Aistear offers an umbrella framework of good curriculum practice to support children’s well-being, learning and development.   The framework uses four interconnected themes -  Well-being; Identity and Belonging; Communicating; and Exploring and Thinking. Regardless of the ethos, size or type of early childhood service, Aistear can be used as a guiding framework for providing an emergent child-led curriculum for children 0-6 years through play. This programme offers either a first introduction to Aistear for Childminders or for new members of staff who may be unfamiliar with the framework. In addition, the programme acts as a refresher programme for existing staff who want to reflect on various aspects of their practice under the Aistear principles, themes and learning goals. In addition to the framework structure, the programme contains practical examples of Aistear in practice for all age groups and is suitable for those working with babies, toddlers and young children.   

‘MOSAIC Educator’ is an innovative, secure, child documentation system on a cloud-based app designed especially for early childhood services. The MOSAIC platform contains a range of pedagogical tools to support the work of the professional educator. Designed as an electronic storybook, MOSAIC brings together multiple components of quality to capture the magic of early learning. Through the interconnecting ‘MOSAIC Family’ App, the early childhood service and nominated family members can access regular updates in the form of photographs, videos, learning stories and reports. For children under 3, daily care records are also communicated directly to a parent’s phone or tablet in real time. ‘A Look into MOSAIC’ will provide an overview of the key features of the MOSAIC Educator app. **Please note... this is not a training course, it is for information purposes only. (24 slides)    

This FREE PROGRAMME is for Educators using MOSAIC. The short presentation is aimed at providing MOSAIC users with a go to resource around the emergent planning system on MOSAIC Educator. Firstly the presentation will explain how emergent planning sits within the MOSAIC Documentation System. Then guidance on actually completing an emergent plan using MOSAIC EDUCATOR is provided.   Full CPD training programmes on 'Understanding Emergent Curriculum' and 'Implementating an Emergent Child-Led Curriculum' can be found at www.earlyedcpd.ie 

This short programme is aimed at those working in school age childcare settings with the specific focus of creating weekly activity plans for the school age childcare service.   This programme highlights the importance of having a well-rounded programme of activities using 5 broad based activity headings to support holistic experiences. The programme demonstrates how to plot these on a weekly plan especially designed for a school age group.   2 sample week plans, a blank template plan, guideline notes and a certificate of participation are included.     

Learning stories are a meaningful method of assessment for learning in early childhood that capture the uniqueness of the individual child. The ‘Creating Learning Stories’ programme will provide Educators with practical guidance on this wonderful pedagogical technique for early childhood education. The programme is presented in 5 short components - each one building on the learning from the one before and packed with practical examples. Participants will discover how to structure, compile, and use learning stories as a meaningful assessment tool, to engage parents and to showcase children’s individual strengths, interests and needs. Components are: Assessment for Learning in Early Education  The Learning Story Approach  Techniques for Educators Bringing Learning Stories to Life - multiple examples and formats  Engaging Parents with Learning Stories. The Resource Documents section contains printable handouts to support the programme content and a Certificate of Participation is saved to the educator profile on completion. *PLEASE READ YOUR 'NOTES FOR THE COURSE' BEFORE STARTING YOUR PROGRAMME*

Policies and procedures are one of the most important sets of documents required to operate an early childhood service. However, having the most professional and comprehensive policy manual is of no use if the policies it contains are not being implemented. Likewise, procedures that outline and guide everyday practice do little to inform and support staff if they are unfamiliar with them. This practical programme will give you all the tools you need to carry out a review of the mandatory policies and procedures required by Tusla as part of your Quality Plan. You will also get tips and strategies about engaging staff with policies and ensuring consistent application across the early childhood setting.  Components include:  1. Why Policies and Procedures? 2. Which Policies and Procedures are Mandatory?  3. Policy review and implementation (use guide).   *A comprehensive handout on policy review is included in the Reference Document Section.    Please note: this programme will take around 1.5 hours to complete. However, the policy review itself will be a longer piece of work if the tools provided are applied.