The CCI approach is to place the people we work with at the centre, in the role of researchers and experimenters. Artists and creative practitioners work alongside participants as facilitators – allowing them freedom in the form of materials, spaces and time.
We are inspired by the Reggio Emilia approach to preschool education, which was started by the parents of children in villages around Reggio Emilia in Italy after World War II. It has come to symbolise a carefully articulated and collaborative approach to the care and education of young children – an approach that influences all of CCI’s practice.
We worked closely with Refocus Cambridge (a network of early years educators, artists and professionals who have been inspired by the child-centred approach to pre-school education developed in Reggio Emilia) to bring The Hundred Languages of Children exhibition to Cambridge in 2004.
More than 1,000 people visited the 2004 exhibition, which also included interactive lectures and workshops, at the Kaetsu Educational and Cultural Centre in Cambridge.
An evaluation of the exhibition – Enemies of Boredom – provided vital inspiration for CCI’s professional training courses for teachers.
I realised that all I needed was to plant a suggestion seed and let the child grow their own ideas.
Teacher