"At a time of unprecedented economic and social challenges, the importance of giving all our children a solid start in life by providing high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is crucial" (Eurydice and Eurostat Report, "Key Data on Early Childhood Education and Care in Europe", 2014). Looking at researches and analyses from OECD and the European Commission, it is clear that there is a consensus at policy-level on the fact that Quality Assurance has to be at the centre of the political priorities for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in European countries. A lot remains to be done at implementation-level in terms of awareness raising, development of methodologies and techniques for adequate Quality Assurance management, and competences required for monitoring and assessing the provision among educators, childminders, parents and families in order to reinforce the educational dimension of the services - too often treated as pure care. The SEQUENCES project is a bottom-up reaction to the need of improving the quality of Early Childhood Education and Care provision in Europe, as emerged from literature and partners' experiences from the ground. It brings together organizations from 7 countries - Italy, Romania, Ireland, Malta, Lithuania, Hungary and Belgium, joining the efforts of the specific and relevant categories of stakeholders: private and public ECEC providers - respectively Cooperativa SEM (IT) and Grắdinitắ cu P.P Zấna Zorilor (RO), national-level education trade unions - Lithuanian Education Trade Union (LT) and Malta Union of Teachers (MT); a VET provider delivering continuous training to ECEC professionals, with professional expertise in Quality Assurance - FORMA.Azione srl (IT), academia with the Observatory Centre for Educational Development (HU) of the Corvinus University of Budapest; national policy-level non-profit organizations - Early Childhood Ireland (IE), EU networks of relevant stakeholders - European Parents’ Association (BE). The specific objectives pursued by partners are 1) to promote quality culture and quality assurance approaches in ECEC settings; 2) to develop ready-to-use tools for self and external evaluation with transnational validity and referred to the 5 quality areas identified in the "Proposal for key principles of a Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care" from the EU Commission (access, workforce, curriculum, evaluation/monitoring, governance/funding) and 3) to come up with guidelines and recommendations for the different target groups identified, in order to support their acquisition of quality management approaches. In order to facilitate the transition of a quality culture and related glossary, approaches and methodologies from the policy-makers and academic level to the implementation one through a methodology based on a bottom-up approach and mutual learning, the following areas of work have been foreseen: Project management and Monitoring&assessment activitiesStudy Visit in Ireland with staff from all the partner organizationsDevelopment and Piloting of the Toolkit for self-and external evaluation of ECEC provisionDefinition of a Training Curriculum and related teaching materials on methodologies for stakeholders' involvement and the adoption of the ToolkitTransnational training based on the developed Curriculum and its validationProduction and diffusion of Multi-stakeholders Guidelines for the promotion of quality assurance in ECEC targeting policy-makers, ECEC services and parents/familiesTransversal and IOs-related Communication&Dissemination activities.Activities will lead to the following Intellectual Outputs:O1 - SEQUENCES TOOLKIT - Toolkit for the Self and External Evaluation of Early Childhood Education and Care provisionO2 - TRAINING CURRICULUM and related didactic materials for Quality Management in ECEC - coherent with the 5 Quality Areas and the ToolkitO3 - MULTI-STAKEHOLDERS GUIDELINES for the implementation of the Toolkit and the promotion of self and external evaluation in ECEC. By actively involving around 4000 participants in the different activities, and reaching out to a wider public through communication and dissemination, the project is going to lead to significant improvements within partners' organization or among their members in terms of developed competences, available tools and Quality Assurance system. Also, it is expected to produce a positive spill over effect in the Quality Assurance management in ECEC settings beyond the partnership, thanks to the the numerous exchange and external cooperation opportunities.
“Learning and education do not begin with compulsory schooling – they start from birth. The early years from birth to compulsory school age are the most formative in children's lives and set the foundations for children’s lifelong development and patterns for their lives. In this context, high quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) is an essential foundation for all children’s successful lifelong learning, social integration, personal development and later employability” (as states the Report of the Working Groups on ECCE under the auspices of the European Commission, Proposal for key principles of a Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care”, October 2014). The SEQUENCES project aimed at responding to the need to improve the quality of ECEC private and public services with adequate tools for the self and external evaluation of quality, by directly involving providers and relevant stakeholders as quality development partners. To be effective at providers’ level Quality Assurance systems must be implemented through a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down imposed set of requirements. The specific objectives pursued were: 1. to promote a culture of quality and quality assurance approaches at ECEC settings level 2. to develop ready-to-use tools for the self and external evaluation of quality, with transnational validity, based on the 5 quality areas (access, workforce, curriculum, monitoring & evaluation, governance & funding) as identified by the European Commission with the Proposal for key principles 3. to come up with guidelines and recommendations for the key stakeholders, in order to support their acquisition of quality management mindset. The project brought together 8 partners from 7 countries - Italy, Romania, Ireland, Malta, Lithuania, Hungary and Belgium, namely: private and public ECEC providers - respectively Cooperativa SEM (IT) and Grădiniţa cu P.P Zâna Zorilor (RO), national-level education trade unions - Lithuanian Education Trade Union (LT) and Malta Union of Teachers (MT); a VET provider delivering continuous training to ECEC professionals, with professional expertise in Quality Assurance - FORMA.Azione srl (IT), academia with the Observatory Centre for Educational Development (HU) of the Corvinus University of Budapest; national policy-level non-profit organisations - Early Childhood Ireland (IE), EU networks of relevant stakeholders - European Parents’ Association (BE). 3 Intellectual Outputs were developed: IO1 – SEQUENCES Toolkit for the Self and External Evaluation of Early Childhood Education and Care Provision with 34 tools distributed on the 5 quality areas and an additional Common Area, focused on quality management instruments IO2 – Training Curriculum and Related Didactic Materials for Quality Management in ECEC – including 34 learning activities, as well as team-building, needs assessment and evaluation activities and tools IO3 – Multistakeholders Guidelines for the implementation of the Toolkit with tailored recommendations to the needs of different target groups. The main activities carried out can be summed up as follows: - distribution of a questionnaire on the quality in the settings and good practices that reached out around 800 respondents - 1 study visit in Dublin (IE) to identify and share good practices and to compare quality systems for ECEC services in various European countries - 1 training of trainers in Budapest (HU) aimed to learn and reflect on the SEQUENCES Toolkit in order to assure smooth piloting and test the training curriculum together with the didactic materials - 6 training sessions in IT, IE, LT, MT, RO and RS that involved a total of 108 ECEC professionals from 31 settings that served as preparation for the piloting activity - piloting of the Toolkit in the 6 countries, that involved a total of 112 professionals, 28 settings and indirectly 1673 children and their parents and families - 5 transnational project meetings in Perugia (IT), Vilnius (LT), Hamrun (MT), Cluj-Napoca (RO) - the visiting of ECEC structures in IE, LT, HU, MT, RO - 6 multiplier events and a round table to disseminate the Intellectual Outputs produced among 437 attendees - translation of the outputs in Italian, Romanian, Hungarian, Lithuanian and Serbian - communication and dissemination towards over 4.000 people. In terms of results, it is worth highlighting: - partners’ organisational improvements of their quality assurance systems and among their members in terms of developed competencies - raised awareness at local, national and European level on the importance of having efficient, effective and tested tools for the self and external evaluation of quality for ECEC provision and the importance of having a wide variety of stakeholders in the entire process - opportunity to learn from mobility activities for ECEC professionals who usually are less involved in this kind of actions. For more details, please visit: https://sequences-project.eu/