The call is for schools and high schools working in vulnerable contexts to present innovative projects that they are currently implementing. Among the benefits of being part of the network is the access to training instances on educational innovation and leadership with recognized national and international experts, the participation in collaborative instances and the high visibility of their school work through El Mercurio. 

The purpose of the Red de Escuelas Líderes (REL), a 15-year-old initiative promoted by Fundación Minera Escondida, Fundación Educacional Arauco, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Fundación Chile and El Mercurio, which brings together schools and high schools in a context of vulnerability throughout the country to work on educational improvement, is to make visible the innovative solutions that schools have deployed in multiple dimensions.  

After a break due to the pandemic, this year REL is reopening its call to seek and incorporate new schools that are implementing projects that solve critical problems and, at the same time, seek to influence good practices that are sustainable over time and can serve as inspiration to other educational communities.  

"The Network of Leading Schools trusts in the innovative capacity of the schools and their vocation to work collaboratively. The great value of this call is that its focus is not only to recognize the efforts of new members, but also to seek practices that can be replicated by other schools and, in this way, provide more and better learning opportunities for the students of the country", says Nadiezhda Yáñez, coordinator of Educational Leadership in Learning for the Future at Fundación Chile . 

Marcela Sáez, Director of Development and Evaluation at Fundación Educacional Arauco, adds: "We see a great need to continue to make innovation visible in the country's schools. Innovative education is a key factor, because it allows us to put student learning at the center, changing routines, activities and processes, to achieve greater interest and connection with students".  

José Antonio Díaz, executive director of Fundación Minera Escondida, points out that "promoting effective collaboration between educational establishments is fundamental in order to advance in practices that improve educational processes. We are living in times of profound changes, therefore, it is important to make visible and recognize innovative experiences that inspire and motivate educational communities to join the new challenges of education". 

Along the same lines, Marcela Marzolo, executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, adds that another valuable factor of REL is that it promotes innovation and collaboration in pursuit of a common purpose: the reactivation and transformation of education. In his opinion, this collaborative work "constitutes a tremendous opportunity to overcome the challenges left by the pandemic, through peer learning and the generation of collective intelligence that will undoubtedly make possible the generation of more creative and effective ideas and solutions for the benefit of the children and youth of our country. We also believe that they favor the generation of new teaching practices, the adaptation to collaborative work and, therefore, the development of new professional competencies", he emphasizes.  

Benefits of REL 

Among the benefits of being part of REL are access to training opportunities such as workshops, lectures and seminars with recognized national and international experts to address issues of school leadership and educational innovation, along with priority invitation to courses for the professional development of management teams and teachers. Also, participation in networking instances for the generation of public products and high visibility of their school work through educarchile and El Mercurio.   

"Education has been a leading topic of public debate in recent decades, but in many cases it has lacked the value of the real experiences of educational communities. For a newspaper like El Mercurio, it is of great interest to inform readers about the best practices and initiatives that are promoted -from the educational establishments themselves- to face the challenges of teaching, especially in vulnerable environments", says Carlos Schaerer, director of El Mercurio. 

The application must be made through this form on the website of the Network of Leading Schools until August 15. Schools that receive state subsidies, belong to the "low", "medium low" or "medium" socioeconomic group, according to the last SIMCE measurement and that have innovative initiatives in execution that are relevant to the territorial reality may participate.  

Projects can be assigned to one of the four categories of the call for proposals: Pedagogical Innovation, which includes strategies of acceleration of learning for educational reactivation; School and Community, which groups initiatives of revinculación and promotion of educational trajectories, strategies for teacher welfare, school coexistence and mental health; School and Citizenship, which classifies initiatives to promote participation, global citizenship and/or cultural diversity, and Transversal Themes for the 21st Century, such as projects for the development of transversal skills.  

It should be noted that the selected schools and high schools will receive public recognition at the ceremony for joining the Network of Leading Schools to be held in October, a milestone where they will be welcomed and will meet the other members of the network. 

On Friday, June 30, the registration process to participate in the Fundación Educacional Oportunidad contest that will reward 16 children with outstanding attendance in kindergarten education with a visit to the Kennedy Space Center in the United States ended. The drawing will be held on August 8 and will have one winner for each region of Chile. 

