Naíscoil Curriculum
Children start to learn about the world around them from the moment they are born. The care and education offered by Naíscoils help children to continue to do this by providing all the children with interesting activities that are right for their age and stage of development. All our provision and activities are delivered through the medium of Irish, we use Irish immersion metgodology to ensure the children acquire the language in a natural way.
For children between the ages of 3 and 5 years, the Naíscoil delivers a programme of play abd education based on the Department of Educations Preschool Curricular Guidance. Naíscoils follow this guidance. The guidance divides children's learning and development into six areas:
- Personal, social and emotional development;
- Language and literacy development;
- Early Mathematical experiences;
- The World Around Us;
- Physical Development;
- The Arts;
Personal, Social & Emotional Development
This area of children’s development covers:
- having a positive approach to learning and finding out about the world around them;
- having confidence in themselves and their ability to do things, and valuing their own achievements;
- beeing abel to get on , work and make friendships with other people, both children and adults;
- becoming aware of – and being able to keep to – the rules which we alll need to help us look after ourselves, other peiple and our environment;
- being able to dress and undress themselves, and look after their personal hygiene needs;
- being able to expect to have their ways of doing things respected and to respect other people’s way of doing things.
Language & Literacy
This are of children's development covers:
- being able o use conversation with one other person, in small groups and in large groups, to talk with and listen to others;
- adding to their vocabulary by learning the meaning of - and being able to use - new words;
- being able to use words to describe their experiences;
- getting to know the sounds and letters which make up the words we use;
- listening to - and talking about stories;
- knowing how to handle books and that they can be a source of stories and information;
- knowing the purposes for which we use writing;
- making their own attempts at writing;
Early Mathematical Experiences
This area of children’s development covers:
- building up ideas about how maby, how much, how far and how big;
- building up ideas about patterns, the shape of bjects and parts of objects, and the amount of space taken up by objects;
- starting to understand that numbers help us to answer questions about how many, how much, how far and how big;
- building up ideas about how to use counting to find out how many; and
- being introduced to finding the result of adding more or taking away rom the amount we already have.
The World Around Us
This area of children’s development covers:
- finding out about the natural world and how it works;
- finding out about the made world and how it works;
- learning how to choose – and use – the right tool for a a task;
- learning about computers, how to use them and what they can help us to do;
- starting to put together ideas about our past and present and the links between them;
- beginning to learn about their locality and it’s special features;
- learning about their own and other cultures.
Physical Development
This area of children’s development covers:
- gaining control over the large movements which we can make with our arms, legs and bodies, so that they acan run, jump, hop, skip, roll, climb, balence and lift;
- gaining control over the small movements er can make with our arms, wrists and hands, so that they can pick up and use objects, tools and materials;
- learning about the importance of – and how to look after – their bodies.
The Arts
This area of children’s development covers:
- using paint, materials, music, dance, words, stories and role play to express their ideas and feelings;
- becoming interested in the way that paint, materials, music, dance, words, stories and role-play can be used to express ideas and feelings.