which Therese and Kirsten are delighted to share with you today.