On March 15 of this year, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad launched the campaign "Haz que despeguen" (Make them take off), whose objective was to encourage children to attend school and to make society aware of the benefits of kindergarten education.  

The initiative was associated with a nationwide contest and more than 8,700 children attending kindergarten education were registered by their families for a chance to win a trip to the Kennedy Space Center in the United States during the summer vacations of 2024. 

This campaign was born after observing the figures of school absenteeism in Chile. In 2022, 61% of prekindergarten and kindergarten children missed 6 weeks or more of school during the year, a disturbing figure, since repeated absenteeism is the greatest predictor of school exclusion.  

Marcela Marzolo, executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, an organization that promotes the importance of early childhood education, highlighted the enthusiasm shown by educational teams from kindergartens and schools across the country, who from the beginning of the campaign promoted the contest among children and their parents.  

"We are tremendously grateful for the support we had during the campaign in terms of dissemination of the contest, not only by the schools we work with, but also by the institutions with which we collaborate and with whom we share the purpose of early childhood education, such as Junji, the Undersecretary of Kindergarten Education, Fundación Protectora de la Infancia, among others," he said. She added that "thanks to them it was possible to amplify our message and motivate, not only the application, but also the awareness of the importance that this level of the educational trajectory has in the development and learning of children". 

Let's touch the stars! 

On August 8, the drawing will be held, with one winner per region of Chile to travel with his or her mother, father and/or responsible adult to Nasa. The results will be announced at a later date at www.hazquedespeguen.cl.  

It is important to remember that the guardian of the winner of the prize must prove that the child has the required attendance percentage: 90% or more attendance from March 15 to June 30, 2023, justifying the absent days as stipulated in the contest rules. 

Knows the technical-administrative specifications for the preparation of the proposal.

Deadlines:

☑️ Deadline for submission of documentation: May 2, 2023.

✅ Results delivery date: May 8, 2023.

In the following link you will find the terms of reference with all the details and ways to apply:

https://fundacionoportunidad.cl/wp-content/uploads/tdr-licitacion-lenguaje-nt1-nt2.pdf

Knows the technical-administrative specifications for the preparation of the proposal.

Deadlines:

☑️ Deadline for submission of documentation: May 2, 2023.

✅ Results delivery date: May 8, 2023.

In the following link you will find the terms of reference with all the details and ways to apply:

https://fundacionoportunidad.cl/wp-content/uploads/tdr-licitacion-lenguaje-medio-mayor.pdf

We launched the "Haz que despeguen" campaign to encourage attendance in kindergarten education. Each region of Chile will have a winner of a contest that will reward those with outstanding attendance.

In 2022, 61% of prekindergarten and kindergarten children missed 6 weeks or more of school during the year, a worrying figure because repeated absenteeism is the biggest predictor of school dropout. Faced with this reality, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad launches the campaign "Haz que despeguen" to raise awareness in society of the benefits of early education for the present and future of children.

"Repeated absences in early education jeopardize the comprehensive development of children and, for that reason, families should make the most of educational opportunities. If students have a poor foundation, we will not achieve good results when they finish the educational cycle. The repercussions are tremendous in terms of learning and comprehensive development," says Yanira Alée, head of the assistance program at Fundación Educacional Oportunidad.

In addition, he points out that due to the serious attendance crisis that Chilean education is going through after the pandemic, the institution devised the "Haz que despeguen" campaign, "because we want the children of Chile to touch the stars through early education, in addition to motivating families to take their children to kindergarten and school every day," he says.

The executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, an organization that has been dedicated for more than 20 years to promoting the importance of early childhood education and working on attendance issues, was very emphatic in pointing out the negative effects that repeated absenteeism in kindergarten education can have on infants.   

"Research has shown that absenteeism in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten has a negative impact on language and mathematics results in 1st and 5th grade, and that children can have progressive consequences, such as exclusion and definitive school dropout, seriously affecting their life projects," explains Marcela Marzolo.

Let children take off to the stars

Fundación Educacional Oportunidad hopes to make a contribution to break the trend of absenteeism that has been observed in Chile after the pandemic.

