Creche
St. Benedict’s Creche, established in 1998 is a community-run creche serving the local and surrounding areas. The creche is a play-based setting with a high emphasis on affordability, inclusiveness, and accessibility to all in the community. Our ethos states that our creche is a happy place where children learn through play in a fun-filled and child-centred environment, where safety and child protection are of paramount importance. We promote equality for all irrespective of gender, race, religion, or disability.
Ambition
Our daily ambition is to make the children as safe and as happy as possible while in our care.
To achieve this, we work closely with parents. Other childcare workers and the children. We want to provide a safe and happy environment where children can learn through play and they are:
• Happy and confident
• Respectful of themselves and others
• Caring and compassionate
• Creative and curious
Set up
The creche consists of 2 rooms, an ecce preschool room, and a toddler rooms. 39 children are enrolled in the creche.
The creche also has a courtyard area in the centre with outdoor space that provides a safe environment for children to play in. Recently a freestanding canopy was installed the courtyard area allowing the children to play more outdoors. Funding was secured from Pobal who provide Government funding for childcare settings to carry out all necessary works involved. When it is raining, children have the use of the indoor sports hall for much-needed exercise and entertainment.
Staff
The creche employs 8 qualified staff members and a Manager overseeing the running of the creche. Staff qualifications range from Fetac level 5 in Early Years Education, Special needs Education right through to degree level with the emphasis based on upskilling and continued personal development. The setting also uses the services of the centre Community Employment Scheme workers for cleaning and maintenance. Duties all foster development and training and also helps future generations of educators through training.
St. Benedict’s Creche is funded through government funded schemes such as Early Childcare Care and Education (ECCE) National Childcare Scheme (NCS) and Community Childcare Subvention Programme (CCSP). The funding received from each of these schemes allows the setting to offer affordable subvention childcare that would otherwise be out of the reach of many in the local community.
The creche is under the strict regulation from Tusla Early Years inspection. The setting has just received a biennial inspection from Tusla in October 2020 where they were found to be fully compliant in all areas inspected. The main focus of the inspection on this occasion was covid-19 related however, the inspection also covered other areas deemed necessary to ensure the health and safety of the children in their care such as staff profiles, and qualification and training and Garda Vetting along with children’s environment, the setting and atmosphere. The inspector was very complimentary of the management and running of the setting, the lovely and caring staff, the happy and safe environment the children were in and the overall setting as a whole. She had never visited the centre before and was very impressed with the amount of activity taking place in the resource centre as a whole and felt the community were very lucky to have such as service available to them.
The Creche was also recently inspected by the Department of Education and Skills who also found the environment for the children to be very inclusive, with a very good environment for children’s learning and development. The inspector complimented the setting on the hands on, top down approach from the Board of Management, Management right through to the staff. She said that it was evident that there was a whole approach being operated and this was evident in the work that was being done with the children. (Copy of the report can be found on the DCYA Early Years Inspection website).
Further information
Please contact reception by email or phone 01-8610167 to learn more about the childcare service and for information regarding waiting lists.