Early Childhood Ireland's Podcast

Épisodes

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  Slow Relational Pedagogy with Adele Evans 08.09.2026 23min

  Send us Fan Mail Aistear (2024) reminds us that every baby, toddler and young child develops at their own pace and in their own unique way. A slow relational pedagogy offers a thoughtful approach to supporting this development—one that prioritises time, deep listening, attunement and, most importantly, nurturing meaningful relationships. In this episode, we are joined by Adele Evans, an experienced and passionate Early Years professional. Adele shares her insights and reflections on embedding...
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  Early Childhood Ireland's Childminding Research, with Frances Byrne and Liz Kerrins 24.03.2026 46min

  Send us Fan Mail A core aspect of the work of Early Childhood Ireland over the past number of years has been Childminding. We led the Erasmus programme, Qual FDC in 2023, a European based project which focused on quality in family day care (as Childminding is often referred to). In 2024 we conducted a literature review, with Stranmillis College in Belfast, into the existing research on Childminding and regular listeners may have heard a previous episode discussing that piece of work, linked b...
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  From Rhetoric to Reality, with Dr Colette Murray 10.03.2026 38min

  Send us Fan Mail Our guest today is Dr. Colette Murray, from Technical University, Dublin who was an advisor on the From Rhetoric to Reality research Early Childhood Ireland conducted in 2025. In this research we wanted to investigate the inclusiveness of Irish ECE settings for members of the Traveller community, focusing on young Traveller children’s perspectives and experiences of inclusion in their preschools. Colette speaks about the importance of this work and how support is needed at sy...
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  ARAG Legal, HR and Counselling Services insurance benefits explained, with Brendan Little and Paula Walshe 24.02.2026 40min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode we are going to look at one of the really significant benefits of the group insurance scheme available to Early Childhood Ireland members, through Arachas Insurance. To explain the benefits available through the group insurance scheme we are really pleased to be joined by Brendan Little and Paula Walshe from ARAG, who work with Arachas to provide a range of Legal, HR and Counselling supports. Arachas policyholders, on the Group Scheme, can contact the services...
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  Garda Vetting, with Superintendent Niall Featherstone and Inspector Marisa Costello 10.02.2026 31min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode we are joined by Superintendent Niall Featherstone and Inspector Marisa Costello, from the Garda National Vetting Bureau to discuss the legislative basis for Garda Vetting, the importance of correct validation of identity and some misconceptions that can arise.
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  National Pyjama Day, with Rebecca Candon and Lorraine Diggins 04.02.2026 24min

  Send us Fan Mail National Pyjama Day, brought to you by Early Childhood Ireland is a favourite day on the calendar for children and educators all over the country. This year marks the 22nd National Pyjama Day and funds raised will support LauraLynn, Ireland's Children's hospice and will continue to support the Early Childhood Ireland member projects Eco- Emotions. For this special episode of the podcast we are joined by Rebecca Candon, Family Support Team Manager at LauraLynn, Ireland’s Child...
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  Aistear: Exploring the concept of the Agentic Educator, with Grainne McKenna 20.01.2026 40min

  Send us Fan Mail Aistear (2024) includes, as a Principle, the concept of the Agentic Educator. In this episode, Grainne McKenna, from Dublin City University outlines her thoughts on this concept and explores links to the 'Self-Efficacy' theories of Albert Bandura. She also mentioned the literature review commissioned by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment as part of the process of updating Aistear, which you can find here. Grainne also refers to a journal article called ...
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  Children's Rights in Ireland, with Tanya Ward 18.11.2025 42min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode we return to the topic of children's rights, participation and safeguarding. We were delighted to be joined by Tanya Ward, CEO of the Children's Rights Alliance. We discuss the areas in which Ireland is performing well in relation to children's rights and the areas in which improvements are needed. We touch on how slow relational pedagogy as outlined in Aistear 2024 plays a key role in educators being able to hear the many ways in which children express thems...
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  Enhancing Leadership Practices, with Siobhán Barrett and Dr Christina Egan Marnell 21.10.2025 21min

  Send us Fan Mail In this episode we discuss a recent CPD programme we developed in Early Childhood Ireland with a group of educators, called Enhancing Leadership Practices. Dr Christina Egan Marnell outlines the background to and development of the programme. Siobhán Barrett, from Cahir Bears Community Creche in Cahir, Co Tipperary, was one of the participants in the programme. We chat to her about what pedagogical leadership means to her, her experience on the programme and about how s...
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  Aistear Síolta Practice Guide with Lorraine Farrell 07.10.2025 38min