The initiative will run from March 15 to June 30 of this year and will reward one child and one adult in each region of the country. Children between 2 and 6 years old, who are in kindergarten education, from junior high school to kindergarten, in kindergartens, public schools and/or subsidized private schools throughout Chile, and who have outstanding attendance, may participate.

The contest prize [www.hazquedespeguen.cl] consists of a 4-day trip [3 nights accommodation] for the winners and a companion of legal age, to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, located in Orlando, Florida, USA. The trip will take place on a date to be defined in January or February 2024.

The winner's guardian must prove that the child has the required attendance percentage: 90% or more attendance from March 15 (start of the contest) to June 30, 2023, justifying the absent days as stipulated in the contest rules found on the page hazquedespeguen.cl.

Within the framework of the Ministry of Education's Educational Reactivation Plan, we signed the renewal of an agreement to promote assistance and continuity in the educational trajectories of girls and boys.

This alliance seeks to foster a collaborative culture of attendance and permanence of infants in the nursery and kindergarten. To this end, it accompanies and supports the technical and pedagogical teams of the educational centers to motivate families and children to be present and not to be absent, so as not to lose key learning that are part of the educational process.

"We want to contribute to the integral development and well-being of early childhood and highlight the importance of the learning that takes place in kindergarten, through the implementation of strategies that address the particularities of all children," explained Denise Arriagada, Director of the Department of Educational Quality, Denise Arriagada.explained the Director of the Department of Educational Quality, Denise Arriagada.

Meanwhile, the executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Marcela Marzolo, said that "we are very excited with the renewal of this important agreement that has allowed us to share successful strategies and methodologies, and to co-construct a proposal relevant to the reality of JUNJI. We are confident that this collaboration will result in the generation of a culture of assistance that will have an impact on learning"..

During 2022, a pilot project was implemented between both institutions and trained directors and managers of JUNJI's classic and alternative kindergartens in the regions of Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Maule, Biobío and Magallanes, covering 103 educational units. During the year, a total of 218 educational leaders were trained in the remaining 11 regions. In addition, accompaniment sessions were held where committees were formed and those cases with less than 80% attendance were followed up.

This year, more than 1,000 kindergarten directors and managers will be trained, which will strengthen the collaborative culture of attendance and permanence in the educational units.

Researchers used data provided by the Mineduc of more than 60 thousand girls and boys - between the years 2011 to 2017 - and compared the differences in the evolution of non-attendance and chronic absenteeism between schools that participated in the program A Good Start in the O'Higgins region and that prioritized attendance, UBC schools that did not prioritize it, and establishments that did not participate in this program.

The study "Reducing Chronic Absenteeism in Preschools in Chile: Evidence from a comparative study using 2011-2017 Ministry of Education data", showed that it is possible to reduce school days lost due to absenteeism and the percentage of girls and boys with chronic absenteeism (missing more than 10% of the days) with the systematic application of strategies - together with the use of continuous improvement methodology - that, on the one hand, promote regular attendance of all students and, on the other, allow addressing the specific causes associated with the absences of children at risk or with chronic absenteeism.

This study was conducted by Mary Catherine Arbour, assistant professor and associate physician at Harvard Medical School, together with Carolina Soto, Yanira Aleé, Marcela Marzolo and Pablo Muñoz, professionals from Fundación Educacional Oportunidad.

In 2018, the Ministry of Education made publicly available databases with daily attendance at the individual level for all girls and boys enrolled in all public schools from 2011 to 2017.

The researchers used this administrative data to analyze the rate of absenteeism and chronic absenteeism of prekindergarten and kindergarten children in public schools in the O'Higgins region (a total of 1,218 children per year), comparing rates between schools that were part of the professional development program for educational teams and school leaders Un Buen Comienzo (UBC) and schools that did not receive the program.

U Buen Comienzo is a program of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad that promotes the professional development of teachers and directors and seeks to contribute to the improvement of the quality of early education, supporting schools in the improvement of pedagogical and leadership practices so that children can achieve comprehensive development. UBC addresses socioemotional and language development through a good use of time, the quality of interactions and the reduction of children's absenteeism through evidence-based strategies.

