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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 themselves. Finally, Tanya shares the three key areas where significant progress needs to be made to ensure that all children in Ireland have their rights respected.

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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 she is supporting her colleagues to see themselves as leaders in their role. 

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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 the Nurturing Skills website. 

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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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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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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 Toy Show Appeal. 

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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 Atanackovic, Acting Director of Membership, Excellence and Learning at Early Childhood Ireland. 

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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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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 Childhood Ireland members can access the course here

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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/?_sft_post_tag=toolkits  

If you would like to hear the earlier episode about the Children's Participation framework with Prof. Laura Lundy and Anne O'Donnell, you will find it here  https://earlychildhoodirelandpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1541473/episodes/9314091-exploring-the-national-framework-for-children-and-young-people-s-participation-in-decision-making-with-prof-laura-lundy-and-anne-o-donnell