Nursery Annexes and Parent Involvement in Hillfields, Coventry, England.

This paper tells the story of the implementation of the first inner city Community Education Project in the disadvantaged Hillfields area of Coventry, England. The population of the "ghetto-like" Hillfields, numbering 20,000, was made up largely of families from Asia with small groups from the West Indies, Ireland and Europe. A survey revealed that whereas there was only one preschool facility in the area, there were as many preschool-aged children (0-4.5 years) in the Hillfields area as there were children aged 5-16. An informal training program emphasizing "hands on" experiences was established to train mothers as paraprofessionals to staff planned annexes in the area to supplement the Nursery. Trained paraprofessionals were given supervised practice in a mobile preschool annex, a standard English double-decker bus which had been converted into a classroom and equipped with toys, picture books, sand and water trays, curtains and a toilet. When a need for a preschool became apparent at a location, suitable premises were sought and the bus moved on. Parents were encouraged to stay with their children at the preschools and many activities for parents, such as adult education classes, a fathers' group, telephone networks, and cultural awareness programs, were established. Compared with 1971, six times as many children now receive a half-time place in nursery school. (Author/RH)