Childminding Ireland was delighted to participate in the National Aistear Conference ‘Continuing the Journey: Exploring the updated Aistear’, on Saturday. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and highly informative.
The conference featured a variety of excellent speakers who were both informative and engaging.
Highlights included Professor Iram Siraj from the University of Oxford and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, who discussed an emergent, inquiry-based curriculum — a method that encourages children to lead their own learning by following their interests, exploring, asking questions, and learning in a fun and meaningful way.
Dr. Geraldine French from DCU shared insights on caring for babies and toddlers with kindness and respect through slow relational pedagogy. This approach focuses on being calm, patient, and loving, paying close attention to children’s needs to build strong relationships that support their learning and development.
Shirley Heaney from Mary Immaculate College spoke about creating learning environments that welcome and support all children. She highlighted the importance of treating everyone fairly, respecting differences, and ensuring every child feels included and valued.
We enjoyed catching up with some familiar faces and were touched by how many people came over to our stand to share their childminding stories and talk about how much they value the work being done by childminders. Below are some pictures taken at the conference.
Many childminders are already incorporating Aistear’s principles into their practice naturally. Read our Blog for a simple overview of what the new principals of Aistear are and how they relate to childminding.
The Department of Children, Disability and Equality launched an innovative new Nurturing Skills website at the national conference. You can learn more about this here.