Toddlers – Under The Sea
As your baby graduates to the Under the Sea group, they will have access to all the facilities that are essential to their continued growth and development. Alongside these top-quality childcare facilities, Bridge Kids curriculum is designed for their age and ability.
The staff-to-child ratio for children between 24 and 36 months is 1:6.
It is well recognised that a child’s environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning, which is why at Bridge Kids we strive to create an environment which, in concurrence with the child’s staff members, enables just that. We strive to maintain the indoor and outdoor environment to the highest standard. Our curriculum of learning through play supports children’s innate curiosity and develops a range of crucial life-skills while promoting fun, socialisation, and inclusivity.
The Skills We Nurture in our Toddler Childcare Facilities Include:
- Personal, social and emotional skills
• Communication, language and literacy
• Problem solving, numeracy and reasoning
• Knowledge and understanding of the world
• Physical & Creative development
Helping Your Toddler Grow & Mature
Being a toddler is a period full of growth, change, and learning. At this age, kids are ready for a little more structure and new challenges as well as more free play and plenty of rest periods.
As your child discovers their own independence, we encourage and guide them to further develop their confidence as well as their intellectual, social, and emotional development as they explore their environment. We place a strong focus on linguistic development through activities like songs, role play, dress-up, and more.
We work closely with parents around toilet training etc. as your child prepares for the first year of their pre-school experience, making the experience as fun, comfortable, and enjoyable as possible for children and parents. When your child reaches the ECCE age he/she will then transition to the Jungle/ Rainforest preschool room to attend the ECCE session 9.30-12.30 3 hours daily.
Pre-School sessions- Jungle/Rainforest & The DEN
Pre-School is a fantastic way of preparing your child for school and helping them to develop lifelong skills that will help them to thrive in years to come. Here at Bridge Kids we have 2 ECCE sessions Jungle Rainforest and The DEN. We believe in a fun, play-based approach to learning and early years’ development, using the Aistear Síolta framework of early education. With a tailored curriculum to the two pre-school years, we aim to avoid repetition to ensure that children are presented with fun, new challenges throughout their time in our 2 pre-schools rooms. Our preschool teachers are passionate about childcare and expert in supporting your child’s development within a playful and fun atmosphere. Every child’s journey is unique and is recorded through paintings, collages, drawings and photographs of your child and their pre-school adventure.
We recognise that the pre-school years of 3-5 are especially important and lay the foundations of your child’s primary education. We have a good rapport with the local national school St. Finnachtas and communicate directly with the teachers and principal annually prior to children transitioning to primary school
Our Pre-School Curriculum
At Bridge Kids we use a play based emergent curriculum supported by Aistear – The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework and Síolta the National Quality framework for Early Years Children’s Services. All of our rooms use a child-led emergent curriculum. The value of learning through play is paramount and we very strongly believe that it is our role to facilitate learning, rather than the implementation of a strict curriculum. Activities in rooms are age and developmentally appropriate and are tailored to meet the needs and interests of all children in our care.
All children are introduced to pre-reading, pre-handwriting, and early mathematics and science in preparation for school, all the while in a fun, exciting and challenging way.
We place a strong focus on bringing the indoors to outdoors and have developed our outdoor play areas to allow the children all the experiences of the classroom while outdoors. We ensure that children are presented with materials that engage and challenge their senses. Children learn most while they are engaged, happy and having fun and so we take our cues from the children while always facilitating their spontaneity allowing them autonomy.
Parents will receive updates daily along with written observations on your child’s activities. Our parental communication app which offers real time updates ensures that all the family are on board with the pre-school learning experience.
After-School Care
We know how hectic school life can be for busy parents and for busy children. At Bridge kids we offer to help out when you need extra support. For early morning starts, we provide breakfast and can drop your child to St. Finnachtas school. We will also collect your child after school with a friendly face to ensure their happiness and comfort from the moment they enter our care to when you collect them in the evening. We provide a nutritious and varied menu of hot dinners cooked in house daily for afterschool children.
During school holidays we provide full day care full of fun stuff, Arts & Crafts, Games, Music, Dance, Quizzes and also the space to unwind and relax with their friends or siblings. With a team of experienced staff members, we offer quite time to children to complete their homework, and advise parents to check this when at home. Bridge kids offer a relaxed and stimulating after school environment for the children to play and unwind in after their busy day at school.
Financial Advice for Parents
At Bridge Kids we aim to provide the highest standard of childcare that is affordable for families. We offer a range of funding programmes for families to make it as easy as possible to manage your finances when it comes to the cost of childcare in Ireland. For more information and advice on our financial supports, please read below.
ECCE- the Early Childhood Care & Education Scheme
The Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme provides 2 years of free pre-school education. To qualify for this scheme your child must have reached the age of 2 years and 8 months by the beginning of the school year. This scheme covers the cost of programmes that take place for 3 hours per day, 5 days a week, 38 weeks of the year. The ECCE Scheme is not means-tested and is available for all children of pre-school age.
NCS- National Childcare Scheme
The National Childcare Scheme provides supports to families with children who attend a participating Tusla Registered childcare service. Universal Subsidies are available to all families. This subsidy is not means tested and contributes to the cost of a childcare place for up to 45 hours per week.
Income Assessed Subsidies are available to families with children aged between 24 weeks and 15 years. This subsidy is means-tested and will be calculated based on your individual circumstances. The amount of funding that each family will receive will vary depending on the level of family income, your child’s age and educational stage, and the number of children in your family.
CCSP- Community Childcare Subvention Plus
CCSP is only offered to parents who are currently on the scheme all new parents must apply to the NCS for a Chick Number for their child
