Early Childhood Ireland's Podcast

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we are delighted to be joined by Laura Dagger, from the National Child Safeguarding Office. She discusses the legal responsibilities of Early Years, School Age Care and registered Childminding settings in relation to Child Safeguarding. She outlines the requirements of the Safeguarding Statement and finally stresses the fact that Safeguarding is everyone's res...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we have a conversation with two passionate educators about children thriving outside in nature. Johanna Davis and Mary-Ellen O'Sullivan, from Seedling Nature Schools in Limerick share their experiences of children developing self-regulation and a value for the environment in their outdoor setting. 

Send us Fan Mail Muireann Ranta, from the South East Technological University joins us for this episode of Early Childhood Ireland's podcast. We discuss how we can encourage children to develop a sense of wonderment about the natural world from their very earliest days and how this sense of wonder supports education for sustainability. The resource developed by OMEP Ireland, called Sustainabi...

Send us Fan Mail Early Childhood Ireland is delighted to have launched our newest member resource, called Eco-Emotions, funded by National Pyjama Day. In this episode of  Early Childhood Ireland's podcast we chat to Learning Strategy Manager, Milica Atanackovic about why we developed the Eco-Emotions suite of resources and webinar series. She also discusses initial finding from on member surv...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we discuss the findings and implications of the recent research carried out by Stranmillis University College on behalf of Early Childhood Ireland. We chat with Dr Suzanne McCartney, from Stranmillis and with Liz Kerrins from Early Childhood Ireland about the study, entitled  The determinants of experiences and outcomes for children and young people in Childminding...

Send us Fan Mail In this, the first episode of our new season, we tease out the 4 Asks for Children to Elevate Early Years and School Age Care to the Status of Primary Education which are at the centre of our Budget 2025 Submission. We are delighted to be joined by Frances Byrne, Director of Policy at Early Childhood Ireland. We discuss the importance of a sustained and sustainable workforce, effe...

Send us Fan Mail In the final episode of the series shining a light on children's rights, we chat with Prof. Emer Ring, Dean of Education at Mary Immaculate College. We discuss the elements we need to think about as we  seek to develop a shared understanding of what inclusion means for us as early childhood educators and how that lens has evolved and changed over time.  Emer also talks about...

Send us Fan Mail Continuing our series on Children's Rights, in this week's episode we talk to Dr Sheila Long, from South East Technological University about Global Citizen Education. We discuss what Global Citizen Education is and how we can support this in settings. 

Send us Fan Mail Tuesday,  11 June 2024 has been designated as International Day of Play, recognising and celebrating that play is a fundamental right for children.  In this bonus episode of Early Childhood Ireland's podcast, we asked Prof. Nóirín Hayes, from Trinity College Dublin for her views on what play is and why it is fundamental for children. 

Send us Fan Mail In this new series of Early Childhood Ireland’s podcast, which focusses on Children’s Rights, we are delighted to be joined by Prof. Nóirín Hayes, Visiting Professor at the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin. In the episode we discuss what it means to have a children’s rights lens along with why and how children should be active participants in their own education.

Send us Fan Mail In the fourth and final episode of the OWLET series of Early Childhood Ireland’s podcast we ask our Early Childhood Specialist, DR Christina Egan Marnell some of the questions posed to us about using the OWLET resources. Have you wondered how to use the lullabies if you’re not familiar with the languages of the songs? Tune in to find out!  

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode of Early Childhood Ireland's podcast Mairéad Gallagher, music teacher and director of Wriggletto discusses how the OWLET lullabies can be used throughout every day by educators and parents in simple ways to support children sense of cultural identity and awareness. 

Send us Fan Mail In Early Childhood Ireland’s podcast this week we chat to Leah Ahern de Leastar, Early Years educator and lecturer about music. We discuss how music is a universal language and how we can weave music through the day. Leah also reminds us that it is about process, not product, we can all enjoy music whether we are great singers or not. To read more about how lullabies and music can...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we chat with Dr Christina Egan Marnell and Maria Cleary from Early Childhood Ireland about our beautiful new member resource called OWLET: Lullabies of the World . This resource supports babies and young children to practice language, develop their own positive identity, and develop an understanding of the identity of others. Many children aged 1 to 2 years hear fo...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of our podcast we chat with Frances Byrne, Director of Policy at Early Childhood Ireland. We tease out the findings of Early Childhood Ireland's Barometer 2024. Now in its seventh year, the Barometer is an annual opinion poll, conducted nationwide by Red C market research and polling company,  to gauge public attitudes to Early Years care and education.  You c...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Early Childhood Ireland’s podcast Dr Lynn J McNair, from the University of Edinburgh and Kathleen Tuite from Early Childhood Ireland outline what Practitioner Inquiry is and how becoming a Practitioner Inquirer supports the building of bridges between theory and practice. Kathleen also discusses the new Practitioner Inquiry programme which Early Childhood Irelan...

Send us Fan Mail In this final episode of our Delving into Adventurous Play series, Early Childhood Ireland member Dairíona Ní Mhuirí outlines her approach to Adventurous Play and how children in her Naíonra (Irish language preschool) use real tools and fire. She describes how every child is able to play the way they want to play in the outdoors and discusses the benefits of this for relationships...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of our Delving into Adventurous Play series, Niki Buchan Educational Consultant at Natural Learning Educational Consultancy outlines the importance of adventurous play  and the role this has in physical development. She discusses some of the challenges and gives really practical suggestions on introducing real tools and fire to children.  In this episode Niki refer...

Send us Fan Mail In this first episode of a new series, Delving into Adventurous Play, Chloe Keegan, from Early Childhood Ireland discusses what adventurous play is and why children need to be challenged in their play, with specific reference to supporting children to use real tools. 

Send us Fan Mail Our World of Languages: Episode three In this episode Liz Kerrins, from Early Childhood Ireland and Dr Francesca La Morgia, from Mother Tongues discuss the changing terminology around languages and why the term plurilingualism is more inclusive and respectful.  They refer to the OWL provocations pack, which you can check out at https://www.earlychildhoodireland.ie/learning/owl-pro...

Send us Fan Mail Our World of Languages: Episode two In episode two of this series looking at multilingualism, Suzanne McCarthy, Education Officer at Mother Tongues outlines her research on supporting heritage languages with older children.  She outlines some ideas on how we support children to develop a positive sense of Identity and Belonging through their settings valuing their home languages a...

Send us Fan Mail Our World of Languages: Episode one   In this first episode of a series where we will explore multilingualism, we talk to Dr Christina Egan Marnell, Early Childhood Specialist, at Early Childhood Ireland about her experiences working with children and families  who speak different languages to the language spoken in a setting. She provides useful strategies to support us to value...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode Fiona Kelleher, from Early Childhood Ireland speaks to us about the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) Conference held recently in Lisbon. She chats about what Early Childhood Ireland brought to the event,  what we gained from it and how we are sharing these learnings with our members. She outlines the various research projects the Ear...

Send us Fan Mail Aistear, the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework was initially launched in 2009. Much has changed in the Early Years sector since then. To reflect  these changes Aistear is being updated. To take us through the development and consultation process we were joined by Dr Sharon Skehill. Sharon is an Education Officer on the Early Childhood Team at the National Council for Curriculum...

Send us Fan Mail As part of our strategic policy work, we were delighted to host a Meet the Members event this Thursday, 5 October, where a group of Early Childhood Ireland members  met with key members of the Oireachtas to discuss our Budget 2024 Submission. There was a large turnout and we were delighted to chat with Kathleen Funchion TD, Dara Calleary TD, Jennifer Whitmore TD and David Stanton...