2015 Big Toddle

Another great day for Barnardos big toddle with our little guys. Lots of colouring ; bubbles; walking ; running and fun again. Thanks to all the parents for their contributions and sponsorship we raised €138. Some lovely pictures here.
Barnardos Big Toddle 2015

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Green School Flag Application 3 – Water management

All A lot of work underway on our water management program our 3rd Green Flag through An Taisces Green School Program so I wanted to pause and give an overall summary and details here for your information on what we have completed to date.
As you are aware we continue to manage our school greenly with a high priority on energy management; water management; sustainable living and litter and waste management and a big thanks as always to everyone supporting us through the green school program.

Executive Summary Our Work 2010-2015
1. Litter , waste management and recycling program :
•Maintained and grown to meet our growing population from 20 children 2013 /2014 to 30 children 2014/2015 per day.
•Cost avoidance of €1050 annually Growth year on year 2013/1014 to 2014/2015 of €350.

2.ENERGY MANAGEMENT

•Heat Consumption reduced by 1100 litres we saved 1.7 tonne of Co2. €900 saving annually.
•Electricity daily consumption reduced from 20 kW to 15 Kw. €233 saving annually.
•2014 First Low Energy Pyjama Day – no lights on from 8-18 saved 5 kW.
•2015 Second Low Energy Pyjama Day – no lights on from 8-18 saved 5 kw.
•Developed ; documented and rolled out an Energy Management curriculum with 12 individual projects.
•Rolled out a home survey and agreed an Energy Management pledge with our families.

3. Travel :
• Rolled out a Car pooling service with no charge reducing our Carbon foot print by 0.837 tonnes of CO2.
•All our afterschoolers participated and were actively involved in WOW days for OGNS.
•Rolled out a Yoga day for our school-goers/ after-schoolers supporting Active program with OGNS.

4..Water Management :
•Mapped our Water Management program to Aistear Learning Goals.
•Developed ; documented and rolled out a Water Management curriculum with 12 individual projects.
•Expanded our Ulla Beag Green Management code to focus on Water
•Fuinneamh Rapcheol
•Rolled out a home survey and agreed a Water Management pldege with our families.
•Active involvement with out parents
•Developed a dedicated Green Schools Committee webpage on our website www.ullabeag.ie

5. Biodiversity management
•Built insect hotels.
•Planted an edible native hedgerow-2011 in full bloom now.
•Planted native irish cherry trees
•Teaching curriculum teaching our children about native Irish indigenous planting; organic growing for sustainable living and non indigenous plants.
•Child friendly herb garden
•Planted a native apple orchard

5. Natural Playscapes
– recycling our native trees-willow; sally etc in partnership with a local Artist and Sculptor Gerard Bourke we have created natural play areas which are growing with our aging children so the gardens are suitable for 0-12 years now. With lots more plans on the way
our new teepee2014 planting 2

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ManagEnergy&Ulla Beag

Please find a 2015 new article written on energy management at Úlla Beag and the benefits of starting at an early childhood level in managing energy. ManageEnergy is a pan European Website supporting and promoting energy management within the public sector and we were interviewed before Christmas on the activities that we carry out at Úlla Beag .http://www.managenergy.net/education/articles/176#.VMiwbLlybnJ

Summer Term & 2014/2015 School year updates

Summer Term & Sept 2014 school year updates –

Booked out and no available spaces :
– Summer Camp 2014.
– Music Yoga & Play 12-36 mths unaccompanied. Pre-booking for Easter & Summer 2015 starts now.
– Afterschool Service 2014-June 2015.
– Tuesday afternoon yoga summer camp weekly (4 yrs +).

______September 2014 pre-booking now_______
– 2014 ECCE Free childcare places Only 2 places left.
– Kindermusik Wiggle & Grow New Term Nov 2014. 6 places. (12-36mths).
-Baby /Toddler / Family Yoga – New term dates coming in Sept 2014.
-Halloween camps will be published wk 1 Sept.

_______Easter 2015 pre-booking now________
– 2 places Wed morning Music Yoga & Play (12-36mths)
– Very limited Child-minding places.(12-36mths)
– 2 places in our 2014 Playgroup Easter 2015(18-36 mths) .
– 3 places in our 2015 ECCE Free childcare year(3.5-5yrs)
– 4 places in our 2016 ECCE free childcare year(3.5-5yrs)

For any more information or pre-booking contact Denise at 0857283333 /denisejoannasheridan@gmail.com.

