Latest news with #preschool
CNA
17 hours ago
- General
- CNA
ECDA investigating potential breach over abrupt closure of Little Paddington Preschool's Bishan branch
SINGAPORE: The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) is investigating a preschool for giving parents just one day's notice of a branch closure. Parents of children enrolled at Little Paddington Preschool's Bishan centre were only informed on May 30 that the school's lease of its premises would be expiring on May 31. The school later delayed the closure to Jun 10, and offered enrolment in another branch, and transport for affected children. Under ECDA rules, preschools must provide six months' notice. 'ECDA was informed of Little Paddington Preschool Bishan's cessation last Friday, May 30, 2025, and is working closely with the preschool to support affected parents,' said the regulator on Monday (Jun 2) in response to CNA queries. 'The preschool has since secured an extension of their lease to Jun 13, 2025, and are actively engaging the parents to render assistance. ' Little Paddington Preschool currently has 10 branches across Singapore. The closest branch to its Bishan location, Little Paddington Preschool Thomson Walk, is around 5km away, or about 10 minutes' drive. When contacted by CNA, the preschool said it has 16 children enrolled in its Bishan branch. 'The preschool has offered parents the option to transfer their children to other Little Paddington Preschools,' said ECDA. The regulator added that the Little Paddington Preschool will also provide complimentary bus services to and from the preschool for children who transfer to the Thomson Walk branch until the end of 2025. "ECDA will render assistance should parents require further help in securing a place at another preschool," it added. Little Paddington Preschool said it had been advised by ECDA on the appropriate next steps. 'While we initially assumed there was only a transition to the new site over the weekend, we have managed to prolong the transition to over a week, so that the children are supported," Little Paddington Preschool chief operating officer Pooja Patodia told CNA. She added that the children would be going on excursion trips to the Thomson Walk branch to facilitate their transition, with their teachers moving with the children to ensure a more seamless experience. Free transport for the children will also be available to those who require it. "We are focused on ensuring that the care and education of the children continue to be smooth and that parents receive ample support," said Ms Patodia. According to ECDA regulations, preschools considering cessation of operations must provide six months' notice to both parents and ECDA before ceasing operations. The preschools must also inform parents and ECDA once they are notified of the possibility of non-renewal of tenancy agreements. 'Operators that breach these requirements may face regulatory actions, including being issued warning letters or barred from applying for future preschool licences,' said ECDA. 'ECDA will take regulatory action on this preschool if our investigations find that they have not done their due diligence to meet our regulatory requirements.'
CNA
a day ago
- General
- CNA
Parents seek answers after sudden closure of preschool in Bishan
Parents affected by the sudden closure of a preschool in Bishan are seeking answers, after they were initially given just a day's notice of the closure. Little Paddington Preschool has since delayed the closure by a week, and offered enrolment at its other branch at Thomson Walk around five kilometres away. It will also arrange transport for affected students. The Early Childhood Development Agency said it will take action against the preschool, if it is found not to have done its due diligence. At least six months' notice must be given to both parents and the Early Childhood Development Agency for preschool closures. Chloe Teo reports.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
CCM Health breaks ground for $2.4M child care center in Montevideo, Minnesota
May 31---- As groundbreaking ceremonies go, this one was complicated. Twenty-nine children had first digs at tossing the dirt as hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for a $2.4 million child care center on its Montevideo campus. "This is what it's really about, all these kids," said Brian Lovdahl, CEO of CCM Health, as the 29 children — most of them preschool age — were led by staff from the existing child care center to the site of the groundbreaking. As a point of fact, the rules and regulations involved with child care are complicated too, but worth the navigating, according to Lovdahl. Having child care available is a definite help for the health system's staff. The nearly 350 employees skew younger than is the average for health care facilities in the country, meaning there are many with young children, he explained. The availability of on-campus child care benefits both staff recruitment and retention, according to the CEO. A new provider had no more than inked his contract when the first thing he mentioned was the desire to enroll a child in the center, Lovdahl said. CCM Health became one of the first small health care systems in the country to offer child care services when it opened its existing center in January 2020. It continues to receive inquiries from other systems about how to make it happen, according to Lovdahl. The move into the new facility should happen in October, if not sooner. Groundwork is completed and the footprint for the new facility is readied, all ahead of schedule, according to the CEO. The new, 5,000-square-foot center will offer more than three times the space of the existing facility. The new facility will be licensed for 70 children. The current facility is licensed for 31 children but serves around 40 when counting drop-ins. It is located in a building housing the ambulance operations. The new facility will be located on the site where the original Montevideo Veterans Affairs Clinic stood. The location puts the young children no more than 60 feet away from the nearest doctor in CCM Health's Medical Clinic and Hospital if they should need medical help. It also means nursing mothers can drop over to the center during breaks. Staffing needs led to the decision more than six years ago to open an on-campus child center. Lovdahl said CCM Health was being served by traveling nurses in 2018-19 to meet staffing needs. Permanent staff members expressed an interest in working more hours, he said, but they cited the lack of child care as a major impediment to doing so. It took about eight months from the beginning of the discussions on