Ms Winifred Addison, the proprietress of Winnie’s Day Care and Kindergarten in Banjul, has disclosed that learning constitutes an active process, as children learn best by doing and experimenting and it is the teacher’s role to provide an environment that is exciting to explore.

Ms Addison said this on Monday in an interview with the Top Class columnist at her new Day Care Centre at Hagan Street in Banjul. According to her, their teachers guide children’s development by providing hands-on activities that allow children to discover and make conclusion on their own.  "We believe a program for young children should respect the individuality of each child and recognise his or her unique needs," she said.
Our teachers strive to provide individual learning opportunities and choices to encourage independent thinking and foster self-esteem.  Children’s emotional, physical, social, and intellectual developments are interrelated and all activities are designed to stimulate growth in more than one area.

She revealed that Winnie’s Day Care and Kindergarten is a registered Day Care and Kindergarten with the department of Education, The Gambia in 2005 and there are 111 (one hundred and one) children in the school. The centre she said is a children centre between the ages of 3 months and 5 years, and the Youth Care Foundation, The Gambia considered the rate and the number of children between the ages of 3 months and 5 years that are not properly catered for as they suffer from malnutrition and other related diseases.

She went on to recall that it was on these promises that the Winnie’s Day Care and Kindergarten was founded, the rudiment to improve children welfare, protection and development with the framework of the Convention of the Rights of the Child.  Noting, the centre is a community based with the involvement of the parents of the children in the centre and 85% of the children in the centre are from low income parents in Banjul and environ.

She added that their objective is to provide a centre for children of working mothers with modern facilities, to provide a play-group and recreation for children for wholesome development of a child, to provide an early-learning, developed language and quality education, to also organise periodical training workshops for parents in collaboration with the UNICEF and Department of Health and Social Welfare on child care, welfare and nutrition and to facilitate a medium for children immunization and other health related matters.

She further called on parents to register their children in the nursery, as that will help the children to identify thing and will be able to read simple sentences and word and to be able to write.  And this, she said, is an advantage for the child when he or she enrols in the primary school, they will be far more different from those who do not attend nursery school.

Ms Addison also called on government to help her with a peace of land, furnitures and other school materials, so that she can achieve her aims and objectives and to also make these children very comfortable.