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Welcome to the IFDCO Conference Website
International Family Day Care Conference
UCC - Cork - July 2009
Message from outgoing President of IFDCO Patricia Murray
As we came to the closing session of the Conference, I had made
some notes to share my reflections but time was moving on - and
I thought it better to take some time and distance, and share my
reflections on the website.
We started the planning for the conference in April 2008, when
a group of the International Executive Committee gathered in Ireland
and agreed the theme "Celebrating Quality Family Child Care"
This gave me the inspiration to bring our international visitors,
as our first stop on the journey from Dublin to Cork, to visit An
Cosán which is the Irish word for "pathway" (see
www.ancosan.com) where I had previously been invited to speak to
a group of women who had achieved Level 5 in Childcare training
there and who were supported by An Cosán in setting up their
family day care. An Cosán is committed, in a very spiritual
way, to excellence in all the work they undertake, founded on a
sincere respect for each person and each child coming there, which
covers a wide range of training courses, the childcare services
and the counselling. We were welcomed there most warmly, escorted
on a tour of the facility where we saw the meeting rooms, the computer
room, the counselling rooms and the childcare facility - which provides
full and sessional care for the local children and particularly
for those whose parents are attending training. We were provided
with tea and scones made by those undertaking cookery training.
I was proud to showcase the excellent work done in a community which
has been severely affected by unemployment and the difficulties
that brings to generations of families, particularly children. We
were not surprised to learn that An Cosán is applying to
deliver the degree course Bachelor of Arts in Early Years Studies.
This will be a great opportunity for the community and particularly
for the women who have come so far with their studies there.
We carried on our journey to the Rock of Cashel, one of Ireland's
most significant heritage sites, where we had lunch and a guided
tour of the site. The rain was torrential as we drove, but magically,
the sun came out as we came out of the restaurant which enhanced
our visit and gave us a great view of the surrounding countryside
and distant mountains. More heavy rain showers as we drove on to
Cork and settled into our accommodation - anticipating the days
of the conference ahead.
On Wednesday afternoon, our conference opened with a great welcome
from the Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Dara Murphy. Prof. Francis
Douglas was the first keynote speaker - as he was responsible for
IFDCO choosing Cork as our conference venue because he elevated
childcare training to degree status for the first time in Ireland,
by introducing the BA and achieving the first professorship in Early
Years Studies in University College Cork. His keynote brought the
child to the centre of our conference in a very spiritual way, connecting
us with the spiritual approach to children and families in An Cosán.
He reminded us to pay attention to intuition, coming from the balanced
relationship between the spirit, emotion and rationality and asked
us to avoid negative emotions, eat the right food, listen to the
guidance given and be open to life and the universe! He joined us
in our Ceili - our Irish dancing party and welcome reception - which
was a really enjoyable social evening. Many of our visitors proved
to be very proficient Irish dancers, probably those who had seen
the Riverdance show in Dublin before coming to Cork!
Sylda Langford, Director General of the Office of the Minister
for Children, shared with our visitors her own personal memories
of taking exams at UCC in the very hall where we were gathered,
the same clock ticking away on the wall. She outlined the strides
made in Ireland in building childcare infrastructure over the past
decade, and particularly the support mechanisms for family day care
and our moving now into implementing quality standards.
Prof. Guy Claxton brought us back to the child's spirit - fostering
the spirit of adventure and exploration, and encouraging children
to pursue worthwhile goals with reasonable confidence and success.
I felt the confidence returning to think more and do less when spending
time with my six year old grandson.
Prof. Erik Sigsaard kept children at the centre of the conference,
showing how we are institutionalising childhood - and viewing children's
resistance as lacking social competence or disobedience - to which
our society responds by increased institutionalisation - more classes,
more discipline, more formal teaching! He inspired us to look again
at scolding - now almost an out-of-date word in English! Because,
he told us, it is "Hush Hush - don't mention it!" It has
disappeared from the guidebooks! But he helped us reflect that while
we pride ourselves in having removed physical punishment from our
schools and childcare, we must be mindful to keep our attitude,
our voice and language free from a scolding tone. We must become
the children's helpers! And reinforcing what Prof. Claxton had told
us - we must allow them out of our sight sometimes. I have received
a copy of Prof. Sigsgaard's book Scolding - why it hurts more than
it helps ISBN 0-8077-4579-0
Prof. Thelma Harms, how enjoyable to hear her speak about the environment
in child care in such a child-centred way! We didn't hear a word
about square metres or the temperature in the fridge! Her description
of becoming a Childminder herself resonated with so many of us.
Family Day Care is lucky that Thelma turned her finely-tuned understanding
of what constitutes quality in a family home into the FCC Environment
Rating Scale, where she identifies it so well.
At short notice, Sumi Fukukawa gave us a very short presentation
about family day care in Japan. It was great to see such a large
number of Childminder delegates from Japan and I know that language
was not a barrier to them enjoying the conference.
I was really disappointed that Sylda Langford was required by the
Cabinet to return to the Office of the Minister for Children and
that she did not have the opportunity to hear Ronnie Hill from the
Children's Services, Regulation & Care Commission in Scotland.