child care needs to the opening of existing center. In about six months, it reached capacity, and has pretty much stayed at that level ever since, according to Lovdahl. Operating a child care center can be challenging, but Lovdahl pointed out that the value goes well beyond the health care center. The new spaces for the children of CCM Health's employees should free up spaces in other child care operations in Montevideo, he said. As in most communities, there is a gap between the number of available and needed child care spots. Montevideo had a shortage of 145 child care spaces according to a June 2024 analysis by the nonprofit and funded by the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families. The new facility will feature a prairie-style architecture with large windows in its corners. It will be divided inside according to ages. It will hold a commercial kitchen and feature a modern security system. An outdoor patio area will be available. CCM Health had studied the possibility of re-purposing the former Montevideo VA Clinic, which opened in 2002. It was found to be cost-prohibitive to renovate the three-section modular building that had served as the clinic, and it was razed. Lovdahl used the groundbreaking as an opportunity to thank the CCM Health board of directors, Montevideo City Council and the Chippewa County Board of Commissioners for their support of the child care project. The city of Montevideo and Chippewa County jointly own CCM Health. The existing child care area within the ambulance building will be returned to its former use as a training and conference center.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The ups and the downs: SE Iowa providers navigate child care, pre-K challenges
OTTUMWA — One facility is cutting its student enrollment by more than half. Another facility can't seem to fill up. A third was a little nervous if the funding would ever come and had plans if it didn't. Welcome to the world of child care and preschool in southeast Iowa. The stories of Wigwam Daycare and Preschool in Bloomfield, Sieda Child Development Center and Pickwick Early Childhood Center are reflective of many characteristics of offering either child care, 3-year-old and 4-year-old preschool, or both, in what has been frequently dubbed "a desert." The three entities aren't the same; Pickwick does not offer child care, but is a fully-funded preschool free to families. The others? They do everything in their power to provide for students and families when the going gets a little tougher. Inside the Wigwam doors The 3-year-olds gathered around teacher Mari Melvin to watch a YouTube video on a TV dangling from the wall. The 4-year-olds were coming back into the former Bloomfield Elementary School from recess. They're all part of Traci Wiegand's passion, which will be restricted as she takes an enrollment of 140 students down to 60 in an effort to balance a philosophy of "quality over quantity" against the difficulties of maintaining child care and preschool. "It was so hard. I was emotional because I've been doing this for almost 25 years. Some of these families I've known for years," Wiegand said of her decision. "You almost become part of their family. You develop a bond with them and their kids. "And then the community feedback you're going to get, right? It took me a little bit of time to realize that Davis County not having daycare was not solely my problem, but I'd been doing it for so long, and had expanded to such a large size that I started bearing the weight of, 'If I don't keep making this work, then this community doesn't have daycare.'" Wiegand is not alone in her predicament. Child care challenges have existed for decades, but were sharpened by the pandemic because of the "great resignation," which also affected the child care industry as providers struggled to find employees who would work for the typical low wages offered in the profession. But the business is for-profit, so it does not have the Head Start funding for the preschool, even though it follows Iowa's early-learning standards. "Head Start hires like a kitchen person, and that's the job. They know how many teaspoons of carrots are eaten, and they document that, send it in and that's where they get their funding," she said. "We don't have time to do that. We're talking about paying somebody $11 an hour. We're requiring them to take care of our kids, and now we're going to ask them to do an hour or two worth of paperwork so that we can get this funding. It takes away from the quality of care that we're giving to the kids." Wiegand is surrounded by a supportive and loyal staff, some of whom have taught in the Davis County Community School District, and has let go of unreliable employees. She said the decision to reduce the number of students and children began taking shape a few years ago. "The last three years have been hard, and I think if you asked any of the staff here, they would tell you the same thing," she said. "And as the years have gone by, it's just gotten a little harder. "I could have more kids than I currently have, and I know that I have quality people coming in here every day and not have to worry about a darn thing," Wiegand said. "I continue to love kids, and I love my program. It's not that we're not giving good care, but I'm hoping that we're going to do this for a year with 60 kids, and I hope it goes exactly the way I want to see it go, and then we'll evaluate again." 'Someone needs to do something about this' When Sieda Community Action opened up its child care development center on the Indian Hills Community College campus almost two years ago, it came at the height of a fevered pitch that child care was scarce in the area, there were no simple solutions, but that private-public partnerships were perhaps just around the corner. Sieda executive director Brian Dunn now wonders what the hype was about, because those complaints have been muted, for one reason or another. "There was an assumption that people would line up. We'd heard it consistently that we're in a child care desert," he said. "Maybe we're in a 'quality' child care desert." Sieda not only offers Head Start programming to seven counties in the area, but also provides Head Start and child care onsite. Dunn said Sieda has put a lot of its general fund into the child development center, but he and the staff see the bigger picture of preparing children for when they are ready to enter the school system. Still, as with Wiegand's situation, the out-of-pocket costs can be problematic for families, though Dunn said Sieda hasn't turned anyone away for that reason. "I talk about Sieda as being in the business of moving