On Friday, June 7th, 2024, as we look forward to the Doodle Den Graduation Ceremonies that are taking place next week, Jennifer Pinson, Doodle Den Coordinator and Kate O’Brien, PR and Events Executive, had the pleasure of chatting to Mary Oyediran live on Near FM about the wonderful Doodle Den programme.
Near FM’s ethos is to educate, inform, and entertain. NCI is grateful to Mary and her production team for giving Jennifer the opportunity to educate listeners about the brilliant, and crucial work of the Doodle Den programme, and Kate the chance to share insight into why these kinds of events are so important to NCI’s mission to ‘Change Lives through Education.’
If you missed the live interview, you could listen again at your leisure by tuning into Near FM’s Listen Again Podcast.
What is Doodle Den?
Doodle Den, delivered by ELI (Early Learning Initiative) as part of the Area-Based Childhood (ABC) Programme, and part funded by the NEIC, is an after-school literacy programme targeted at children aged 5 to 6 years of age in Senior Infants. The programme focuses on improving children’s literacy through a wide range of activities such as games, phonics, art, drama, independent and shared reading, and physical activity.
Doodle Den involves three after-school sessions per week, with each session lasting 1.5 hours, operating throughout the normal school year, over a 38-week period. The programme was developed by CDI Tallaght, is evidence-based and manualised. It includes a strong child, parent, and family component. Parents are encouraged to attend 6 parent information sessions over the year, and there are also 3 family sessions.
Why is Doodle Den Important?
Doodle Den aims to improve children’s literacy in a fun, engaging, and highly interactive manner. The programme focuses on helping children through a balanced literacy framework, concentrating on the following areas: writing, text comprehension, sight vocabulary, phonics, and independent reading.
The children who attend Doodle Den have been doing wonderfully. The programme has been proven to bring about an improvement in school attendance, improved engagement with learning outside of the school, and improved relationships with both their parents and their peers.
Doodle Den has run since September 2015 in the Docklands and East Inner-City area and will run again this school year. For further information about the Doodle Den programme, visit About Doodle Den on the NCI website.
We look forward to celebrating the children and their families, as well as the dedicated ELI staff at the Doodle Den Graduation Ceremonies next week.
For further information about the Doodle Den Graduation, visit Our NCI Events Page.
#ChangingLivesThroughEducation