1 Eighteen dedicated early childhood educators and preschools will receive the ECDA Awards for Excellence in Early Childhood Development from Mr Desmond Lee, Minister for Social and Family Development on Friday, 5 October 2018 at the Early Childhood Conference. In line with this year's conference theme "Nurturing Young Minds Building Strong Foundations", these educators and preschools have been chosen because of their commitment to holistic development of our children through exemplary practices in curriculum, pedagogy and innovation. This will give our children a good start in life.
2 The ECDA Awards, launched in 2013, recognises the critical role educators play in shaping the future of our nation. The Awards inspire early childhood educators to strive towards professional excellence in early childhood care and education, which has a lasting impact on children's cognitive, language and socio-emotional outcomes.
3 Since 2017, the ECDA Awards has been extended to include the 'Promising Awards' to recognise and motivate educators with strong potential for professional excellence in the early stage of their early childhood career. This year, we have 6 'Promising Award' winners, double last year's number. These educators make every effort to develop the full potential of young children, implement innovative practices and believe in continuing professional development to assure a high level of professional expertise.
4 The 3 'Outstanding Award' winners excel in their curriculum and pedagogical practices, learning environments, professional development, as well as partnerships with families and the community. These caring and nurturing educators have the best interests of young children in their hearts. As role models, they also exercise leadership at their level and are mentors to their peers.
5 The ECDA Awards will also honour 9 preschools for their innovative teaching and learning practices. They have nurtured an innovation culture that has improved the quality of preschool programmes and practices to enhance learning experience for children, as well as promote community engagement and home-centre partnerships. These interactive innovation projects, ranging from play, science and technology to character-building, will be showcased at the Awards Booth at the ECDA Early Childhood Exhibition on 5 & 6 October at the Suntec City Convention & Exhibition Centre.
6 The 18 ECDA Award winners and preschools were selected from over 300 nominations. Since introduction of the ECDA Awards in 2013, 49 educators and 85 preschools have clinched the awards.
Annex List of individual and preschool award winners
PROMISING EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCARERS
Lai Mei Sum
NTUC First Campus' My First Skool at Blk 219 Serangoon
Nur Erdina Bte Rahmat
The Little Skool-House International (At-Kent-Vale)
Raihana Binte Suhaimi
NTUC First Campus' My First Skool at Blk 312C Sumang Link
Yuannita Tovanna
NTUC First Campus' My First Skool at Blk 166 Punggol Central
PROMISING EARLY CHILDHOOD LEADER
Sabrina Chew Li Ping
PCF Sparkletots Preschool @ Bishan North Blk 409
Phyllicia Chew Poh Ching
NTUC First Campus' My First Skool at Blk 229 Ang Mo Kio
Aishah Sirajuddin
The Caterpillar's Cove Child Development and Study Centre @ Jurong East
OUTSTANDING EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER
Tay Shu Ling Eunice
NTUC First Campus' My First Skool at Blk 803 Tampines
OUTSTANDING EARLY CHILDHOOD LEADER
Panmeline Wong
MOE Kindergarten @ Punggol View
OUTSTANDING CENTRE FOR TEACHING & LEARNING
PCF Sparkletots Preschool @ Pioneer Blk 661B
EARLY CHILDHOOD INNOVATION (DISTINCTION)
Kinderland Preschool Ministry of Education
Project STREAM Through Discoveries
PCF Sparkletots Preschool @ Chua Chu Kang Blk 10
Project Harvesting Rain
EARLY CHILDHOOD INNOVATION (MERIT)
MOE Kindergarten @ Farrer Park
Project Children's Wonder Playland
EARLY CHILDHOOD INNOVATION (COMMENDATION)
NTUC First Campus' My First Skool at Blk 18A Holland Drive
Project Project Social Good Made Easy
NTUC First Campus' My First Skool at Blk 212 Choa Chu Kang
Project How can we ease the primary school transition for K2 children?
NTUC First Campus' My First Skool at Blk 518 Jurong West
Project How can we facilitate purposeful play for children at the Dramatic Learning Centre?
PCF Sparkletots Preschool @ Cheng San-Seletar Blk 533
Project Buzz off!
PCF Sparkletots Preschool @Tampines West Blk 140
Project Dream Plate