The second Top-up Training for teachers, head teachers and Ghana Education Service Officers took place on 16^th and 17^th February 2016 in the Western Region. The zeal and enthusiasm of the participants during each session of the training made the workshop a great success. Some participants even arrived early to help set up the workshop venue.

The workshop concentrated on developing participants’ facilitation skills. Participants learned that teachers have to think about facilitation when they are planning, they have to use appropriate language when facilitating and they have to act in facilitative ways in the classroom. One facilitation strategy participants learned about and practised using was ‘the three A’s’: Allow, Adapt, Add. This involves: firstly, a teacher allowing a child to speak and not commenting directly on any inaccuracies in what the child says; secondly, the teacher adapting what the child has said by saying it correctly and; thirdly, the teacher adding extra information to what has so far been said to promote further interaction with the child. Participants also learned about the benefits of using open, as opposed to closed, questions to facilitate children’s play. The new themes that learning will be directed around for the coming weeks were also introduced: ‘My Home My Community’ for KG1 and ‘My Country Ghana’ for KG2.

Trainers showed their progression by the effective way they organised the workshop’s early morning activities for participants, ensuring that all participants were involved. Also, they illustrated much of the content of the training through demonstration, which made the ideas being introduced more concrete for the participants and made the training lively.

Participants were thrilled when they saw the setup of a sample Chop Bar Centre and Chief’s Palace Centre for KG1 and KG2 classrooms respectively. These are the theme-related Centres for ‘My Home My Community’ and ‘My Country Ghana’.

We were also delighted to receive a visit from Mr Richard Amo Cosby during the workshop, who is an early childhood practitioner, a KG teacher and an early childhood activist. He spoke on the topic of the economic importance of early childhood education. He shared with the participants the economic importance of early childhood education for the child, for the parents and for the country itself. He also made mention of how early stage learning helps to develop the child’s brain and attitude.

One of the KG teachers had this inspiring story to share:

‘At the beginning of the programme only 5% of my pupils could write three-letter words but now 60% -70% of them can write three-letter words.’ (KG2 Teacher Porter A, Sekondi-Takoradi Metro)

Well done to all participants for making this another excellent training workshop!