To conduct the study, differences in the evolution of chronic non-attendance and absenteeism were compared between UBC schools that prioritized attendance, UBC schools that did not, and schools that did not participate in UBC.Thus, during the 2011-2017 period, overall absence rates varied little among the three subgroups: girls and boys were absent, on average, between 14.0 % and 14.4 % of school days.

UBC schools that prioritized attendance - that is, that decided to work using the set of strategies proposed by the program - showed greater variation: children were absent between 10.4% and 17.3% of school days.

Similarly, chronic absenteeism rates varied little among the three groups (50.9% - 54.2%). However, when examining the evolution of absences and chronic absenteeism among the three groups of schools, differences were observed. UBC schools that prioritized attendance showed favorable evolutions in the percentage of absent days per child each month and in the percentage of children with chronic absenteeism.

The study replicated previous research findings that indicated that absenteeism rates are sufficiently high among girls and boys enrolled in kindergarten education, diminishing the potential benefits of early childhood education.

We invite applications to be part of the bidding process to systematize and gather evidence about the first year of the pilot project we have carried out with JUNJI. 

☑️ Reception of proposals: Until January 25, 2023.
✅ Delivery of results: January 30, 2023.

In the following link you will find the terms of reference with all the details and ways to apply:

https://fundacionoportunidad.cl/wp-content/uploads/terminos-de-referencia.pdf

The global organization HundrED highlighted the work led by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, which brings together schools that seek to enhance the learning of children in kindergarten education through collaborative work.

Every year since 2016, HundrED - a global organization based in Finland - chooses the 100 most outstanding and scalable educational innovations in the world in order to make it available for education professionals from different parts of the planet to learn about these experiences.

This year, the Un Buen Comienzo Improvement Network -which seeks to impact the learning of children in kindergarten education- was selected in HundrED's Annual Global Collection and received worldwide recognition.

The executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Marcela Marzolo, said that "being part of the 2023 HundrED collection fills us with pride and confirms that the focus we have placed on our program Un Buen Comienzo and its Improvement Network is on the right track: learning of children in early education, professional development of teachers and managers, continuous improvement and networking".

He added that "this way of doing things has demonstrated impact and, what is even more important, the possibility of scaling up. We hope to be a source of inspiration for others who also seek to contribute to the transformation of the education system so that every day more children and young people can develop integrally thanks to the possibility they have had to receive a quality education.

About HundrED

HundrED is a global non-profit organization based in Finland that improves education through the detection and visibility of scalable innovations that have proven impact.

What is the selection process like? 

All selected innovations have gone through a research process. For each Spotlight and Global Collection, HundrED's research team creates a shortlist of innovations based on impact and scalability criteria. Once an innovation is shortlisted as a potential candidate for selection, they are sent to the HundrED Academy, a group of education experts from around the world who evaluate each one based on information provided on the innovation page and external sources. 

Once the review process is complete, the HundrED research team reviews all HundrED Academy feedback to inform the final selection. All selected innovations are considered highly impactful and scalable.

What does it mean to be a selected innovator?

HundrED supports the selected innovations in several ways:

• Global recognition: HundrED delivers recognition as one of the world's most impactful and scalable innovations. Innovations are featured on its globally recognized website.

• Visibility: HundrED promotes and disseminates innovations through its channels. It is invited to participate in various associated events.

What is the Good Start Improvement Network?

The Un Buen Comienzo Improvement Network was created in 2018 by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad as a space for exchange and articulation of collaborative work between schools and communes in the O'Higgins region - and the commune of Renca in the Metropolitan region - that had participated in the Un Buen Comienzo program.

Its purpose is to enhance the continuous development of teaching and management skills in order to sustain school improvement and effectiveness and thus have an impact on the learning of children in kindergarten education.

Each commune and SLEP has an "Improvement Team" composed of kindergarten educators, kindergarten education technicians, technical heads and directors, as well as a communal leader representing the holder.

The objective of these teams is to lead the operation of the Network (in each territory), coordinate the monthly meetings, define the agenda and develop the necessary dynamics to guarantee the effectiveness of the Local Network.

