Category: Early Years Shop News

You may have noticed some changes recently to the Early Years Shop website. We have reorganised our product categories to make it easier for you to find what you’re looking for as well as brightening up the look and feel of the Shop to make it better and more pleasant to navigate! Please let us have your comments about our new Shop and any suggestions on how we could make it even better.

We also have updated our Search functionality to give you a one-click tool to quickly and easily get to what you’re looking for. With hundreds of products on the shop, we think the Search tool will often be your easiest way to get to the product you need.

We will be making sure we have an informative news post once a month minimum, and we will also be providing a great Thursday Tip every second Thursday and continuing with our very popular Friday Freebie every second Friday!

We are continuing our commitment to consistently provide new and useful products for your early years service. Along with our partners, Canavan Byrne Childcare, the Early Years experts, we are ensuring that all our products continue to be compliant with updates to regulations to take the worry out of inspections for your service.

Our top products have been getting great sales and feedback from early years services across Ireland. My Learning Journey, our oversized A3 scrapbook to chart the child’s journey through the year, is probably currently our most popular product. Our Aistear Stickers continue to be very popular and we have had many services avail of our great bundle deals on packs containing My Learning Journey books, Roll Books, and Aistear Stickers.

To help you make use of the Aistear Framework for Curriculum, we are now offering Aistear and Montessori Observation Sheets. Keep these on hand in each room to make it easy and quick to record your observations of individual children’s interests expressed through their play and exploration. Try to ensure that you record a minimum of one observation per child per month. These observations will then aid you in deciding next steps for providing curricula to help the children explore their interests further. This is the cornerstone of the Aistear Framework.

Our observation sheets go really well with Aistear Stickers. When you purchase observation sheets, consider adding a pack of Aistear Stickers and get a substantial discount!

Remember if you a child with a long-term illness or severe allergy attend your service you must have a Medical care Plan in place. This is to ensure the safety and well-being of the child. Staff must be trained on the administration of the medication and how to respond in the event of a medical emergency. The training must be provided by a qualified health professional .

Continue reading Medical Care Plans – Thursday Tip

September is fast approaching and we have no doubt that you are all busy getting ready to open your doors to a whole new group of children and parents. This checklist should help you evaluate that you have everything you need in place.
Continue reading Getting Ready for September in your Early Years Service

We’ve been getting great feedback on our new Parent Handbook, which is not a surprise considering the amount of work that Canavan Byrne put into ensuring that the Parent Handbook covers a comprehensive summary of all the relevant service policies, procedures and rules that you might need to include. There are 39 different sections with notes to guide you on selecting options depending on your particular requirements. Then you simply edit as needed and either print or send to parents by email. Many modern laser printers have a booklet printing option which could be very useful for producing a professional finished Parent Handbook.
Continue reading Parent Handbook getting Great Feedback from Early Years Service Providers

Water testing is a growing concern in early years environments following some recent outbreaks of e-coli contamination of drinking water. We are delighted to announce we have a solution to test your drinking water and hopefully put your mind at ease. It is recommended that water in early years facilities is tested for quality and safety and you can now do this yourself using the Safe2O water testing kit. This sampling kit enables you have your drinking water scientifically tested and receive an easy to understand report, with suggested next steps, if required. Continue reading Water Testing Kit Now Available – How Safe is your Drinking Water? Try the Easy to Use Safe2O Testing Kit

Ensure safety in your Early Years service. Employers must verify that employees, children and parents always have a safe access and egress to and from the service . This should be built into your Health & Safety Statement, which of course is a requirement of the Child Care 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016.

Continue reading Safety in your Early Years Service – TIP OF THE DAY: Access and Egress

We’re excited to announce our new Bunting Flags: alphabet, numbers and birthday bunting.

All our bunting flags are made of a string of triangular high-quality plastic flags measuring 210mm x 300mm. These are wonderful decorations for any room and are a great way of supporting children’s learning.

Continue reading Bunting Flags help children’s emerging literacy and numeracy

Your ability to manage accidents in Early Years Services is just one of the many important duties you have to children and their families in providing a safe early years environment.

An accident or incident in your service can be upsetting to staff and children. Having the correct policies and procedures means that you can first of all do your very best to prevent accidents before they happen, and secondly, to have a concrete procedure for staff to follow in case of accident or incident. Having a good awareness of a structured procedure is always an important component of making sure staff can manage crisis situations.

Continue reading Manage Accidents in Early Years Services

Will you be hiring New Early Years Staff for this year? It is critical that you have the correct agreements and paperwork in place. Our Employment Contract template is a good place to start.

This is a template for an employment contract that we provide as a Word document so you can make any necessary edits. Our Employment Contract template has been updated to accommodate the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). In fact, if you currently have non-GDPR-compliant contracts in place you can purchase our Employment Contract template for future staff and use the GDPR Employment Contract Addendum to update the paperwork for existing staff.

Continue reading Hiring New Early Years Staff in 2018? We have some help for you!

We’re excited about our New Year Starter Bundles and we’ve been getting great feedback from the Early Years services on these.

The bundles include Aistear stickers, roll books and My Learning Journey scrapbooks to get you ready to get started for the new school year.

Continue reading New Year Starter Bundles: Special offer this Summer only!

Have you ever stopped to consider how important music is in so many different aspects of our culture? This is because music connects so deeply with our thoughts and feelings. Like many of the functions of our minds, it’s a little mysterious exactly why Music Education affects us the way it does, but it does connect with all of us in a special way. Think of how important music is to helping create an emotional state in a movie soundtrack. Musical jingles are used to ensure a sales message is remembered. Music is used to help define subcultures for young people. Listening to music in a group creates a special kind of togetherness which may be part of why music is such an important part of religious traditions all around the world.

