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.

Along with increasing class attendance, one of the great challenges of the second semester is to improve the quality of interactions that occur in the classroom, both with educational teams and among themselves. To contribute to this challenge, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, in collaboration with the Laboratory of Innovation in Education UC, has provided a video library and free resources.

Ask appropriate questions encouraging the participation of the whole class, use verbal reinforcement and physical gestures to foster a positive climate, establish clear behavioral expectations. These are some of the concrete actions that kindergarten education teams should take on a daily basis to generate quality learning opportunities for girls and boys.

But what happens when these actions are not carried out or are only done sporadically? The psychologist of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, María Virginia López, explains that "to provide quality education we must focus on what we teach and how we teach it. It is very important that educational teams offer children opportunities for effective interaction, since, according to the evidence, their learning depends largely on the quality of the dialogic exchanges they have with adults and their peers at school".

If the main challenge of the second semester is to boost class attendance, its fundamental complement is to increase the learning opportunities for boys and girls. María Virginia López adds that "improving the way in which all exchanges take place in the classroom can have a significant impact on children's learning achievements".

To contribute to this challenge, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, in collaboration with the UC Laboratory for Innovation in Education, createda space on the platform www.oportunidadenlinea.cl, resources and video library of pedagogical interactions to support all educational teams to generate more effective interactions in the classroom.

"We hope that this space will contribute to the roadmap for kindergarten education set out by the Undersecretariat, which is committed to strengthening the professional competencies of management and educational teams at this level to continue promoting learning in Chile's children," said María Virginia López.

The Center for Advanced Research in Education (CIAE) of the university analyzed the case of the Improvement Network Un Buen Comienzo, a space for exchange and articulation between schools and municipalities that work to enhance the learning of children in the region.

A recent study by the Center for Advanced Research in Education (CIAE) of the University of Chile highlighted the benefits of the Un Buen Comienzo Improvement Network (UBC) for the teams, schools and municipalities that participate in it, a network created in the O'Higgins Region to strengthen the learning of children in kindergarten education.

The CIAE explained that the UBC Improvement Network develops and strengthens the professional capital of the management and educational teams that participate in it. In this sense, it highlights that there is a broad agreement in all the communes that are part of it on the relevance of the Network to strengthen their professional capacities, especially in the context of pandemic.

In addition, in the systematization of the work of this network, led by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, it is stated that the management and educational teams perceive that the network has had an effect in reducing student dropout, increasing attendance, improving language skills and increasing the vocabulary and reading comprehension of boys and girls.

The CIAE researcher and one of the authors of the study, Juan Pablo Valenzuela, also highlighted the use of the continuous improvement methodology that guides the work of the UBC Improvement Network, since it "promotes the acceleration of school improvement through collaborative work based on a systematic evaluation of leadership practices and pedagogical practices, with a focus on innovation and the use of data for decision-making".

Perla Chávez, head of the program and of the UBC Improvement Network, commented that "this study allows us to recognize the systematic work of the communities and to project, in the light of its results, new challenges to continue developing teaching and management practices, thus sustaining the improvement of children's learning".

"The study allowed us, from an external observation, to evaluate from the participants' own voices the functioning of the UBC Improvement Network from 2018 to 2020, being able to corroborate the benefits that this Network brings to its participants, both in collaborative work and in the improvement of leadership and pedagogical practices," said the head of the Continuous Improvement and Evaluation Area of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Pablo Muñoz.

ABOUT THE UBC NETWORK

The purpose of the UBC Improvement Network 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. It was formed in 2018 with the intention of sustaining and supporting the strategies installed in the schools of the O'Higgins Region that had previously participated in the program Un Buen Comienzo of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad.

The communes of the O'Higgins Region that are part of this collaborative work network are: Mostazal, Machalí, Doñihue, Rengo, Coltauco, Malloa, Pichidegua, San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, Paredones, plus the 4 communes that are part of the Local Public Education Service of Colchagua: Chimbarongo, San Fernando, Nancagua and Placilla, to which the commune of Renca in the Metropolitan Region is also added.

These schools are characterized by having students from different grades in the same class, a situation that presents a great challenge for teachers of this language when teaching and evaluating.