people out of poverty, not into it," he said. "Our biggest struggle is with child care assistance. You know, for many of these families, the reason they qualify for child care assistance is because they're low-income. That out-of-pocket [cost] is problematic for them, and a challenge for us." As for what "quality" child care and preschool looked like at Sieda, those under Dunn had their own definitions. "The safety of the children is the most important, but also having staff who understand how children learn, how their brains develop, and being able to provide the care that aligns with how they grow, develop and learn," said Ranae Banicky, Sieda's assistant director of the childhood development unit. "The quality is so important because the reality is, whoever is caring for your child during the day, the parent is not able to do that." Katie Thompson, the child care center coordinator, pointed to simply addressing the needs of each child. "I think meeting each child where they're at. I know it sounds cliche, but each child is so different, and you have to be able to provide for that individual," she said. "Nutrition is huge, especially for a lot of our Head Start students. You'll find there's food insecurities, so we provide nutrition needs under the Child and Adult Care Food Program under the USDA, and it opens lines of communication with the families. That way, a parent is comfortable with letting their child spend 10 1/2 hours a day with you. "I'm in the thick of it every day. It's always going to be about the kids. That's what keeps me coming here," Thompson said. Still, Sieda's child development center has rarely been completely full. Some of that, however, could be by design as teachers must follow federal Head Start guidelines for teacher-to-student ratios. "With our licensing oversight, we have to be very mindful of maintaining ratio," Thompson said. "So that'll always play into it." Dunn is satisfied with the arrangement Sieda has with IHCC; the lease on the building being used runs out at the end of 2026. "Nobody is making money. [Indian] Hills has been a fantastic partner for us," he said. "I think a couple of assumptions were made is that if there was such a great need for child care, that people would be lined up to send their kids here. The community rallies and says, 'Somebody needs to do something about this,' and we step up. "What we need is community support. We need money, because that was one of the things when we decided to move forward with this responsibility, was that there would be community support for that as well. And that has not panned out as we hoped. But there is a synergy here in that we understand kiddos in that we can help families understand development milestones or refer parents if they need additional support. I think we have the best staff out here." Pickwick Early Childhood Success It's safe to say the administration at Pickwick Early Childhood Center had a little bit of angst for much of the early part of the year. Would the Iowa Legislature deliver on some sort of renewal of the Shared Visions grant program, or would the Ottumwa Community School District need some other funding sources for Pickwick? "We had structured a committee to look at viable options and begin to brainstorm what-ifs?" principal Kim Ledger said. "What is our backup plan to continue to provide this service to our community if the funding doesn't go through? We had talks on the table about plan B and plan C." The legislature, at the end of the session, managed to extend the program for one more year, rather than the usual five-year cycle. Ottumwa is the largest beneficiary of the program in the state, with $579,000 coming from the grant, which "is meant to help supplement preschool options for lower-socioeconomic" families based on household income, which is the top qualifier for the grant. Pickwick offers a fully-funded 3-year-old preschool, and moved into its current building in 2018, essentially consolidating preschool in the community. However, Pickwick takes in children from outside the school district, and officials believe the skills taught "travel well" to other school districts in preparation for kindergarten. "The state has standards for literacy, math, every subject area, and the child should be able to know and to this," Ledger said. "We have that in preschool too and it's Iowa's early-learning standards. The work we've done is align our curriculum, resources and assessments to those standards that we know will spiral into state standards for kindergarten. "So if we're doing that good work, the skills should travel. There is some uniformity to it." Pickwick currently serves 401 3- and 4-year-old children, but also has a junior kindergarten and kindergarten, and 26% of those used a dedicated bus service to Pickwick. However, like Wigwam and Sieda, Pickwick's overall goal is development of the entire child, not simply the academic standards. "I think one of the things that sets Pickwick apart, aside from full-day preschool, is really looking at the whole child, the social and emotional side," district director of curriculum Maria Lantz said. "I think that's something Pickwick does really well, and we're really proud of that. Some places do some academics, but it's not the majority of the work. We really balance that social and emotional piece with that academic piece." Ledger has spent time in other school districts as well, but said there isn't a competition for who offers the best preschool. In fact, many are up front and make referrals if needed. "You know the Sieda Head Start people will say, 'Here are some students who are coming your way. Can I share that information with you?' And I say, 'Absolutely.' I do feel like there is a collaborative relationship," Ledger said. "If a student residentially is in the district, but chooses to open enroll to Cardinal or Davis County and is eligible for an IEP (individualized education program), then the home principal gets invited to that meeting. "So I attend meetings for students who may reside in Ottumwa but open-enroll to Cardinal. I'm part of that time and helping make those decisions for that child, but I don't serve that child. We're like colleagues and we call upon each other for whatever they might need." Ledger believes in Pickwick's philosophies, but acknowledged others as well. "Seton Catholic is a great option. Cardinal is a great option. Sieda Head Start is a good option," she said. "I know a lot of people in lots of different places. Like, if I can't serve your child, I hope that another district can. "If we aren't the right place, then let me help you find the one that is right. I want that child being served."
