Centre for Creative Arts in Crickhowell
About `Reggio’ Tiddlers
Arts Alive originally grew out of a philosophy closely aligned to the Italian pre-school system of education now well known as the Reggio Emilia approach. Some of you may have seen the touring exhibition of the Reggio Emilia School ‘A hundred Languages of Children’ which has for a number of years been a focus of interest for Education Authorities across the western world.
This creative way of working alongside children up to the age of 7 years resonates with many people, teachers and parents alike. It has been strongly promoted in Wales recently as a way of introducing the ‘Foundation Stage’ into our pre-school and infant settings. The essential principles of the Reggio approach are as follows:
This creative way of working alongside children up to the age of 7 years resonates with many people, teachers and parents alike. It has been strongly promoted in Wales recently as a way of introducing the ‘Foundation Stage’ into our pre-
• Children are seen as capable participators in their own learning, eager to interact and contribute to the world
• Adults (teachers and parents) and children are engaged in learning together and from one another
• There are strong relationships between school, home and the community
• There is a high quality environment and experience
• The expressive arts have a central role and every setting includes an artist in their team
Liz Buckler, one of the founders of Arts Alive has recently been working with Herefordshire Early Years Partnership. She completed a week’s intensive training in the city of Reggio Emilia in Northern Italy earlier this year and has subsequently been helping to develop a creative environment for the Green Croft Early Year’s Centre in Hereford. Liz will be leading the new Tiddlers Group on Monday mornings.
Arts Alive is aiming, with this new Tiddlers group, to set up a similar environment in our building for pre-school children. We hope that we will secure funding in the future to support groups for school aged children and for training for Arts Alive practitioners and Pre-school and Infant teachers in the Reggio Emilia style. In this ‘pilot’ period, we hope you will bear with us whilst we establish the new environment. We would welcome offers of assistance and constructive feedback.
The Tiddlers group runs from 1pm to 3pm each term-time Monday at the Arts Alive building.
Staff: led by Liz Buckler and Lucienne Evans assisted by Catharine Marr Johnson and Ann Gibson.
