Starcatchers workshop

Throughout Summer I have been trying to find opportunities to learn more about Early Years Education. I took part in a free workshop with Starcatchers, an Early Years organisation based in Scotland that specialise in creativity and performances for children aged 0-5. This was a perfect chance for me to network with other professionals who are interested in enriching the lives of Early Years children. 

Everyone came from different backgrounds and this was great. Some were singing teachers, some studying like me and some were just genuinely interested in the subject. 

It started with a discussion based workshop about why the Arts and Creativity are so important in the Early Years. We were told that 90% of synapses are developed in the brain in the first three years.  This statistic made me feel excited that I have chosen to look at social development in Early Years Dance classes and it is clearly the most crucial age in development. It is also makes me think as teachers we are responsible for nurturing a child's development. 

We also looked at Article 31 of the UN Convention of the Rights of the child that Scotland has signed up to: 

“That every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.

That member governments shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.”

It is hugely relevant right now that we make sure all children are having positive arts experiences. 

In the afternoon, we were shown various techniques, games, songs that we could use in our classes to encourage creative development. I find this hugely useful as a teacher and gave me lots of new inspiration for my classes. I have been asked to do two workshops for a nursery this week and will be using a mixture of my ideas with ideas I learnt from the workshop. In the past I have jus taught dance to the the Early Years students however, after taking part in the workshop I am going to add singing to the movement as I think this this will capture their attention and encourage a positive social and creative development. 

This workshop helped me a lot and gave me great resources to research.