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘The fandom was rock'n'roll. Sophie Ellis-Bextor loved our rap song!'' How we made Balamory
After graduating from Rada I'd been a jobbing actor for 20 years. One day I was with my kids watching Play School, and thought: 'I could be a presenter on this.' So I became one, and then the BBC trained me up as a preschool director and I went on to be a freelance director and producer specialising in preschool. The BBC wanted to do a preschool drama centred around travellers in Ireland. It didn't get commissioned but it gave me the idea to create something set in a community. I had a health hiccup, which put me out of work but gave me downtime to think. Play School had been a new programme every day, so it had an immediacy. I thought: 'Why not make a preschool soap?' A year later, BBC had created CBeebies and had masses of airtime to fill and were looking for a programme that was about the world around us, so I pitched my idea. The commissioning editor said: 'How can you do a soap for preschool kids?' I said: 'Well, instead of the Queen Vic you could have a nursery school.' He said: 'That's quite a good idea.' I was made series producer and we had to film 126 episodes in 10 months, beginning in January 2002. I went down to the EastEnders set. They were very helpful and I came back with a formula. We were originally going to film in Kirkcudbright but that was too far from Glasgow, where we needed to film some of the indoor shots, so we moved it to Tobermory on the Isle of Mull, which is a child's dream with all its colours, water and hills. I'd already written the theme song: What's the Story in Tobermory? But there was a Womble called Tobermory, so a researcher in the Gaelic department came up with Balamory. It wasn't a nod to Oasis's (What's the Story?) Morning Glory, which I'd never heard of! We put out feelers for the cast, such as 'a child's dream nursery teacher' for Miss Hoolie. Lionel Jefferies, who'd played the grandfather in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, applied, but we weren't really looking for named actors, plus – it's terrible to say – I think I was too terrified to audition him in case I had to say no. Mary Riggans, who'd been in Scottish soap opera Take the High Road, wowed us, and we cast her as Suzie Sweet. We constructed our own school in Barmulloch, in the north of Glasgow. The kids would come in and believe it was their nursery, so they didn't have to act. Kids programmes aren't just for children. They're meant to be a shared experience. The characters we created all had their quirks. There was friction between [school bus driver] Edie McCredie and Suzie Sweet [who runs the village shop and cafe]. Miss Hoolie [nursery teacher] and PC Plum quite liked each other. I think the quirks made them seem more relatable. We created a community on this little island that felt realistic and had humour no matter what age you are. I think that's probably why people are so fond of the characters and the place. I'm not involved in the reboot, at least, not yet. I was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy at the age of two. It was amazing how many people thought my wheelchair was a prop. A small role in ITV drama Blind Ambition that centred on disabled athletes gave me the itch to act, although being disabled often means playing a character who specifically has a disability issue or medical problem. Eventually I found myself in a room with Brian Jameson and lots of other actors who were all being considered for the role of Penny. My disability was never openly discussed in front of me, which is what made the role so very important to me. Penny runs the village shop and cafe with Suzie Sweet. She's a bit of a maths wizard and likes organising. As the writers got to know me and realise how active I was, Penny went on to be the football and rowing coach. I spent the best part of three years filming up in Scotland, doing 14-hour days but having the best of times. Working on Balamory was such joy. I was surrounded by such a brilliant cast and crew. We laughed a lot! The scripts were funny but also sometimes surreal, like one about a party at the nursery when Penny and Suzie were dressed as Pearly Queens but nobody else was in costume. It was also emotional – I particularly remember the episode when Penny and Suzie went to Finland to visit Santa. I got to meet him and cuddle a litter of husky puppies – there were sobs! The Balamory fandom quickly grew. We were able to meet many of them when we performed live on the arena tours. It all felt a bit rock'n'roll. I remember Sophie Ellis-Bextor coming to the show and saying she loved Penny's rap song. For the first time my son started to think I was cool. I started to realise how popular the show had become when I went to St James' Park to watch Newcastle United play and the fans, in their thousands, all sang What's the Story? when they saw me. It gave me goosebumps, and still does, thinking about it.