As part of their work in collaboration with the We Learn program of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, the teachers in charge and the English teacher of Paihuano participated in meetings for the co-construction of a project to make curricular and methodological adaptations for English classes according to their needs and context.

This project seeks to take into account the particularity of having girls and boys from 1st to 6th grade in the same classroom, as is the case of the schools belonging to the Gabriela Mistral Microcenter and also the Mario Aquiles Rodriguez School, where the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, 1st and 2nd, 3rd and 4th and 5th and 6th grades are combined, respectively.

In order to address these particularities and achieve effective English teaching, didactic and methodological strategies, together with the teacher's own competencies, are key to achieving appropriate student learning.

Karla Raipán, coordinator of the We Learn program, explained that "in order to ensure that the needs of each school are represented in this project, a survey of information was carried out with the teachers of the Paihuano Microcenter. This consisted of holding a face-to-face meeting in each establishment, in order to know the reality of each of the schools".

"In addition, a joint meeting was held in which criteria were pooled and the first action to be taken was defined, which will be the construction of an evaluation instrument that will allow the English teacher to evaluate all the students in his or her classroom without having to separate them by level," he added.

After this first step, the final idea is that all the work that comes from the Gabriela Mistral Microcenter through these adaptations for multigrade schools can be available to all schools in Chile with similar characteristics.

The school will receive support in language assessment, making an initial diagnosis to mobilize the students' communicative skills from the ground up, and will have 3 evaluations during the year.

From kindergarten through 8th grade, children and young people from the Isla Tenglo School -located on the island in front of the city of Puerto Montt- will have the opportunity to improve their English language skills thanks to an alliance between Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, through its We Learn program, and Fundación Isla Tenglo.

During the year 2021, the school received advice and support that in 2022 was formalized in an alliance that will allow the school to have a plan that will consider the internal processes of the school in order to make a meaningful accompaniment and according to the goals they are seeking for their students. To this end, the educational teams and directors will be provided with the necessary tools to support them in improving their English and to work in a network with the rest of the schools belonging to the program.

For the implementation in the first year of We Learn on Tenglo Island, support will be provided in the evaluation of the English language, making an initial diagnosis, to mobilize from the base the communicative skills of the students, following up on the application of improvement agreements with 3 evaluations during the year.

Cristina Ramos, coordinator of the We Learn program, explained that "during this first year, the school will be accompanied in various instances, planned exclusively for its reality". She added that "the classroom visit will measure the time of interactions and use of the language in the English class, an input that will be used to reflect with the teacher to find areas for improvement in their practice, as well as to lay the groundwork for future comparisons".

He also pointed out that "the entire school improvement team will be accompanied in workshops with experts from the foundation's Continuous Improvement area and the Assistance program, on fundamental topics for the improvement of English".

For her part, the school's principal, Karen Oria, added that "for our community it means that, in the first place, we can have an innovative, high-impact methodology. This initiative is in line with our work that seeks to provide tools that allow students to have the skills required to perform successfully in the 21st century".

"In conclusion, it is a tremendous learning opportunity for our students, in the first instance, and also for the community in general," concluded the director.

If you are an English teacher, we invite you to publish your experience through an academic poster in this event that will be held virtually during the last week of October. Posters selected to present will receive a one-time payment of 4 UF after the seminar for the work done.  

The seventh version of the international English seminar Expanding Opportunities will be held during the last week of October. This year it will address relevant and contextualized topics for the teaching of English to children and youth. 

In addition to the international speakers, this online event organised by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad will once again provide an important space for English teachers to share their successful experiences.  

This year, the call is focused on 4 themes: 

STUDENTS 

- Development of students' autonomy in the process of learning English. 

- Incorporating students' personal and local identity in English language learning. 

FAMILY 

- Family involvement in the process of learning English. 

- Maximising the use of English at home. 

COLLABORATION 

- Articulation of projects to promote English at school level. 

- Networking projects to promote English. 

LEADERSHIP 

- Importance of leadership in the process of improving English in school communities. 

- Leadership strategies to enhance the processes in the English classroom. 

