User:rorynoonanDate:04/03/2013Time:12:08:44Edition:04/03/2013ACAllAboutCork040313Page:1Color:
AC - V1
ALL ABOUT CORK 1
(YHQLQJ (FKR Monday, March 4, 2013
Monday, March 4
Seachtain na Gaeilge schedule launched
THE Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr John Buttimer, right, has launched Cork City Council’s schedule of events for Seachtain na Gaeilge 2013 which runs from today to Sunday, March 17 at venues across the city. One of the highlights of this year’s celebrations will be the showing of a double bill of seminal Irish movies Budawanny (1987) and CrÊ na Cille (2007) at Triskel Christchurch at 2pm on Saturday, March 9. Tickets for this event are available free of charge from the Central Library, Grand Parade. Cork City Council also separately supports a range of events organised by Gael Taca and Gaelgóirà Cois Laoi in the city, effectively turning March into Mà na Gaeilge. At the Council meeting of February 25, the Lord Mayor advised the Council, that in recognition of Seachtain na Gaeilge 2013, that councillors would be encouraged to make contributions to motions before the Council at its meeting of March 11 through Irish and that a list of commonly used Irish lan-
guage phrases had been distributed to them and uploaded to the City Council website. Speaking at the launch the Lord Mayor said: “It’s wonderful to have such a comprehensive programme accessible to all, regardless of their Irish language fluency. “I would encourage young and old to “bain trial as� at as many events as they can.
Happy Talk programme helping children to read
Amanda Weldon reading to her baby brother Glen, who is just five weeks old. ‘IT’S never too early to start with books’ — this is just one of the messages which commuters on Cork city buses are getting. The poster features Glen, at five weeks, looking at a book with big sister, Amanda. It is part of a series of posters which feature local children and their parents from the Glen and Mayfield areas of Cork. Each poster gives parents tips on how they can support their young child’s language development. The posters are an initiative of ‘Happy Talk’, an early years language project which is working within the local community to help children’s language skills to develop. ‘Happy Talk’ provides programmes for parents, childcare staff and primary teachers. Parents of babies as young as nine months get ideas to
HAPPY TALK: Matthew O’Sullivan, aged three, with Ylenia D’Agostina. help them develop. It supports children from 0-6 years and works with Public Health Nurse clinics, in toddler groups, crèches, pre-schools and junior infant classes. Children learn listening skills with the help of ‘Nibbles’ and ‘Twitch’, the Happy Talk rabbit puppets. In the pre-schools and Junior Infant
classes, parents work alongside their child and are coached by one of the ‘Happy Talk’ speech and language therapists. They learn to model words and sentences for their child. They learn to add new words to what their child has said which helps expand their child’s language. They also learn the importance of nursery
rhymes. Happy Talk Coordinator Sheila Dillon said; “Through early intervention in language, the Project aims to support better school readiness and promote better future educational outcomes for participating children. “Parents, childcare staff and teachers are very enthusiastic about ‘Happy Talk’ and they can see it making a difference.� Happy Talk is led by a consortium involving Cork City Partnership, Barnardos, Cork City Childcare Company, Cork City Council, City of Cork VEC, the Health Service Executive (South) and University College Cork. The project is funded by Tomar Trust and the National Early Years Access Initiative (NEYAI) and is one of 13 demonstration projects which will feed into national policy on early childhood care and education.