Some exciting news in today- our grant application to upgrade our natural outdoor space was approved, yippee 😀. We were one of the lucky ones to be granted this and will be putting the money to good use. Watch this space for new additions to our garden.....

First week of camp is over, we had lots of fun indoors and outdoors. Here are some photos of what the boys and girls did during camp. There are a few spaces left for week two in August (see poster for details), but don't delay booking in as spaces are limited.

Looking forward to summer camp tomorrow starting at 9.30, hopefully the sun will join us but if not we've plenty fun planned for indoors.

Parents often say they'd love to be a fly on the wall and see what the children do every day so here is a tiny snapshot of some of the things they were busy doing this year....

Hard to believe there's another school year over. Well done to all the boys and girls on the great performance this morning, I'm very proud of you, and thanks to all the parents who took time out of their busy lives to celebrate the end of year with us. To all those moving on to "big school", have a great time and remember to come back to visit us and tell all about your new friends. We look forward to welcoming the rest of the children back after the summer holidays and I know ye will be a great help to the new children starting in September. To all the mammies and daddies thanks for your support during the year. It was a pleasure working with your children each day, watching them grow in all areas of development. They all made progress in their own way and at their own pace so be proud of them! Thank you most sincerely for all your beautiful cards, generous gifts and kind words, ye are too good to us. Enjoy the summer ☀️🙂

Thanks so much to all who came to support our fundraiser today and helped raise €171.40 for Down Syndrome Ireland. I hope you all enjoyed the afternoon 🙂

🍦It's that time of year again when the freezer is full of icecream for tomorrow's fundraiser for Down Syndrome Ireland. All welcome. Here's hoping for a day like today ☀️ 🍦

We had a very busy morning digging our potatoes from the veggie patch, cooking, mashing and eating them! We also tried the peas and edible flowers. The children planted these themselves and then watered them each day so they saw the whole process from planting to eating. Some other vegetables not ready yet. After all of this we went for a visit to Scoil Mhairtin with the children starting in September.

Limited places left for this years camps so don't forget to book in if you want your child to attend. Lots of fun planned 😀

#whovaluesus You may have noticed that we were wearing red instead of our uniforms today....it is a national awareness day to highlight the plight of many in the early years sector. We need the government to invest fairly in the sector to ensure quality services are sustainable. Just one example of how the government are treating us (believe me there is a long list but will just mention one example today!) ......currently, we are paid to deliver the ECCE scheme for 38 weeks of the year, 3 hours per day. This leaves us with the remaining 14 weeks unpaid but as you know bills still need to be paid during these unpaid weeks. Rent, rates, insurance and other bills are all payable for 52 weeks. Staff working in an early years setting are entitled to the standard holiday pay and for any time off over that they have to sign for social welfare payments. Considering the time needed to process these forms, the staff may be weeks without pay. Self employed preschool providers are not entitled to anything for these unpaid weeks. However much we love our job it's not always enough, it's the smiling little faces we see everyday that motivate us to keep going. We need the government to consider us as professionals and provide us with a sustainable future. Many highly qualified staff are leaving the sector for more stable employment and who can blame them? #whovaluesus As it is international children's day we had to celebrate with all the children this morning so made some rice krispie buns.

We had a lovely morning on our school tour at Tir na Si, the rain tried to spoil our fun at times but we didn't let it! Thankfully our activities were well timed around the heavy showers. Hope all the boys are girls are relaxing after the busy morning 😀.