For those of you who work in the Early Years (EY) sector here in Ireland you may know that, Aistear: The National Early Years Curriculum Framework has recently been updated to reflect new understandings around the rights of babies, toddlers, and young children, as well as a stronger emphasis on sustainability, diversity, equity, and inclusion. These updates aim to support early learning and development from birth to the beginning of primary school.

In response to these changes, our Early Years Team recently hosted a series of information sessions for local early years services. Across four in-person sessions and two online sessions, we welcomed a total of 70 educators. These sessions provided an opportunity to explore the key updates to the Framework, reflect on their implications for practice, and engage in meaningful discussions with peers from across the community.

Following the delivery of these sessions, the early years services with whom we work with will continue to receive follow-up support in the form of mentoring and coaching from our Early Years Mentors here at Preparing for Life (PFL). This ongoing support is designed to help embed the updated Framework into daily practice and ensure a strong foundation for early learning and development.

Some of these updates will include focusing on how we can embed slow pedagogy practices across the early years’ curriculum and within the pedagogical approach. Educators will be encouraged to reflect on their everyday routines and experiences and to consider where they can focus on slowing down. There will be an emphasis on giving children more time to simply be present in the moment. The focus will be on respecting the child’s right to time and space, fostering their right to be fully engaged in their play. Children have the right to be able to see their play through, giving them time to explore, problem solve and enjoy all that play has to offer. This really demonstrates our commitment to and understanding of the importance of learning through play.

A key feature of the updated framework is the reflective cycle for planning and assessing learning and development. Educators will be encouraged to use the cycle in their everyday practice and use this tool to help inform their short-, medium- and long-term planning for children’s learning and development. Educators will be supported through the process of implementing this reflective cycle through mentoring and coaching with our Preparing for Life EY Mentors.

We are delighted to have had the opportunity to deliver this informative workshop to such a large number of Early Years Educators working with young children and families from our local community. We would like to thank all who attended and contributed to making these workshops such a valuable and insightful experience for all. Creating the space and time for Early Years Educators to come together, to learn and share their expertise and knowledge is such a valuable space to have and we hope that we can continue to support and provide these meaningful experiences for those working with young children and their families in our local community.