Full Daycare Service Explained

A full daycare service (also known as a crèche or day nursery) is a service that cares for children from early morning into the evening e.g.: 7:30 to 18:30. Some centres will also allow Part Time daycare, which generally means less than 5 hours a day. Although the age range that daycare centres cater for vary, the general age span would be from 4 months to 6 years, and sometimes up to 12 years if they offer an after school facility.

Each daycare centre will be broken down into various rooms, each with their own routines regarding sleep, food, and activities. The room your child will attend will depend on his / her age and / or ability:

Baby Room - approximately 4 months to 12 months Generally your child’s day in a baby room should mirror his / her own routine at home with sleep times and bottle times. Once your child has started on solid food it is generally recommended that they try to follow the routine in the centre as your child becomes more accomplished (which will probably be the same as home anyway!) for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There should also be set times for nappy changes and flexibility for the unexpected changes. You will probably be advised to leave a few sets of clothes there, just in case!!

Activities during the day in a baby room would generally be floor play, music and songs, and art. These are important for your babies' developmental progress and make the day loads of fun!!!

Wobbler Room - approximately 12 months to 2 years Your Child’s day in the wobbler room will probably be a little more structured than in the baby room. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will probably be at set times along with snacks, although flexibility should be allowed if you request it. Sleep times will also probably be at set times, but again there should be space for flexibility.

Activities will start to get more adventurous in arts and crafts, so old clothes will be advised! Songs and music, free play, and outdoor play will usually be common place activities.

Toddler Room- approximately 2 years to 3 years The toddler room day is usually very structured, incorporating meal times, nap times, free play, art and craft, music and outdoor play time. The day will follow routine but may not always go to plan as this age group is still very young!

Playschool - approximately 3 years to 4 years Playschool will also usually follow a structured routine, incorporating meal times , nap times, free play, art and craft , music and outdoor play time, and will probably also add in more table top activities to help your child start to get ready for school and its routines.

Montessori - approximately 4 years to 5 years Montessori is a structured environment, where your child will be allowed to learn at his / her own pace, using age and stage appropriate specific Montessori equipment. Your child will also usually have outdoor play time, arts and crafts, and music.

After School / School Age Childcare This is afternoon care for school age children. Generally an afternoon snack is given, and homework is completed. After that, lots of fun is to be had, with art, music, free play and outdoor activities. Sometimes there are added activities for the older children like the use of computers. Some centres also offer a drop off and / or collection service from local schools.

Adult/child ratios

The following adult/child ratios are recommended:

Adult to child ratios

AGE RANGE	ADULT /CHILD RATIO
0-1 year	1:3
1-2 years	1:5
2-3 years	1:6
3-6 years	1:8

Where a full day care service also caters for children who do not attend on a full day basis, the adult/child ratio and group size for sessional services should apply, as appropriate.

If you are concerned about overcrowding in a daycare setting the recommended areas with regard to "adequate" space are as follows:

Age of Child	Floor area per child
0-1 year	3.5 sq metres
1-2 years	2.8 sq metres
2-3 years	2.35 sq metres
3-6 years	2.3 sq metres

Sleeping Facilities:

Day care services

It is recommended that, ideally, babies and children aged under 2 years of age should be provided with suitable sleeping facilities away from the general play area.

If the sleep area for babies and children aged under 2 years is accommodated in the baby room, the overall space measurement of the baby room will then be 4.2 sq metres per child. The area for sleep should be in a section away from other activities. This area should have facilities to dim lights or to block window light and should maintain a quiet, restful environment for children to sleep. This guideline should only be considered when the group size is 6 babies or less, otherwise a separate sleep area is required from the general play area.

Whilst it is desirable for children to have their own cots, this may not always be feasible; therefore an adequate supply of bed linen should be in place to ensure that each child has their own linen. For children over 2 years of age who use sleeping mats, individual linen should also be provided. Linen changes should be documented. Sofas, beanbags and buggies are not suitable for children to sleep in.

Checking of sleeping babies

Sleeping babies need to be regularly checked and procedures and rotas should be in place. Procedures and rotas should take account of the following:

• Who will check the baby/babies,
• How they will be checked i.e. the sleep position and an assessment of whether or not the child is breathing should be made - sleep monitors alone may not be adequate.
• How often they will be checked - include sleep monitoring rota.
• How information might be recorded.
• How information will be shared with parents.
• The deployment of staff to include responsibilities for any sleep room area.
• Who will check the baby/babies,

Sessional pre- school Service Explained

A sessional pre- school service covers a few different services including; Pre- School, Play School, Montessori, High Scope and Naíonraí. These would run for no more than3.5 hours a session.

Play School

A play school environment uses a play based curriculum to aid them through their developmental progress. This will be done in a supervised environment encouraging free play to help with decision making, independence and problem solving. There are usually a lot of arts and crafts, home corner, dress up, outdoor play, and music activities.

Pre- School

The pre- school environment is to help your child to prepare for the big jump to school and its structured routine at a gentle pace. It is generally a play based curriculum, including table top activities, arts and crafts, music and songs and outdoor play.

Montessori

Montessori is a structured environment, where your child will be allowed to learn at his / her own pace, using age and stage appropriate specific Montessori equipment. Your child will also usually have outdoor play time, arts and crafts, and music.

High Scope

High Scope uses a Plan - Do - Review programme. This means that the children sit down in the morning with the staff and plan what they intend to do. They then go about their activities and at the end they review how it went with the staff members. This encourages independence, decision making and problem solving skills, and general developmental progress, all done through loads of fun!!

Naíonraí

The naíonraí environment uses a play based curriculum. Many of the activities would be the same as a play school with the added benefit of using the Irish language in a fun and encouraging way.

Adult/child ratios

Sessional pre-school service means a pre-school service offering a planned programme to pre-school children for a total of not more than 3.5 hours per session.

Services covered by the above definition may include pre-schools, playgroups, crèches, Montessori pre-schools, naíonraí, notifiable childminders or similar services which generally cater for pre-school children in the 0-6 year age bracket.