Half of our time in Ireland is over now. While we, Sarah and Jana, are staying with a lovely host family in the countryside near the city of Cork, we are able to do a lot of sightseeing in Ireland. We have already had the chance to get to know the “Shandon Church and Bells”, the “UCC University” and the “Blarney Castle and Gardens”. With that we got to know the very nice Irish people and their culture. Especially their love for coffee and dogs. Of course, we had to rely on our English skills and even though sometimes it is hard to understand the accent, we are now used to it. But most important are the new things we learned about the childcare in Ireland.
Similar to the Austrian “BildungsRahmenPlan” there are two curriculums in Ireland too. They are named after Irish words that both have the meaning “seed” when you translate them. The first curriculum is called “Siolta”, which is the National Quality Framework for children from zero to six years. Actually, it is just a lot of paperwork for all of the childcare workers. The second curriculum is called “Aistear” and part of it is an explanation of how the development of every child should be observed and encouraged.
We know that all those details sound very complicated but after some research and a lot of communication we were able to understand everything. After studying the details, we want to stress that the comparison between the Austrian and Irish educational system is very interesting and we really look forward to the second half of our internship abroad and hopefully even more new perspectives, experiences and a lot of memories.
Bericht von Jana Klausner und Sarah Wörz
The first week of our work placement in Ireland is nearly over. We, Elea and Salome, are staying in Cobh, a small town on the great island near the city of Cork. As we are in our host families on our own, we get to speak a lot and are very included in their daily life. Nonetheless we get to spend a lot of time together as our host families are relatives. Of course, we also had some problem with the language. After wondering for several days what our host families wanted to tell us, when they were saying “Watch your colours” we found out that they are saying “What`cha call it”. In the first few days we also got to explore our hometown Cobh, with all its little shops and cafes and Cork City. Ireland has beautiful landscapes and unusually warm weather.
On Tuesday, 29.3.2022, we had our first day of work placement at the Little Learners Childcare Centre in Cobh. Before we were allowed to work with children, we had to read two big folders filled with policies. As there are policies for everything, e.g. Missing Child Policy, Nappy Changing Policy, Pet Policy, it took us nine hours to read them all. On our second day we were allowed to go into the rooms with the children in the afternoon. At first, we were a little startled. Childcare works a little different in Ireland. Their daily routine is a lot stricter than in Austria. Another difference is that everyone is wearing shoes indoors even the children. Furthermore, they do most of their activities like colouring pictures, eating, playing as a group. During the first pre-school session from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. they also have circle time, where the teacher implements educational inputs. On the first day with the children Salome got to introduce herself, show them Austria on the map and teach them how to say ‘hello’ in Austria during that time. As the weather is unusually nice at the moment, we get to spend our lunchbreaks at the sea with a breathtaking view of the harbour.
We are excited how the following two weeks at the Little Learners Childcare Centre are going to be!
Bericht von Elea Fleißner und Salome Grall