Second Green Flag Awarded

Our pre-schoolers and play group with our 2 green flags

Our pre-schoolers and play group with our 2 green flags

Afterschool group collecting our second flag 2014
On 20th May 2014 we received our second green flag from An Taisce for Energy Management. Some of our afterschoolers at the awards ceremony. Details can be seen on our Green Schools Committee page.
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Our 2014 planting season has started

A huge thanks to Elaine Ann & Jennifer who dug up our plots after Tony’s big clear up last week all in preparation for our planting season which kicked off this morning.
2014 planting2014 planting 2

Free trade Ireland link : http://www.freetradeireland.ie/

http://www.freetradeireland.ie/

Toiletting tips.

From our combined motherly wisdom and feedback from most parents we have found the following tips which we hope will help all of us — I myself have my first direct encounter with boy training imminent – and my son has absolutely no desire as of yet to move from his nappies and he happily tells me this so we are waiting for the big 3 to hit in June!

1.Children must be fully conversational and understand the process of toiletting before you start them. Most children are fully toilet trained by 3.
Girls generally train quicker ! :)

2.Nearly every child gets weeing first and some children can really struggle with poos so you need to accept this and not overly worried. Keeping their diet full of fruit and fibre will help and avoid hard poos which can frighten the child. They are learning the ability to hold ; stop etc so they can hold a poo and you do not want this to happen.

3.Sometimes it can be a struggle to get your child to sit on the toilet – we generally tell them a story – if you are waring a ring on your finger let them twist it around. Again it is about keeping them distracted enough so they do not get upset and at the same time getting them comfortable on the toilet.

4.Some children will want to use a potty first – if it works for them then I do recommend it and you will gradually get them on the toilet.

5.When you start toilet training you need to have the time to do it with them -normally it will take a week to kick in the actual process of going to the toilet. In the beginning it is advisable that you take them to the toilet every 15 -20 mins as they may start off with very small frequent pees. You will be able to judge this over the coming days with them and increase the intervals!

6.Summer time and dresses / shorts are best. If the child has to struggle with layers of clothes this will frustrate them and you!!

7.Praise ; Praise ; Praise – they may only get 10% of the wee in the loo the first few days but praise them for that. If their clothes get wet then explain to them what has happened and why but do not dwell on it.

8.Introduce new undwerwear for them and let them know you are very proud of them and they are becomming a big girl / boy.

9.Pull ups can help – but from some kids they do not. You do need to be realistic in the length of time that they can hold a pee so if you have a long journey which cannot be avoided then you will need to plan pee stops put a potty in the car – if you are not using pull ups.

10.Night nappies. It is recommended (and tried & tested) that nappies should be dry for a long period before you remove them or until the child asks you to take them off. You do need to work this with them. They will be proud of their day success so if they ask you to take off the night nappies you will need to honour their wishes. It may mean that you have to lift them before you go to bed at night for a few nights but it is worth it.

11.Finally try to stay calm with the whole thing and take it in your stride – you will have accidents ; you will go through lots of clothes and at the time it might feel like an eternity but it is a huge milestone in a child’s development and brings such confidence for them that it is all worth it.

Early Childhood Ireland Innovation Award in Environmental Awareness

We very happily received confirmation yesterday that we have received an innovation award in Environmental Awareness from Early Childhood Ireland for our integration of gardening ; waste management ; recycling and sustainable life skills into our preschool curriculum. The Award will be presented on the 20th April 2012 at the Early Childhood Ireland’s Annual Conference. Again thanks to all the parents who support us by supplying items for recycling – bottles ; wellies; egg boxes etc ; gardening advise and materials – specifically Elaine and for all the kids who get actively involved in all of our activities. It is an award we are very proud to receive and it gives us national recognition of the work that we do here !

Green Schools Program : Litter and Waste Inspection

All great to confirm that we have passed the inspection with flying colours. The kids did us all proud on the inspection day and very eagerly shouted out their code and led the tour around our compost areas; chicken village ; recycling bins and wormeries. Well done all. Flag wil be received in May.