Early Childhood Ireland's Podcast

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we delve into the new suite of courses, called Elevate, on Early Childhood Ireland’s Learning Hub. Most of our members are aware of this wonderful member benefit. Using the Learning Hub to support staff training can save members substantial amounts of money, as all the courses are free to members and their staff (apart from a nominal fee to cover some practical asp...

Send us Fan Mail Every year, around this time organisations like Early Childhood Ireland make submissions to government in advance of the Budget announcement in October. As we prepare this submission, we look at what our sector needs to ensure quality for children, taking into account what provision is already in place, what our members are telling us and national and international research into E...

Send us Fan Mail In this, the final episode of the current series on outdoor play, Chloe Keegan, from Early Childhood Ireland talks about her visits to settings. These site visits were part of the research we did into outdoor play provision.  She discusses practical ways to make nature and challenge part of children's experiences. She also refers to the upcoming nature pedagogy programme, org...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Early Childhood Ireland’s podcast, Frances Byrne, from Early Childhood Ireland discusses the events at our Valuing Outdoor Play conference in March. This episode was recorded on the day that ‘When the Roof is the Sky’, Tusla’s Guidance for the registration and inspection of Early Years services operating outdoors, was launched. Frances welcomes this guidance and...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of our series about outdoor play, Jo Flinn outlines her approach to outdoor play and the experiences and opportunities for  play children have in the large outdoor spaces at her setting in County Limerick. She makes special mention of the benefits for autistic children and children with other additional needs. 

Send us Fan Mail In episode two of this series of Early Childhood Ireland's podcast series on outdoor play, we talk to Lee Herlihy, from Horizons Montessori School, in Cork City. She discusses how her approach, and the value she places on outdoor play and learning has evolved over time.  She outlines how she now uses her outdoor space, which is a typically sized, urban garden. 

Send us Fan Mail In the new series of Early Childhood Ireland's podcast we are exploring outdoor play. In this episode, Liz Kerrins, Director of Research at Early Childhood Ireland outlines the finding of our recent member survey on outdoor play spaces. 

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Maria Cleary and Milica Atanackovic from Early Childhood Ireland chat to Máire Corbett about the What Works Sharing Knowledge Fund from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. This programme has recently enabled us to expand our existing Learning Hub. We discuss the benefits of this project for the Early Years sector, our members,...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of our podcast we chat with Frances Byrne, Director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigning at Early Childhood Ireland. We tease out the findings of Early Childhood Ireland's Barometer 2023. Now in it's sixth year, the Barometer is an annual opinion poll, conducted nationwide by Red C market research and polling company,  to gauge public attitudes to Early Ye...

Send us Fan Mail To mark International Women's Day, the Irish Examiner published it's 100 women of 2023. Early Childhood Ireland CEO Teresa Heeney featured on this list. In this special episode Teresa tells us what this recognition means to her, discusses the work of Early Childhood Ireland and tells us about some of the women who have influenced her in her work and in her life. 

Send us Fan Mail Bringing our current series on the Reggio Emilia approach to a close, in this episode we feature a discussion with Milica Atanackovic, Membership, Excellence and Learning Manager at Early Childhood Ireland where she answers questions submitted by listeners to the earlier episodes in the series. We cover the ‘special rights’ ethos, the transition to primary school and how the ethos...

Send us Fan Mail In episode three of our series about the ethos and philosophy of the Reggio Emilia approach, Dr Rita Melia, from the Atlantic Technological University, discusses her PhD research into how as educators, our image of the child influences the way we interact with children and support their learning. This series of Early Childhood Ireland's podcast is proudly supported by Arachas...

Send us Fan Mail Continuing our Reggio Emilia series, in this episode Orlagh Doyle, from Carraig Briste and Killegney, in Wexford, and Anne Warren, from The Learning Tree in Dublin, chat about their recent study visit to Reggio Emilia. They discuss their experiences in the Infant and Toddler and Preschool settings in the city and how they plan to implement their learning in their own settings.  Th...

Send us Fan Mail The Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education is renowned worldwide.  In this series, we explore an approach that has at its heart an image of strong, capable children and is rooted in community. In the first episode of the series, we look back at the origins of the approach and how it is constantly evolving. Milica Atanackovic, Membership, Excellence and Learning Manage...

Send us Fan Mail In this final episode of the Communicating series of Early Childhood Ireland's podcast, Liz Smith,  Creative social inclusion and learning officer, at ReCreate shares her thoughts on how creativity empowers children of all ages to express themselves and how it also supports inclusion. This series of Early Childhood Ireland's podcast is proudly supported by Arachas Insura...

Send us Fan Mail Continuing the Early Childhood Ireland’s podcast series on Communicating, in this episode, Máire Corbett has a conversation with Jackie Maguire, Early Years artist and consultant, about how music is one of the hundred languages of children, along with ways to introduce children to the joy of music.  This series of Early Childhood Ireland's podcast is proudly supported by Arac...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of the Communicating series, Dr Francesca La Morgia, from Mother Tongues, discusses how we create an environment that welcomes multiple home languages, and how we can support meaningful communication where language is a barrier. We also talk about supporting parents and educators to feel confident about using their home language and how this supports a sense of ide...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode from our STEAM series, Sandra O’Neill, from Dublin City University discusses what STEAM means in early childhood, outlines some barriers to the introduction of these areas to children and explores some simple ways we can start to ensure children see these subjects as fun and playful. 

Send us Fan Mail In this series of Early Childhood Ireland’s podcast, we are looking at Communicating. We are familiar with the Reggio Emilia term The Hundred Languages of Children. So, over the coming episodes we will look at some of the ways in which children communicate and how we can support this more in settings. In the first episode of this series, we are joined by Cliodhna Noonan, Artist in...

Send us Fan Mail In the final episode of this series Dr Leah O’Toole, Assistant Professor in Early Childhood Education in the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education, Maynooth University and Sylwia O’Rourke Early Years tutor and graduate of the BA in Early Childhood Teaching and Learning discuss the benefits of action research and identifies next steps for educators.  Early Chi...

Send us Fan Mail In episode 2 of this series, we chat with Jacinta Sheerin, Director of Membership, Excellence and Learning and Milica Atanackovic,  Membership, Excellence and Learning Manager, at Early Childhood Ireland,  about the research that informs our work and how our new strategic plan supports this.

Send us Fan Mail Early Childhood Ireland’s podcast is back for a new season, with a new sponsor, Arachas Insurance. This series focuses on aspects of policy and research and in this episode, Frances Byrne, Director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigning at Early Childhood Ireland takes us through Early Childhood Ireland’s Budget 2023 Submission: Time for Transformation.   

Send us Fan Mail In this episode we discuss how to support the development of secure mental health for children and also the importance of relationships with families.  Our guest is Catherine Maguire, clinical psychologist and infant mental health specialist.  

Send us Fan Mail In this second episode of our series on Wellbeing, we chat with Sharon Byrne from Barnardos about how trauma can impact on children’s wellbeing and how educators can support children to manage challenging events in their lives. We also look at how important it is for educators to be mindful of their own wellbeing as they support children.   

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we are joined by Christina Duff, who is a children and young people’s physical activity, health and play specialist. She is the Schools Physical Activity coordinator at the Irish Heart Foundation. We discuss how we can support the development of fundamental movement skills and give children  of all ages a positive attitude to physical movement.