Curriculum

Programs Offered

At Chatterbox Childcare we provide both the ECCE and NCS Government Schemes.

ECCE

This scheme is a free sessional preschool class for children aged between 3 years and 6 years of age. In general, children are eligible for the free preschool year if they are aged between 2yrs 9mths and 3yrs 8mths on 1 September of the year that they will be starting.

Fee Paying preschool

We do offer a number of part-time places in our preschool for children that may not be eligible for the ECCE program initially. Parents can avail of this service for a min of 2 mornings a week. The price is in our pricing section.

NCS

The National Childcare Scheme is a new Government led initiative to help reduce the costs of childcare. In order to qualify you need to apply for a My Gov ID and apply through www.ncs.ie This website can calculate how much of a reduction you are eligible for on your child(ren’s) fees.

Our Menu

Our food is supplied by Moon & Spoon. Our menu’s change each week are on display in our reception area. What your child eats is also logged in their profile on the Child Paths App.

Curriculum

Chatterbox Childcare follows Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework and Síolta, The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education.

Both frameworks targeted age range is from birth to six years.

Framework	Purpose	Age	Early Years Settings	Audience
Síolta	· To improve the quality of early childhood services for children and families	· Birth to six years	· All early years settings including infant classes in primary schools	· Practitioners who care for and educate children from birth to six years
				· Other professional who work with children and their families
Aistear	· To provide challenging and enjoyable experience so that all children can grow and develop as competent and confident learners within loving and nurturing relationship with others	· Birth to six years	· All early years settings including children’s own homes and infant classes in primary school	· All adults who care for and educate children from birth to six years – parents and practitioner
				· Other professional who work with children and their families

**taken from Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework**

Play Based Curriculum:

We operate a Play Based Curriculum across all of our centre. The importance of Play cannot be under estimated. Through play babies and young children learn to explore and understand the world around them. As their play skills develop we can learn to see just what they have learned and what they are trying to understand.

By using this curriculum, our educators can guide your child’s play by designing and implementing learning activities that encourage your child’s emerging interests.

Watching Your Child’s Progress

Using the frameworks of Síolta and Aistear our educators will observe your child so that they can build and designing activities based on their emerging interests. They do this by watching, listening and talking to your child.

Staff keep in touch with families through our Child Paths App. Here you can see what your child has been up too. We take photos and keep a learning journal of your child’s work throughout the year so you can see how they are progressing. Staff are always open to discuss any concerns or just a check in on your child with you.

Our staff also use Child Paths to update and maintain monthly observations, daily routines and photographs of your child and their artwork. This allows parents to view their child’s portfolio from their home, work or anywhere through a secure individual login.

Before your child transitions to primary school, we implement a “Getting ready for school” program which helps to prepare your child for the move. We can provide a transition passport for their new school should they wish to avail of one.