Those wishing to apply should include the name of the initiative, the general description and the main achievements in the form available at expanding.fundacionoportunidad.cl. The posters selected to exhibit will receive a one-off payment of 4 UF after the seminar for the work carried out. 

Applications will be open until 21 June at 18:00 hours. If you have any questions or need more information, please write to seminario@fundacionoportunidad.cl 

Together We Learn" is aimed at management teams, English teachers, PIE professionals, educators and kindergarten technicians with the objective of generating changes at an institutional level in their establishments. A total of 77 people will join the initiative created by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad.

On Wednesday 20 April, the "Together We Learn" course was formally launched in the municipality of Nacimiento, dedicated to educational communities that wish to promote the learning of English among their students from an early age.

In this course created by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, 77 people will participate, including management teams, English teachers, PIE professionals, educators and nursery technicians. "Together We Learn" will have two main objectives. On the one hand, to analyse methodologies and strategies to promote English from different roles in the school and also to develop an English improvement project for the school, using the methodology of continuous improvement.

To this end, participants will have at their disposal online trainingmodules, live classes and virtual meetings for reflection and advice, to finalise their activities in November.

Tatiana González, coordinator of Together We Learn, explained that "the contents of our course are based on the learning acquired over the years by the We Learn program. Our strategies and tools have been tested in different educational contexts, and that is why we know that the results obtained can help teachers to achieve their objectives in the process of teaching and learning English".

He added that "Together We Learn" was designed "with the aim of providing concrete tools and strategies to all educational communities that want to promote English in their schools".

36 young people from Liceo Carlos Mondaca and Colegio Edmundo Vidal Cárdenas will be part of the initiative that we carry out together with the U.S. Embassy in Chile and will have 360 hours of formal instruction in this language over two years.

36 high school students from Liceo Carlos Mondaca and Colegio Edmundo Vidal Cárdenas in the commune of Vicuña were awarded scholarships to participate in We Learn Access, an English language program that will seek to enhance their English language skills.

The aim is that in the two years of the program they will be able to reach level B1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). At this level, students will be able to introduce themselves, converse on everyday and personal topics, describe images and people, understand short and long texts of medium complexity, write informal communications, express opinions on specific topics and understand medium-length speeches.

This extracurricular course is a collaboration between Fundación Educacional Oportunidad and the U.S. Embassy in Chile. It has a duration of 180 hours per year, will be taught by two English teachers, one for each group, and will have a local coordination team and the collaboration of the management teams of both schools involved, to monitor and support the development of the program.

The head of the We Learn program at Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Paz Collao, explained that "English is a communicative tool that, if it is not used, it is forgotten. It is important to continue to promote its learning and practice at all levels of schooling, from early childhood to secondaryeducation".

He added that "this program is also framed in the development of very important skills for the young people who participate, for example, youth leadership and the development of local identity. The aim is for them to continue to improve their level of English, but always in a context of comprehensive training".  

ABOUT WE LEARN

In response to the need for improvements in the teaching of English in public education at a national level, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad and its We Learn program have been collaborating with schools in the Elqui Valley since 2006 with the aim of promoting the teaching of English from an early age.

In addition, thanks to the collaboration with the US Embassy in Chile, since 2018 it has been implementing the We Learn Access scholarship program, to provide continuity to the development of students in this language at secondary level.

These are young people from the Gabriela Mistral and Luis Cruz Martínez high schools who will receive 360 hours of formal instruction in this language. It is expected that, upon graduating from this course carried out with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Chile, they will be able to reach an intermediate level of linguistic competence in the language.

In this world of global communication, English language skills provide multiple opportunities for development and access to various fields of knowledge. At the national level, it has become evident that there is a need to promote the teaching of this language from an early age and to constantly support students throughout their careers in order to improve.

In this context, and thanks to the collaboration between Fundación Educacional Oportunidad and the U.S. Embassy in Chile, 36 high school students from the Gabriela Mistral and Luis Cruz Martínez high schools in the commune of Puerto Natales were awarded scholarships to participate in We Learn Access, an English language program that will seek to enhance their English language skills.

