BALLINAMONEY CHILDCARE PROJECT LTD
Ballinamoney Childcare Project Ltd is a community run service, which opened its doors on Monday 22nd October 2007. We are open 5 days a week and 48 weeks of the year, excluding Bank Holidays. We cater for children from 4 months to 13 years, with 95 children currently attending over the course of each week. It is run by a voluntary committee of 7 local parents, wh
o bring their various life/work experiences to ensuring that the service is run well. We are notified to the HSE and have qualified staff in each room. 3 staff are currently studying FETAC (QQI) L5, 7 staff are studying FETAC (QQI) L6 and 1 staff member is studying a BA in Early Childhood Studies (Level 8), all on a part time basis. Staff are constantly renewing First Aid, Food Hygiene, Always Children First, Manual Handling and Fire Safety Training and so are very engaged in providing the best care for the children attending our service. We have added to and adjusted our service over the years to meet the needs of the community. The service offers the CCS, ECCE and TEC payment schemes to keep prices as low as possible for parents. The service now includes:
• Breakfast Club ~ 8-9.10 am where children can have their breakfast & play games & then staff walk them over to school
• Pre School ~ we have a morning session from 9-12 pm and an afternoon session from 12.30-3.30 pm. We organise a curriculum of activities for the children to help them develop in all areas ~ for 2 – 3 year olds and 3 – 5 year olds
• Half day care ~ 8-1 pm, 9-2 pm or 1-5.30 pm for children aged 4 mths to 6 years
• Full day care ~ 8-5.30 pm for children aged 4 mths to 6 years
• Infants Club ~ 1.50 – 2.50 pm for children in Junior & Senior Infants ~ they are collected from school by a member of staff, come to the service, do homework and have a snack & have time to play or do activities. This helps parents who work part time or so that they do not have to collect twice a day from the school.
• After School ~ either 1.50 or 2.50 – 5.30 pm for school going children who are collected from school, do homework, have snack and time to play or do activities
• Out of Hours School Age Childcare ~ full day care for school age children during the school holidays
• Summer Camp ~ 12.30 pm – 3.30 pm during the month of July, where activities are organised for children aged 4 – 13 years
There are currently 13 members of staff and a part time grounds person
Children can have breakfast, snack, dinner & snack depending on what time they attend at. We offer a 4 weekly menu to make sure the children get a balanced diet, allowing for children who are weaning or just weaned. We cater for children’s special dietary needs and offer a gluten free, nut free, dairy free and egg free variety of the menu when needed. We have a healthy eating policy where the lunches the children bring in cannot include sweets, fizzy drinks or crisps. We have registered as a food business with the HSE and so have strict rules on the preparation, serving and storage of foods
Our curriculum is Siolta / Aistear based and we plan a wide range of indoor and outdoor activities according to children’s age and stage of development, helping with their social interaction, emotional security, physical, intellectual & language development. We are currently running a Media Initiative for Children ~ Respecting Differences to teach the children at a young age how to accept differences in others whether it be physical difference, racial, ethnic or religious. It teaches children to see the person first & the disability, skin colour, etc., second. We celebrate the similarities instead of being afraid of the differences, using puppets to get the message across. The advertisements for this programme can be seen 4 times a year on TV in the evenings. The toys & activities we use are based on the age group in the room. The children are encouraged and supported to be autonomous. Our service is family oriented with siblings and cousins spending time together at breakfast and in the afternoon when children from one room visit another or play together outside to ensure that families get time to spend together during the day. We have a good working relationship with the National School across the road as our day and theirs are closely linked with parents generally using both services, dropping off and collecting children from each service at the same time. Children from our preschool service also move on to attend 9 other national schools in the area, with children arriving to our afterschool each day from 3 of these schools by bus. During the year we have visits from the local fire brigade, the garda, a local farmer with baby animals and a dental nurse/dentist to enhance the children’s learning
We work with outside agencies such as the HSE, Enable Ireland, Early Childhood Ireland, Down Syndrome Cavan/Monaghan and take referrals from the local Public Health Nurses/doctors, Enable Ireland and social work department. We also work with Cavan County Childcare Committee and the local Community Employment Schemes. We offer the use of our large outdoor area to the CE Scheme to do horticulture and paving courses which means that we have some beautiful gardens and pathways around the building, which the children really enjoy. We also have a soft surface outdoor area with bikes, scooters, hoppers, tents, hoola hoops, slides, climbing frames, houses, footballs, swingballs, golf sets, etc., to enhance the children’s physical development and to encourage healthy lifestyles.