Who are part of the Un Buen Comienzo Improvement Network?

Currently, in 2022, the UBC Improvement Network is made up of 10 communes in the O'Higgins Region, the Local Public Education Service of Colchagua (with 4 communes) and the commune of Renca in the Metropolitan Region.

Through an online course and the incorporation of a platform to visualize individual attendance, the aim is to intervene in cases of repeated absenteeism of children in kindergartens.

Covid-19 has left after-effects in health and also in the school context, becoming one of the most relevant factors when evaluating the current high levels of non-attendance in kindergarten education. For this reason, the kindergartens of the Fundación Protectora de la Infancia have sought to reverse the situation and reintegrate children who are repeatedly absent.

Thus was born the link with Fundación Educacional Oportunidad which, through its Assistance program, began a process to transfer strategies and learning, both to the professionals of La Protectora, as well as to the teaching and management staff of seven of its educational centers.

As part of the process, the need arose to establish an individual attendance indicator that reports the percentage of attendance of each child from March to date. In addition, in order to monitor this process, the attendance platform of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad was made available to visualize this indicator and define a goal to evaluate the work being done.

Paula Herrera, coordinator of the Attendance program, who is leading this collaboration, explained that "this joint work allows educational teams to be trained in different strategies to promote attendance, which can also be adapted to the reality of each of the kindergartens".

Another relevant aspect in the search to strengthen school attendance is the online course that was conducted, which addressed topics such as: Theory of chronic absenteeism, strategies to encourage attendance and the importance of focusing on children.

Claudia Fuentes, director of the Buen Pastor Kindergarten in La Pintana, of the Fundación Protectora de la Infancia, values this collaboration and pointed out that "not only do they provide the technical tools, but also the materials, and that makes the work much easier". He added that "having the opportunity to identify critical cases of assistance and being able to take measures to deal with them is really valuable".

It will be held online on October 26 and 27 and will feature keynote presentations by Monica Rodriguez (Argentina) and Yasna Yilorm (Chile). In addition, outstanding national teachers will share their successful experiences. Registration at webinarsconbranding.cl/expanding/

On October 26 and 27, English teachers will have the opportunity to learn about new strategies for teaching English at the seventh version of the international seminar "Expanding Opportunities", which will be held virtually on both days.

The event organized by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad will feature Mónica Rodríguez (Argentina) who will address the role of the emotional function in effective learning experiences in her presentation "Emotional Regulation in the English Classroom: Inspiring Our Students (and Ourselves!) to Achieve Better Academic and Life Results in Our Classes".

In addition, Yasna Yilorm (Chile) will present "Inclusive Education for Social Justice in the EFL Classroom: Development of Socio-Affective and Communicative Skills in Socially Vulnerable Children", where she will address the contribution of games, theatrical techniques and cultural experiences to provide communicative resources at the cognitive, affective and social levels of children.

Paz Collao, head of the We Learn program at Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, said about the event that "in our current scenario, teaching English can make a great contribution to important issues such as inclusion and emotional regulation of students. The presentations at this seminar will provide teachers from all over the country with tools to address these issues in their classrooms, in addition to generating interesting conversations about pedagogical experiences throughout Chile".

BEST PRACTICES

In addition to the main presentations, "Expanding Opportunities" will once again include an important space for four English teachers to share their successful experiences through posters and a discussion on each day:

- Raúl Rodríguez: "Just Keep Talking! Promoting Self-Efficacy through Community Language Learning in Online English Classes".

- Jessica Urra: "Let's Have Fun at Home! The Use of Gamification Elements When Learning English".

- Juan Guevara: "Surviving Chilean Slang. A Project-Based Learning Activity to Promote Students' Motivation and Oracy by Creating a Chilean - English Pocket Dictionary.

- Natalia Salas: "Recyplay". Learn and Play!

REGISTRATION

If you want to participate in the 7th version of the seminar "Expanding Opportunities", register in this webinar at webinarsconbranding.cl/expanding/

Principals of schools that are part of the Un Buen Comienzo Improvement Network shared experiences, strengthened ties and deepened pedagogical management for the benefit of the quality of early education.