The aim is that in the two years of the program they will be able to reach level B1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). At this level, students will be able to introduce themselves, converse on everyday and personal topics, describe images and people, understand short and long texts of medium complexity, write informal communications, express opinions on specific topics and understand medium-length speeches.

This extracurricular course has a duration of 180 hours per year, will be taught by two English teachers, one for each group, and will have a local coordination team and the collaboration of the management teams of both schools involved, to monitor and support the development of the program during the year.

The head of the We Learn program at Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Paz Collao, explained that "English is a communicative tool that, if it is not used, it is forgotten. It is important to continue to promote its learning and practice at all levels of schooling, from early childhood to secondary education".

He added that "this program is also framed in the development of very important skills for the young people who participate, for example, youth leadership and the development of local identity. The aim is for them to continue to improve their level of English, but always in a context of comprehensive training".

ABOUT WE LEARN

We Learn Access began to be developed in 2018 in the communes of Paihuano and Vicuña in the Coquimbo region and this year will have its first version in the commune of Puerto Natales, where Fundación Educacional Oportunidad has been implementing the We Learn program in pre-school and primary education since 2019.

15 professionals from educational centres in the municipalities of Carahue, Nueva Imperial, Toltén, Teodoro Schmidt and Saavedra, together with the territorial early education coordinator of the Local Service, are taking part in this professional development program for educational leaders. The aim of the program is to generate concrete improvements in educational processes, focused on ensuring the quality of teaching and learning for children.

On Monday 4 April, the Diploma Course "Leadership for continuous improvement for JUNJI VTF kindergarten directors" began. The program involves 15 professionals from educational centres, together with the territorial coordinator of early education of the Local Service Costa Araucanía, in the region of La Araucanía.

The diploma course, given by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad in agreement with C Líder: Centro Asociativo para el Liderazgo Educacional, seeks to develop leadership skills for the continuous improvement of the processes of educational units, through the application of tools for leadership and continuous improvement in the development of a project to improve the practices of classroom teams.

Carmen Montecinos, executive director of C Líder, highlighted that "Fundación Educacional Oportunidad has a vast experience developing high-impact projects to improve educational opportunities for children in the early education stage. For C Líder, this collaboration is very valuable, as it allows us to have a greater reach in terms of the levels of the educational system that we hope to support through our various training activities. Supporting the development of educational units in the SLEP Costa Araucanía demonstrates our commitment to strengthening public education.

The academic coordinator of the Diploma, Lorena Espinoza, explained that the relevance of the program lies in the fact that "it is a unique instance, because usually head teachers usually participate in training in contexts that do not respond in such a specific way to their reality. Last year, the students of this diploma course told us that this was a unique experience, since, as kindergarten educators, we have to adapt to the models developed for primary and secondary education".

He added that "what is remarkable about this methodology is that they work on a real problem in their educational centre and apply what they have learnt in their management, the short and fast improvement cycles mean that the students see results. This, together with the accompaniment of a tutor, who guides them in this new learning process, makes them feel motivated and supported".

The course has a duration of 56 chronological hours and the directors will participate in theoretical and practical sessions, reflection activities, feedback and design. For this, there will be face-to-face and remote instances.

José Mauricio Gutiérrez Millanao,in charge of training and professional development at the Local Public Education Service Costa Araucanía, highlighted that this is "an instance of professional development that is directly related to the new reality that kindergartens are facing, mainly those that have official recognition or are in the process of obtaining it, that have to understand the functioning of an Improvement Plan and that are beginning to be incorporated into the teaching career".

José Mauricio added that he hopes that "at the end of the training, our kindergarten directors will have a broad vision of the process of continuous improvement and how the Educational Improvement Plans support it".

The directors participating in this diploma course are from the nurseries and kindergartens Los Rieles, Omilen Kuyen, Conejito Blanco, Mis Primeros Pasos, Los Pecesitos Nehuentue, Taiñ Ruka, Antü Newén, Las Golondrinas, Meli Rewe Kayupul, El Esfuerzo, Agua Luna, Semillitas del Sembrador, Los Pitufos, Los Cisnes and Los Pecesitos del Budi.

