At the end of January the Minister for Children & Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald announced that in 2012 Ireland will see the development of Irelands first National Early Years strategy for children ages 0-6 years.  The primitive years are the most important for the development of children and Minister Fitzgerald stated "Early-intervention in childrens lives and quality childhood experiences are cruticial to a childs emotional, cognetive and social development". 

Over the years Portobello Institute has dedicated a lot of time working with charities in India spending time with slum children in schools and orphanages.  Denise Flood, Head of the Early Years Department has visited Pune many times devoting her time to street children and accessing how she could make a change to the quality of their lives using her years of experinece within Montessori and Chlidcare.  Her empathetic approach towards these children has led her to further develop education facilites and with this in mind 2012 will see Portobello Institute embark on a new project in India by setting up a Montessori school in Pune.  Experiencing first hand Denise has seen how spending quality time with the children ensuring they are stimulated in every day skills has steadily improved their cognitive and social skills.  In the short time she spend in Pune she saw a dramatic improvement in some of the childrens responses.  In these poor slum areas many children are sent out to beg on the streets as familes are extremely poor.  Portobello Institute aim to open a school which will be able to provide a warm and welcoming environment for these children.  Using the Montessori method Denise and her team will set about encouraging learning and developing the individual childrens potential.

Childrens charity Barnardos came into the college at the end of last year to deliver a guest lecture to Portobello's Montessori students.  Enlightented and enthused by the charities notable and continued work the students took it upon themselves to raise some money to contribute to the charity.  The students organized two hampers packed with goodies to raffle just in time for Christmas.  Raising over €2,000 the students proudly presented the cheque to a Barnardos represetative earlier in the month.

Barnardos launched a new publcation this week to support those working in pre-schools in creches, Montessori schools, after school clubs and summer camp settings.  The book acts as a guide for careers to understand their responsibilites regarding child protection and to maximise the safety and welfare of the children while in their care and to report child protection concerns in accordance with the Government's protection guidelines Chilldren First.