Preparing your child for their ECCE place
Grovelands Childcare is a family run multi-award winning early education centre nurturing children from 3 months to preschool and afterschool.
With more than 26 years experience caring for thousands of children in Tullamore, Athlone and Mullingar, we know what works when it comes to nurturing your child’s wellbeing, development and learning.
We have developed our very own ‘brand’ of quality childcare and early education, where every new learning experience a child enjoys builds on the previous one and where all our children’s individual needs are taken into account.
Our team are passionate about their work and love what they do, and we believe it shows in our award winning interactions and environments indoor and out.
We make it a priority to make sure each of our pre-school children are more than ready for Primary School. So, when your child leaves us to go to ‘big school’ you can rest assured they will be confident and competent in their abilities and comfortable in social settings which will allow them to shine in the classroom and beyond.
Our ECCE programme is filling fast for September 2019 and we are now taking pre-bookings for all age groups. Changes to the ECCE scheme in the last budget now mean that there is only one entry point to the scheme in September. The changes made also see children able to enter the scheme from 2 years 8 months.
- If your child will be aged 2 years and 8 months on or before August 31st 2019, you should enrol now to avail of an ECCE place for September 2019. It’s important to secure a place early as due to demand.
- If your child is NOT 2 years and 8 months on August 31st 2019, you cannot enrol them for an ECCE place until September 2019.
- But, under the Affordable Childcare Scheme, you can avail of a universal subsidy for your child under 3 of up to €20 per week for full time care or €7 per week for sessional care.
- Further to that, if you are a medical card holder and/or claiming social welfare, you may even be eligible to receive up to €145 per week towards your childcare costs.
- Find out exactly what your childcare entitlements are at www.affordablechildcare.ie
Choosing whom to entrust your child to in their formative years may be one of the most important decisions you make for your child. By trusting Grovelands Childcare you will discover how important a quality preschool can be in developing the person they will become in the future.
Tips for Preparing your Child for their place on the ECCE Scheme:
- Arrange a visit to your preschool with your child to introduce them to their key worker.
- Talk to your child positively about their transition to preschool.
- Remember if you child is not toilet trained it is advised to start this process now as many services will not accept children that aren’t trained. It is important to start this process early so your child is not coping with a lot of changes at one time.
- If your child has been minded at home or by a relative or friend up to now, it’s a good idea to slowly socialise them and introduce them to a larger group environment gradually. You can do this by enrolling them for at least 2-3 mornings per week before starting ECCE in September. You can avail of the universal subsidies offered by the MACS during these weeks.