In days when citizens and civil society are rapidly seeking to have their initiatives included in the new constitution, 19 foundations grouped in Acción Colectiva por la Educación are calling for the urgent collection of 15,000 signatures to ensure the right to comprehensive, quality, inclusive and free education.

A total of 19 educational foundations from civil society, grouped in Acción Colectiva por la Educación, presented the Iniciativa Popular de Norma (IPN) "Por una educación integral, de calidad, inclusiva, equitativa y gratuita", with which they seek to reach 15,000 citizen signatures so that the articles can be discussed in the Constitutional Convention and incorporated into the new Constitution.

This is initiative 43.926, which proposes seven points to be included in the new Magna Carta, from the fact that the State must guarantee all people the right to a comprehensive, equitable, inclusive, non-discriminatory, quality education, with a gender perspective, and with territorial, cultural and linguistic relevance. The proposal also recognises the role of teachers in the new Constitution, ensuring initial and continuous training and adequate working conditions for teachers, male and female educators, something unprecedented in very few constitutions worldwide.

In addition, it establishes that "the State shall ensure compulsory and free education between the second level of kindergarten transition and secondary education, extending free education from the nursery school level and, progressively, to higher education" (check the full article here).

The articles are based on the results of the citizens' process "Tenemos que Hablar de Educación" (We need to talk about education) - also promoted by Acción Colectiva between 2020 and 2021 - which involved the participation of nearly 8,000 teachers, parents, students, managers and funders from all over the country.

"For us at Acción Colectiva por la Educación, it is very satisfying to lead this Popular Initiative for Standard, because in addition to being born from the educational communities themselves, it also has the support of 19 organisations with years of experience in the field, talking and getting to know closely the different realities that coexist in our education system, from kindergarten education, hospital schools, rural education, among others. This makes it a solid and grounded proposal, created with and for the educational communities of our country," said Gonzalo Plaza, representative of Acción Colectiva por la Educación and Executive Director of Fundación 99.

The popular initiative already has nearly 3,000 signatures of support and has the backing of various figures linked to the field of education and children on social networks. However, they need to reach at least 15,000 signatures for it to be discussed in the Convention.

"Today more than ever, the children and young people of our country need our support. We cannot leave education out of the discussion. We invite you to support this popular initiative for a standard that was built from a participatory process from which the voices of thousands of people from educational communities in our country were rescued. Let's make those dreams and desires of achieving quality, equitable, inclusive and free education for all a reality", said Marcela Marzolo, Executive Director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad and also representative of Acción Colectiva por la Educación.

The organisations driving this Popular Initiative of Norma, as part of Acción Colectiva por la Educación are: Elige Educar, Fundación 99, Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Educación 2020, the CIAE of the University of Chile, Súmate, Crecer con todos, Mis Talentos, Arzobispado de Santiago, Fundación Chile, Tu clase tu país, Fundación Portas, Co-crecer, ONG Canales, Fundación Re-Imagina, Diálogo País, Didaksis, Fundación Origen and Momento Constituyente.

What is a Popular Norm Initiative? The IPN is one of the mechanisms for popular participation in the drafting of the New Constitution. It is a suggestion of a text that, with the support of 15,000 signatures from at least 4 regions of the country, can be discussed and voted directly by the Constitutional Convention. Organisations and individuals can submit an initiative, and after being analysed and admitted, it can be disseminated in order to gather the necessary support so that it can be part of the construction of the New Constitution. Each person has the right to support 7 IPN.

How to support Collective Action for Education's IPN? Go to this link, on the right hand side, you will find a green button that says "Support". When you click on this button, the system will ask you to authenticate yourself, either by entering your unique password or the serial number of your ID card. Once you have done this you will return to our IPN website and just click on the green button. To support 6 other IPNs you can click here and search with keywords for the topics you are most interested in. The deadline for signing up is 01 February.

Nearly 100 educational units of the National Kindergarten Board (Junji) in the regions of Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Maule, La Araucanía and Magallanes will seek, through various strategies tested by Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, to promote kindergarten attendance, so that children have permanent and continuous access to quality learning.

It is no mystery that the pandemic affected the education system at every level, especially those children who went from in-person attendance to remote educational experiences or, even more so, those who were not even able to enter kindergarten or school when their age was due.

