What is SMSY Early Years Programme

This project has been working with children from the Longtower Nursery and Primary School and Foyle Daycare’s Fountain, Altnagelvin and Drumahoe sites, over three stages of their development from Nursery/playgroup, primary one and primary two. The two groups involved are from interface areas. This creative programme was specifically designed for young people in the foundation stage of education and addresses significant elements of the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 curriculums. Through participating in the project the children involved have developed oracy, literacy, and sequencing skills; as well as increased self confidence, language development and creativity using digital cameras, computers, visual arts, sound recording, drama and storytelling. In addition the project has impacted on the development of teachers, teaching assistants, care workers and nursery workers whose own skills and creativity have been enhanced, by working alongside a professional facilitator to develop and deliver the activities.

Through the life of the project the children involved have taken part in a variety of activities linked with the making of their digital stories including – learning how to take digital photographs, thinking about who is important to them in their community and interviewing these people for their stories, deciding upon scripts to match their stories, voice recordings, adding sound effects and background music in order to complete the high quality digital stories about the world around them. Twelve stories were produced including: Megan’s journey to school, John the caretaker and Taking care of our teeth.
The twelve stories produced can be viewed on this site.