Statement of Function and Purpose

• STATEMENT OF FUNCTION AND PURPOSE

  St. Michael’s Pre-School and After-School Service is a not-for-profit community based early years’ and school aged childcare facility located in St. Michael’s National School in Ballyfermot. The purpose of the service is to provide affordable, accessible early years education and school aged childcare to children in the community. It opens daily from 8.50am-11.50am- for Preschool and 1.30pm-3.50pm for Afterschool. We open 41 weeks per year. We cater for children from 2 years 8 months – 12 years. We have the capacity to cater for 42 Preschool Children and 80 Afterschool Children.  We are defined as Sessional under the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016. St. Michael’s Pre-School and After-School Service is governed by the Board of Management of St. Michael’s Primary School and operated by a manager, Ailsa Whelan.

  3.OUR ETHOS

  Our ethos is to provide high quality, safe and inclusive childcare that has regard for the themes, aims and learning goals of the Aistear Curriculum Framework.

  In our service we have a commitment to building positive relationships while working in partnership with parents/carers and working closely with other professionals as required. All policies are made available to parents via email and hard copies, staff have access to policies in their classroom and in the preschool office, school aged children have access to the children’s versions of policies in their afterschool classroom.

  The policies that inform the work of the service are:

  ·    Contents

  ·   Welcome                                                                                               

  ·Statement of Purpose and Function                                                                             

  ·       Our Ethos                                                      

  ·       Objectives                                                                                             

  ·       Key Personnel                                                                                       

  ·       Key Information                                                                                      

  ·       SERVICES

  ·       Admissions                                                                               

  ·       Children’s Charter                                                                                        

  ·       Collections and Arrivals                                                                 

  ·      Fees                                                                                            

  ·       Range of Childcare Services                                                                    

  ·    Settling In                                                                                               

  ·       Staff Ratios                                                                                                  

  ·       PARENTS

  ·       1.Car Parking                                                                                                   

  ·       Comments and Complaints                                                                               

  ·       Confidentiality                                                                                                  

  ·       Partnership with Parents and Carers                                                       

  ·       Managing Difficult Situations                                                                             

  ·       ADMINISTRATION

  ·       Data Protection                                                                            

  ·       Fundraising                                                                                            

  ·       Record Keeping                                                                                     

  ·       CHILDCARE GOOD PRACTICE

  ·       Child and Adult Protection Policy and Procedure                                                

  ·       Child Development                                                                                 

  ·       Child Observations and Assessment                                                                 

  ·       Code of Ethics – Working with Children                                                   

  ·       Curriculum                                                                                             

  ·       Equality and Diversity                                                                                       

  ·       Inclusion of Children with Additional Needs                                                        

  ·       Irish Language                                                                                       

  ·       Internet and Multimedia                                                                          

  ·       Outdoor Play                                                                                          

  ·       Outings                                                                                                  

  ·       Physical Play                                                                                         

  ·       Supporting Positive Behaviour                                                                 

  ·       Supervision of Children – Indoor and Outdoor                                          

  ·       Transitions                                                                                             

  ·       GENERAL CHILDCARE HEALTH AND SAFETY

  ·       Risk Management                                                                                  

  ·       Accidents and Incidents                                                                          

  ·       Anaphylaxis                                                                                           

  ·       Animals                                                                                                 

  ·       Camera and Photograph Use                                                                            

  ·       CCTV                                                                      

  ·       Cleanliness and Hygiene                                                                        

  ·       Dress Code                                                                                            

  ·       Emergency Closure                                                                                

  ·       Environmental Care and Recycling                                      

  ·       Fire Safety                                                                                             

  ·       First Aid                                                                                                 

  ·       Food Hygiene                                                                     

  ·       Hand Washing and Nose Blowing                                                            

  ·       Health and Safety                                                                                  

  ·       Healthy Eating                                                                                                 

  ·       Illness and Exclusions                                               

  ·       Swine Flu     

  ·       Covid19 Policy and Response Plan                                                                         

  ·       Exclusions                                                                                             

  ·       Infection Control                                                                                     

  ·       Intimate and Personal Care                                                                              

  ·       Manual Handling                                                                                    

  ·       Medicines                                                                                              

  ·       Missing Child                                                                                          

  ·       Pest Control                                                                                           

  ·       Safety and Security

  ·       Safe Sleep and Rest                                                                              

  ·       Spillages and Hazards                                                                            

  ·       Sun Safety                                                                                             

  ·       Toileting                                                                                                 

  ·       STAFF

  ·       Absence Cover and Illness                                                                     

  ·       Employee Infection Control                                                                               

  ·       Garda Vetting and Employee Declaration Form                              

  ·       Volunteers and Students                                                                        

  ·       Supervision and Appraisal                                         

  ·       INFORMATION

  ·       National Standards for Pre-Schools                                                                   

  ·       Síolta                                                                                                     

  ·       Staff Qualifications and Experience                 

  We work hard to ensure, that the children in our preschool are receiving the best possible start to life.

  In afterschool we aim to provide a safe, happy relaxing environment, where children are provided with the opportunity to complete their homework (in accordance with the Primary School Homework Policy) and where activities are planned based on their requests, suggestions and emergent interests. The programme of activities offered to the children attending afterschool include but are not limited to:

   

  ·       Arts and Crafts

  ·       Pamper parties

  ·       Games days (board games and games on interactive whiteboard)

  ·       Outdoor play and use of playground

  ·       Sports such as tennis, football, basketball, running etc

  ·       Mindfulness (yoga, colouring etc)

  Our expectation is that we will provide an enabling environment, both indoors and outdoors, that offers a wide variety of experiences and activities that will help all children to develop to their full potential during their time with us.

  In both the preschool and afterschool services, in order to help us monitor the success of these experiences and activities, and their part in child development, we observe the children ‘at play’ and use these observations to help us make informed decisions in our planning. This enables us to cater for the individual needs of the children as we very much view each child as unique. 

  In order to ensure the children’s learning and developmental needs are met during preschool we plan using the principles of the Aistear Curriculum and the Key Developmental Indicators of the High Scope Curriculum. We ensure that all planning is flexible and allows for spontaneity. We ensure that planning is done daily, straight after the preschool session to ensure that all plans are stemming from children’s emerging interests.