Against this backdrop, and with the aim of ensuring access to quality kindergarten education, the National Kindergarten Board (Junji) proposed, among other actions, to return to the attendance levels achieved before Covid-19's irruption, which in 2019 reached 71.9% in directly administered classic kindergartens, and which to date has averaged 20.7%.

In order to highlight the importance of regular kindergarten attendance in children's learning, and to foster a collaborative culture that promotes coordinated and articulated work, Junji will sign an agreement with Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, with whom it will implement a pilot program during 2022 in the regions of Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Maule, La Araucanía and Magallanes, in the first instance, whose objective will be to promote this collaborative culture.

"These almost two years of the pandemic have made clear the importance of face-to-face kindergarten education, which is where irreplaceable interactions and learning take place. For this reason, we believe that the work to be done with the Foundation will allow families to understand the importance of children attending and remaining in kindergarten," said Junji's executive vice-president, Adriana Gaete.

To this end, the Foundation has proposed to JUNJI to share strategies and lessons learned from its "A Good Start" program, both to the professionals of the Educational Quality department and to the technical and educational teams at the national level. The aim of this collaboration will be to transfer knowledge related to the promotion of attendance and permanence, and thus make progress in reducing chronic absenteeism, focusing on the child through a process of training and support. In this way, interventions developed and tested by the Foundation in hundreds of public schools across the country will be shared.

Some of the issues that will be addressed in this pilot program are related to changing the perspective on group attendance and focusing on particular cases within the educational communities. It will also aim to generate strategies that encourage and safeguard attendance, with the creation of attendance committees being one of the strategies that will be implemented to reverse those cases of high non-attendance.

The executive director of Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, Marcela Marzolo, explained that "for our foundation this collaboration is key, as it opens up a space for us to share what we have been building for years through our work promoting school attendance in kindergarten levels in public schools that are part of the Good Start program".

He added that "this alliance will allow us to learn from Junji's work and to join forces and generate learning to build a proposal to promote attendance in kindergartens and nurseries".

51 teachers of this language and management teams from seven schools of the Municipal Corporation of Puerto Natales met in person to review the progress achieved with the We Learn program and project the challenges they will take on together in 2022.

This December 17th was a special day for English teachers and management teams from seven schools of the Puerto Natales Municipal Corporation, who met to review the work done during the year with the aim of promoting English learning in children and young people of the commune.

The schools Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins, Coronel Santiago Bueras, Capitán Juan Ladrillero, Baudilia Avendaño de Yousuff, Fronteriza Dorotea, Miguel Montecinos and Seno Obstrucción work together with Fundación Educacional Oportunidad's We Learn program, which focuses on improving the quality of English language education from an early age. In addition, this program has fostered network collaboration and has linked these schools with their peers in the Elqui Valley, in the Coquimbo Region.

The progress and achievements made during the year in this local and regional exchange and collaboration were evaluated in a learning session which, according to Pablo Muñoz, head of Continuous Improvement and Evaluation at Fundación Educacional Oportunidad, sought to "celebrate the achievements made during the year in terms of the professional development of teachers and management teams in the teaching of English and also in terms of student learning".

She added that "we reflect on these issues based on data in order to be able to draw lessons that we will incorporate and that will allow us to continue improving the English language learning of children and young people".

The We Learn program began to be implemented in 2019 in Puerto Natales thanks to an agreement with the Undersecretary of Early Childhood Education. The head of the program, Paz Collao, explained that "thanks to the support of the Undersecretary, we have been able to improve our English curriculum proposal at the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten levels, leaving a great input that we hope will contribute to formalising the teaching of the language at these levels through public policies". 

He added that "the Puerto Natales Municipal Corporation has led the local implementation of the program in a very successful way. Its commitment to the education of children in Puerto Natales translates into the generation of collaborative work between teachers, management teams, education assistants and educators".

In closing, he added that "this has been fertile ground for innovation, the use of data for decision-making and continuous teacher and management training processes. We are happy to continue collaborating with them in the coming years, to see the We Learn Puerto Natales Improvement Network grow even more".