CARE2LEARN - Supporting the Transition from Early Childhood Education and Care to Primary School

Primary Education programs provide fundamental academic skills, establishing a solid foundation for learning. Successful transition to PE requires child maturity, quality education, and a support ...

The objectives of the CARE2LEARN project were: 1. Increase Key Early Competencies: Enhance early competencies in children to improve their chances of early academic success and positive life outcomes. This objective focuses on developing fundamental skills in children at local, regional, national, and EU levels, ensuring they have a solid foundation for future learning and development. 2. Increase Parental Capacity: Empower parents of preschool children to better support their children’s development of early key skills and academic achievement. The project aimed to provide parents with the resources and tools needed to actively participate in their children’s education, fostering a supportive home environment. 3. Relieve Educator Pressure: Alleviate the pressure on ECEC and primary school teachers by increasing parental involvement in early education. Overall, the CARE2LEARN project aimed to create a comprehensive support system that benefits children, parents, and educators, enhancing early childhood education and ensuring better long-term outcomes for all stakeholders involved.

The CARE2LEARN project produced several concrete outputs and achieved significant results, contributing to its overarching goals of enhancing early childhood education and supporting the transition to primary school: 1. C2L SCHOOL READINESS DEVELOPMENT TOOL CURRICULUM (PR1): The consortium developed a methodological framework and trough validation process, including literature reviews and interviews with experts and parents created a comprehensive document detailing validated key competencies for children transitioning from preschool to school. In that document key competencies for parents to help them support their children during this transition are defined with activities targeting these competences also defined. 2. C2L SCHOOL READINESS ASSESSMENT TOOL (PR2): A practical assessment tool for parents to monitor their child's progress in key competencies was developed, targeting competences identified trough PR1. This tool provided a simple checklist to track the development of early skills, ensuring parents could easily assess and support their children's growth. 3. C2L MOBILE APP (PR3): An innovative mobile application that digitalized the activities from PR1 and the assessment tool from PR2 was created. Key features included: - Assessment and Monitoring: Allowing parents to track their child's skill development. - Skill Development: Offering activities, with a mix of online and offline tasks, to develop key competencies. - Parental Support: Providing weekly articles related to child development and the transition to primary school. - The app was made available in multiple languages (English, Croatian, Serbian, Greek), ensuring broad accessibility. Reports detailing the feedback and evaluations from expert pilot testing and parent beta testing were also created. These reports informed final improvements and adjustments to the mobile app before its official launch. 5. Multiplier Event: In total 6 events held in 3 countries with 162 people involved, exceeding plans and expectations (90 people planned). The events disseminated the project's results, allowed participants to try out the C2L app, and facilitated networking and feedback collection. 6. Dissemination Materials: A common graphic identity and guidelines for these materials were created and ensured consistent and effective communication of the project's goals and results. Project web page, Facebook page and Instagram page were created. A variety of promotional and informational materials, including infographics, press releases, leaflets, and articles. All these materials were regularly shared trough these channels, web pages and social media of the partners and newsletters of the partners.