A few days ago, the first meeting of directors of the Un Buen Comienzo Improvement Network was held, bringing together leaders from the 14 municipalities that make up this network in the O'Higgins and Metropolitan regions. 

The objective of this activity was tostrengthen pedagogical leadership and collaboration through inspiring and exemplary experiences that improve the quality of early education, the first stage of the educational trajectory.

The day allowed participants to reflect on the importance of early education, strengthening ties and deepening aspects of pedagogical management, as well as their role as active participants in the UBC Network. In this line, the presentation of successful methodologies to highlight kindergarten education was a central part of this discussion.

Paulina Aravena Cornejo, director of the Escuela Unión de Mujeres Americanas de Bucalemu and speaker at the conference, emphasized that "what we wanted to convey was how important it is to work with the UBC Network, through the learning that one can have, from a professional point of view, for the leadership of teams in schools and kindergartens. We showed the learning and the need to be able to convince the teams to achieve the goals that one proposes in leadership".

For his part, Víctor González, director of the Patagua Cerro School in Pichidegua, stressed the importance of this activity, noting that "this discussion allowed us to learn about new experiences and also to share our experiences. This perhaps helps others to shed light on how to improve their daily work, which is fundamental for the good of the children", he said.

Carolina Zúñiga, Coordinator of Networks and Supporters of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, explained that "this is one of the sectors that we need to be even more present in the local networks, because we know that in order to generate significant change in early education it is important that everyone is working collaboratively, not only the educational teams. We believe that these instances will be of great help in attracting the directors to lead the improvement that our public early education requires from networking, from the sense of collaborating with others, having common objectives".

Finally, the director of the La Tuna de Placilla School and kindergarten educator, Gladys Gatica, highlighted the importance of this initiative for early education: "I found it very significant. I really enjoyed Paulina's presentation based on her experience and I realized how she was able to commit her team to move forward with the entire educational community. Somehow this is the task we do every day as leaders".

The UBC Improvement Network of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad is made up of educational establishments in the municipalities of Renca in the Metropolitan Region and Doñihue, Coltauco, Machalí, Malloa, Mostazal, Paredones, Pichidegua, Rengo, San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, San Fernando, Chimbarongo, Nancagua and Placilla in the O'Higgins Region, supporting the improvement of the quality of early education in more than 160 schools and kindergartens in these territories, Nancagua and Placilla in the O'Higgins Region, supporting the improvement of the quality of early education in more than 160 schools and kindergartens in these territories, with common objectives for the improvement of language, school attendance, pedagogical interactions and the socioemotional wellbeing of children.

The event entitled "Workshop 2 in 1! Network Dynamics and Follow-up of a Local Network Plan", brought together representatives of the schools in the Metropolitan and O'Higgins regions, which are part of this early education network of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad.

Important practical contents for the development of an adequate functioning of the Improvement Network Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), as well as relevant aspects in the process of monitoring and follow-up of the Improvement Plan at the local level, were the main objectives of the "Workshop 2 in 1! Network Dynamics and Follow-up of a Local Network Plan", held at the Ansco Club in Rancagua.

The workshop brought together directors, principals, heads of UTP, educators and kindergarten technicians who make up the improvement teams of the UBC Network in the O'Higgins and Metropolitan regions.

In the first instance, the activity presented 11 dynamics for an adequate functioning as an education network, deepening in concrete tools to strengthen four fundamental pillars such as: collaboration, leadership, training and innovation. This was done through group work and board games, with maps of actors and capacity trees, where the participants showed great interest and participation in the proposed activities.

Carolina Zúñiga, coordinator of Networks and Supporters of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, highlighted the importance of this activity, explaining that "this workshop is a great contribution for the improvement teams, since, when leading local networks, various needs and challenges arise in the facilitation and development of network dynamics for the effectiveness of the same".

The workshop also addressed relevant content about the process of monitoring and follow-up of the Improvement Plan at the local level, with the delivery of guidelines and the main keys to improve the work of the territorial network. "For follow-up and monitoring, we work with automated spreadsheets to facilitate decision-making by the teams in order to achieve the objectives," said Zúñiga.