I think along with many delegates listening, Ronnie gave us much
to think about in terms of proportionate, effective regulation and
inspection of FDC homes. Again, he imparted a huge amount of information
with a light, engaging delivery - and was so patient that his time
was invaded by a late start. I felt that this courtesy was evidenced
throughout the conference and a really friendly spirit took hold
of us as a group of people - each one of the Keynote speakers and
Seminar presenters was friendly and approachable. Many delegates
commented on this - maybe the lovely spiritual welcome in An Cosán
set a tone for us.
Dr. Judy Layland's pictures of New Zealand got many of us hooked
on starting to save now for a big trip to Australia and New Zealand
in 2012! During her description of children's participation and
the interactions they experience in family day care - and indeed,
many times during the conference - I found myself reflecting on
my own childhood and my wonderful parents. My mother understood
these things and as our Chairperson, Ann Caulfield said - it is
really good to know that the positive outcomes of our natural way
of working with children is backed up by observation and research.
Dr. Judy Layland's "Titi P?rera Windmill diagram" of the
interactive, process model of participation provides a great tool
for reflection as well as the basis of descriptive evidence of good
practice. As we face quality implementation here in Ireland, such
tools will be very helpful in assisting Childminders with portfolio
building.
Dr Malene Karlsson brought children's interactions to life in their
photo-documentation of what is interesting to them in the family
day care. There is an expression that goes "children are the
same the world over" and Dr. Malene's work shows how true this
an gave us an understanding of their needs - I thought this research
gave us concrete examples of Dr. Claxton's guidance earlier in the
week.
Jan White gave us very sound biological understanding of the need
for us to encourage children to be active - and to let them do what
comes naturally. They know what they need to do, just as Prof. Douglas,
Prof. Sigsgaard and Dr. Layland had told us.
Dr. Jacqueline Barnes gave us a tremendous amount of very important
information from the Families, Children and Child Care Study in
the UK. I did a quick look around my "Grandma's house"
before having my grandson to stay again! Dr. Jacqueline whetted
my appetite to deliver further into the findings which give us a
great opportunity to move forward in the right direction with our
childcare policy here in Ireland.
Jeff Johnson spoke to us all, Childminders, academics and parents
and left us inspired about the value of our work, the need to be
reflective and to care for our own spirits - and I was really surprised
and pleased that this vein had run right through the keynotes to
the very end of the conference!
My overall reflections are happy! The week was long and demanding
for me as well as for all the delegates, but the feedback in the
evaluations and in the e-mails received from so many delegates since
have been very positive, particularly about the quality and range
of presentations over the week. The development of the Research
Network has been a very rewarding outcome of the Conference. Family
Day Care by its nature is difficult and expensive to study. Because
I believe FDC has the capacity to offer children optimal non-parental
care, we must study Childminding homes and produce guidance for
both legislators and practitioners.
My disappointments were that it was not possible for me to get
to as many Seminars as I would have liked. I was also very disappointed
for you that my former colleague, Mary McGrath, due to her daughter's
illness was unable to present information on her work with children's
democratic participation, younger children have a form which mirrors
local government at city and county council level www.comhairlenanog.ie
and older children have Dáil na nÓg www.dailnanog.ie
(Parliament of Youth) which mirrors the Dáil, the Irish House
of Commons.
I was disappointed that I did not get the opportunity to welcome
each delegate individually, but I know that a warm welcome was extended
to each of you by my colleagues, Bernie, Ger, Anne, Fionnuala, Siobhan,
Fiona, Mary and Jacquie. I was sorry that in an effort to offer
choice, we had two separate social events on simultaneously! Instead
of choice, this in fact divided us into groups, and forestalled
an opportunity for meeting each other.
I was overcome with emotion on several occasions - slightly overwhelmed
by the number of delegates from far and near, that they were willing
to travel thousands and thousands of miles to exchange information
at every level for the purpose of learning as well as celebrating
family day care. The wonderful Keynotes several times evoked memories
of the days when my own children were little and our home was a
Childminding home. I felt humbled by the extraordinary number of
highly renowned and respected researchers willing to participate.
I loved the UCC campus - it was big enough and small enough for
the size of our group - and how amazing that the heavy rain came
when we were indoors - and we walked through the campus in sunshine!
How wonderful to be greeted each day by Ruth and Noirin from Cork
County Childcare Committee, offering us a memento of the wonderful
week together in Cork and how wonderful to see my colleagues from
the Board and staff of Childminding Ireland sharing the experience
and paying superb attention to the detail of running the Conference
so smoothly.
My three years of serving as the World President of IFDCO have
been exciting, a bit demanding at times, but how rewarding, how
fantastic to host and participate in this conference, to meet so
many dedicated, good-humoured and highly esteemed people as the
crescendo of those three years.
I know Grace McDonald will be a wonderful successor and I hope
many of you will join me in Australia when Grace will welcome us
there in 2012.
Patricia Murray.
Below is a collection of pictures taken during the
conference.
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