Continue reading Why Music Education is Important for Children of All Ages

We have combined some of our most popular products in “New School Year Starter Bundles” to make it easy for you to put together some of the essentials for the coming year for the children in your service:
Continue reading Be prepared for the coming year with our New School Year Starter Bundles and other products!

We’ve all heard so much about the new General Data Protection Regulation in the weeks and months leading up to May 25th that it’s something of a relief to be past the deadline.
However, if you have not yet implemented your GDPR policy – IT IS NOT TOO LATE.
Continue reading The GDPR Raises the Question: Why is Data Protection so Important?

At the Early Years Shop we carry a large range of Graduation Gowns in different colours. However, if not in stock, it could take 2 or 3 weeks for delivery.

Make sure the move to big school is a celebration the children and their parents will remember for years to come. An Early Years graduation ceremony is a wonderful way to mark the occasion, take some great photos and give staff and families a chance to say thank-yous and goodbyes.

Continue reading Last Few Days to Order for Guaranteed Delivery of Graduation Gowns

We all know about the GDPR (European General Data Protection Regulation) and the implications for our businesses. No need to put it off any longer, now is the time to put together a comprehensive GDPR policy for your early years service!

You will need to do a complete review of your policies and procedures in every area that involves any personal data including how long you will be storing the data and for what purpose, how the data may be shared, and more. You must have a clear policy thaat is understood by both staff and families.

Continue reading 7 days until General Data Protection Regulation is in effect – Canavan Byrne GDPR pack is the simple quick answer

Isn’t it about time you get your graduation ceremony organised?

Get Your Graduation Gowns, Certificates and Banners Now!

We can supply our great high-quality washable graduation gowns in a choice of colours: Black, royal blue, red or gold. Costs from just €20.75. All of our gowns also come with a cap, 2018 charm and tassel. Order your graduation gowns now and for no extra charge you’ll get downloadable graduation certificates and access to our Graduation Certificate Creator where you can create your own graduation certificates for the children in your service.

Continue reading Graduation Ceremony Time – It’s not Too Late to Organise Yours!

Are your GDPR policies in place? There are a little over 2 weeks left until the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) comes into effect across Europe. It’s important that you review your policies and procedures with regard to privacy and data retention. It’s also important that the specifics of your privacy policy and data protection are made clear to everyone affected in your service including staff and families.

Continue reading Countdown to GDPR – 16 days left to ensure your compliance

We’re excited to invite you to compete in our 2018 Graduation Photo Competition!

 

We will be offering two prizes: A free year’s membership of the Early Years Resource Factory, one for a sessional service and one for a full day-care service.

Continue reading Win a Free One-Year Membership of EYRF in our Graduation Photo Competition

A graduation ceremony is a really wonderful and memorable occasion for the carers in your service, the graduating children and their siblings and parents! A graduation ceremony encourages the children to embrace the transition to “big school” and gives the staff, the children and families a chance to say “thanks” and “goodbyes”.
Continue reading Free Graduation Banner with order of 5 or more Graduation Gowns

Following the large volume of calls we received over the last few days we have put this pack together for you. It contains:

• Notes on how to put the policy together
• A sample policy (in Microsoft word) which is editable. This gives the wording to suit the various scenarios and you can choose from the options to suit your service
• An Adverse Weather Risk Assessment

Continue reading Emergency Closure Pack (Includes Adverse Weather) Now Available €20

We’ve added some new activities to our Mother’s Day Curriculum Pack for 2018, bringing the size of that pack up to 30 activities plus Aistear and Montessori Observation Sheets you can use to document children’s emerging interests and plan for follow-on activities later on.

Our Curriculum Plan packs are provided by Canavan Byrne, the early years experts.

Continue reading Mother’s Day Curriculum Plan Pack Updated for 2018

We have just added some new activities to our St. Patrick’s Day Curriculum Plan Pack for 2018. This pack contains more than 30 activities themed around St. Patrick, leprechauns, the Irish language, and more.

We are also excited about our new Curriculum Plan Bundle – from now until St. Patrick’s Day you can purchase our Mother’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter Curriculum Plan Packs for only €25 – a €10 saving over purchasing these curriculum plans individually.

Continue reading New Activities for St. Patrick’s Day and a great Curriculum Plan Bundle deal!

We have put our new Newsletter Creator on the system for March 2018. Our Newsletter Creator enables you to quickly and easily produce a professional 1- or 2-page newsletter for the families of children in your service. With our partners, Canavan Byrne, we provide a selection of articles for you to include as you wish along with any content relevant to your service such as announcements of new staff or staff leaving the service, new children, any scheduling updates or reminders to families of your policies services.

Continue reading New Newsletter for March 2018

We have added some great updates to our St. Patrick’s Day  pack.

St. Patrick’s Day is a great opportunity to put together a week of great activities, play and arts and crafts. Our curriculum plans are each labeled with learning areas, Aistear themes, and Montessori Areas, helping you with your compliance with the Aistear and Síolta frameworks and planning a good balanced curriculum.

Continue reading Make an Exploding Rainbow to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

A great way to celebrate the end of term is to invite parents and carers, as well as younger siblings, to join you to celebrate and congratulate their child’s ‘graduation’. This experience is a hugely successful way of encouraging the children to embrace the changes ahead, whilst giving children, staff and families a chance to say ‘thanks’ and ‘goodbyes’.
Why not make it extra special with our newly stocked graduation gowns! Perfect for those photo opportunities and lasting memories.

Continue reading Make your Graduation Ceremony Extra Special with Graduation Gowns, Caps, and Certificates