Regarding the contents learned in this workshop, Marcela González, director (s) of the Olegario Lazo School in San Fernando said that "the foundation provides us with concrete strategies to develop our work in the network. The possibility of generating trust, transversality, commitment, involving all the teams and reaching the classroom teams requires systematic work. The tools they have given us have been fantastic".

Ramón Guerra, director of the Gustavo Le Paige School in Renca, expressed his interest in this workshop, stating that "it was very interesting, especially when focusing on the four pillars presented to us, especially those related to generating collaborative work and the sense of belonging of all members of the schools in relation to early education" .   

Catalina Cabello, an early childhood educator at the Enrique Serrano School in Pichidegua, said that the activity was "a very enriching experience, where we were shown different strategies that will help us to systematize everything we are doing as a network and as a school. It is something transversal, an opportunity for a lot of knowledge and learning, which helps us to see the communal plan and to follow up on it". 

At the end of the workshop, the UBC Network of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad provided support material so that the Improvement Teams can apply the strategies learned in their community networks.    

The conference held in Rancagua provided different theoretical and practical strategies aimed at promoting school attendance in early education.

Nearly one hundred educators and kindergarten technicians from the Metropolitan and O'Higgins regions participated in the Attendance Workshop: "Strategies to promote attendance in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten", aimed at educational teams that join the Improvement Network Un Buen Comienzo (UBC).

The main objective of the activity was to provide theoretical and practical tools aimed at preventing absenteeism in transitional levels 1 and 2 of the schools that are part of this early education network.

The first part of the workshop was focused on theory, where aspects such as the Theory of Chronic Absenteeism, its definition and how to avoid it were addressed. Likewise, contents regarding the attendance platform of the UBC Network and how to increase class attendance, from a set of successful strategies, as well as explaining the work with families and the attendance committee.

Subsequently, the second segment focused on the practical, providing strategies to strengthen attendance, through work plans that the educators and nursery technicians developed in this activity. In this way, they deepened relevant aspects, using the cause and effect diagram, where the participants presented the causes of absenteeism, its categories, strategies and the intervention plan to be developed.

After the generation of the intervention plans, some ideas were presented to innovate in the promotion of attendance in early education, where topics such as the need to look at the individual data of each child were reinforced; to make sure of the attendance indicators during the 2022 school year and to put into practice the work plan of this workshop, with a follow-up of goals and interventions to be tested. 

At the end of the workshop, we gave each participant a set of materials that allow them to implement in the classroom the strategies learned in this course focused on early childhood education, ending the day with the delivery of the certificate of attendance course that the educators developed through the Moodle platform.

Perla Chávez, head of the UBC program and Network of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, pointed out that "these strategies allow motivating children to attend classes in person, as well as informing parents about the importance of their children attending school. It was a very relevant activity, because the educational teams were able to resolve their doubts, those things that were not so clear with the asynchronous course, share experiences and generate a work plan, as well as receive the material to implement the strategies taught in the classroom".

TESTIMONIALS FROM PARTICIPANTS

About this important workshop, Jacqueline Urrutia from the General Manuel Bulnes Prieto School in Renca, said that "I wanted to come to this closing. We have shared with educators from different communities and the realities are very similar, some much more acute than others. Our work has been validated by the children being in the classroom, because it is the place where they learn".

Paula Ferreira, early childhood educator at the Washington Vengas School in San Fernando, remarked that "the attendance workshop gives us many tools that will help us to work in the schools, mainly on chronic non-attendance, which is a latent problem we educators have. I consider this to be very important, because we can generate networks, it invites us to listen to the problems we have, and through the experiences offered by the foundation we can move forward". 

Finally, Marcia Maggi from the Guido Assis School in San Vicente de Tagua Tagua said that "the tools that they give us can be applied in each institution, because they all have different realities, but they all have in common that they are deficient. So these tools teach you and tell you things that maybe you know, but they are not ordered, and that is what is important".  

We invite the schools and kindergartens of the UBC Improvement Network, We Learn and Fundación Protectora de la Infancia to join this initiative that seeks to encourage and motivate attendance from the initial level.

For details of the rules click on this link CONTEST RULES and remember that the videos must be sent to concurso@fundacionoportunidad.cl until September 7.