  Send us Fan Mail In light of the Updated Aistear in 2024, the Aistear Síolta Practice Guide has also been updated to reflect the changes made to the Aistear Framework. In this episode of Early Childhood Ireland's podcast, Lorraine Farrell from the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment takes us through key changes and discusses how the Aistear Síolta Practice Guide can be used by educators to support reflection and develop practice. The Aistear Síolta Practice Guide can be found on th...
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  Name the Date, with Frances Byrne 23.09.2025 24min

  Send us Fan Mail Early Childhood Ireland is calling on the Government to announce on Budget Day a date for bringing Early Years and School Age Care graduates within public sector pay and conditions, in line with teachers. In this episode, Frances Byrne, Director of Policy at Early Childhood Ireland takes us through the rationale for this ask in our Budget 2026 submission.
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  Valuing Childhood, with Wendy Lee 16.09.2025 45min

  Send us Fan Mail In a very special episode, to mark the very special milestone of our 100 episode, we were delighted to have a wide-ranging conversation with Wendy Lee. Wendy is the Director of the Educational Leadership Project in New Zealand. Wendy discussed the importance of relationships, values, celebrating children's learning journeys and importance of ensuring childhood is valued as a right by policy makers and educators.
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  Taking part in TIME with Claire Walsh and Marsela Vangjeli 08.07.2025 22min

  Send us Fan Mail In this week’s episode of Early Childhood Ireland’s podcast Taking Part in TIME, we hear from Claire Walsh and Marsela Vangjeli, both from The Children’s Village in Balbriggan. They chat about the Practitioner Inquiry project they worked on when they took part in the TIME CPD programme earlier this year and the impact this had on their setting. The TIME CPD programme and the new member resource, now available on the Early Childhood Ireland Learning Hub was funded by the RTÉ T...
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  Remembering Carla Rinaldi, with Milica Atanackovic 24.06.2025 23min

  Send us Fan Mail Members and regular listeners know that the work of Early Childhood Ireland is influenced and inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach. In April of this year, we were saddened to learn of the death of Carla Rinaldi, who was Honorary President of Reggio Children and the Centro Loris Malaguzzi. To pay tribute to this shining light and examine some of the ways in which she has influenced the Early Years and School Age Care sector in Ireland we are delighted to be joined by Milica ...
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  Choose Play - Every Day, with Dr Aaron Bradbury 11.06.2025 35min

  Send us Fan Mail We were delighted to chat with Dr Aaron Bradbury from Nottingham Trent University in the UK. Aaron recently edited a document called Play Matters and in this special conversation to mark International Day of Play we discuss the joy of play, slow relational pedagogy and advocating for play. As Aaron says, the possibilities that come from play are endless!
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  Exploring TIME, with Dr Christina Egan Marnell 04.06.2025 22min

  Send us Fan Mail Early Childhood Ireland is delighted to introduce a brand new member CPD resource called TIME: Thriving through Interactions and Meaningful Engagements. In this episode we discuss the programme with Dr Christina Egan Marnell, from Early Childhood Ireland. We chat about how it was developed, how will support educators to reflect on and develop their engagements with children. The development of the CPD programme and resource was supported by the RTE Toy Show Appeal. Early Chil...
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  Consulting with Children, with Prof. Deirdre Horgan 20.05.2025 38min

  Send us Fan Mail What does consulting with children mean, how do we do this? In this episode Prof Deirdre Horgan from University College Cork takes us through her work with Hub na nÓg developing the recently published toolkit to support consulting with children. She discusses how so much consultation goes on with children everyday and gives ideas on how we can recognise this and capture it. You can find the toolkit referred to here https://hubnanog.ie/resources/toolkit-guidance/?_...
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  Updated Aistear in Practice, with Valerie Gaynor 07.05.2025 31min

  Send us Fan Mail This week we talk to Valerie Gaynor, Manager of Creative Kids and Co in Dublin, who participated in the NCCA's Updating Aistear Development Group about her experiences of the process. She also discusses how the updated Aistear is impacting on practice in her setting.
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  Updated Aistear: Sustainability, with Dr Marlene McCormack 22.04.2025 39min

  Send us Fan Mail Today, 22 April is World Earth Day. To mark this important day we were delighted to chat about the enhanced focus on Sustainability in the Updated Aistear, with Dr Marlene McCormack, from Dublin City University. In this episode Marlene discusses how values play a role in attitudes to sustainability, with a mindset of caring at it's heart. She gives practical ideas on how we can support children and families to think of sustainability and ecology.
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  Early Childhood Ireland - Group Insurance Scheme, with Grahame Brown 15.04.2025 17min

  Send us Fan Mail This week we chat with Grahame Brown, Account Director at Arachas Insurance. Grahame takes us through what a Group Insurance scheme is and outlines the benefits contained in the Early Childhood Ireland scheme which is underwritten by Allianz and administered by Arachas.