Table of Contents

1. Introduction to our Newsletter
2. Free Range Children Event- a major success
3. Donegal County Childcare premiere new DVD!
4. Competition Winners!!!
5. Retirement of Mary McGowan
6. Welcome new Parent and Toddler Groups!
7. Sponsored Walk
8. Baby Announcement
9. OMCYA introduces new Childcare Employment and Training Support (CETS) Scheme
10. Texts Alerts

Introduction

Welcome to DCCC’s first E-newsletter! DCCC’s new E-newsletter will provide an interactive newsletter which is easily accessible and user friendly. It provides a speedier and more cost effective channel of communication with you the client. Our E-newsletter will contain the usual short snippets of information which you can explore in more depth through our website.

Free Range Children Event A Major Success

More than 450 Early Childhood Educators descended upon the Silver Tassie Conference Centre, Letterkenny on Saturday 8th May for our highly successful, Free Range Children: Enabling Active Learning in Early Childhood event. The audience was excited to hear from a number of high profile childcare experts who travelled from all over Ireland and the UK.

DCCC Management and staff would like to thank everyone who attended and noted that the high turnout was a great testament to their commitment to working with young children and to the professionalism of those working in the early childhood sector. Read More...

Donegal County Childcare premiere new DVD!

DCCC held a preview showing of our new DVD, Building Pictures of Learning, at Century Cinemas, Letterkenny on Thursday 27th May. This special event was hosted for the parents and childcare staff of the early childhood services that featured in the DVD.

Dr Martin Gormley, Chairperson of DCCC, paid tribute to Avril Sweeney and the DCCC team for their work on this innovative project. Congratulations were also extended from Teresa Cunningham, FÁS who commented that the FÁS Social Inclusion Fund was delighted to be involved with a project of such high calibre.

DCCC plan to facilitate a number of Building Pictures of Learning training workshops for childcare services from September onwards at various locations across the county. For more information on Building Pictures of Learning, and other up and coming events presented by DCCC, please call (074) 91 32416 or Click Here...

Competition Winners!!!

Congratulations to Desertegney Community Group (near Buncrana) on winning our incredible competition of a natural outdoor learning space designed by a leading natural landscape designer, Jane Wratter, to the value of €5,000 sponsored by DCCC. The team at Desertegney are already hard at work organising this project which will be completed in November. Good luck girls!

Retirement of Mary McGowan

Long-serving member of staff, Mary McGowan, is set to retire from DCCC at the end of June. A retirement function to mark the occasion is being held in her honour in the Abbey Hotel, Donegal Town, on Saturday 26th June. Invitations have gone out to all childcare settings, and those of you wishing to attend to pay tribute to Mary’s work should return your booking slip with €30 per person. Mary has been with the Donegal County Committee since its outset, initially as Co-ordinator, then in latter years as Childcare Development Officer. It goes without saying that we’ll be sad to see Mary go, but we do indeed want to give her the best possible send-off! 

Welcome new Parent and Toddler Groups!

DCCC welcomes two new Parent and Toddler groups to the county. Crossroads Killygordon Parent and Toddler group meet in the CAKE centre in Killygordon every Tuesday and Thursday from 10.30-12.30pm.

The first ever parent and toddler group for children with Down Sydrome has been established in Letterkenny. The group meet on the last Friday of every month, for more information contact Down Syndrome Donegal on 074 91 03527 or visit: www.donegaldownsyndrome.com

We wish these two groups all the best.

Sponsored Walk

On Friday 9th April we held our 10K Sponsored Walk on the highways and byways of Ballybofey/ Stranorlar. It was a warm sunny day for the trek, with a gentle breeze to keep us cool – perfect walking weather! We were thrilled to be joined by a number of practitioners and parents and a total of €1,550 was raised. All proceeds will go to the Children of the Haitian Earthquake Appeal. The official fund-raising body Plan Ireland helped us with the running of this event. Our cheque presentation to Plan Ireland will now take place in Gallaghers Hotel, Letterkenny on Wednesday 23rd June @ 7.00pm - local press photographers have been invited to attend. A big thank you to all our sponsors!

Announcement

We delighted to let you know that Bridgid Casey, DCCC Childcare Development Officer, delivered a beautiful baby boy on Friday 30th April. Baby Lennon came in at 8lb 12oz and is continuing to melt his parents’ hearts. Congratulations Bridgid and Dan from all the DCCC staff and management!

OMCYA introduces new Childcare Employment and Training Support (CETS) Scheme

The OMCYA has recently introduced a new childcare support scheme, the Childcare Education and Training Support (CETS) Scheme. The CETS scheme is designed to support the childcare needs of participants in training and educational courses operated by FAS and Vocational Education Committees (VECs).

The scheme is open to applications from:
• childcare services providing full day care and/or school age childcare
• both commercial and community day care services
• services which are participating on the CCSS and/or the ECCE scheme

For more information on the terms and conditions of the CETS scheme see www.omc.gov.ie

Text Alerts

DCCC has introduced a text alert service to those with an interest in the childcare sector in Co Donegal. We will be alerting you to updates on the ECCE scheme, the CCS scheme, and funding available, plus informing you of upcoming training, and other news. You can then view the information yourself on our website www.donegalchildcare.com.

If you’d like to be kept in the loop as to what the new developments are,

*STATUS: (ie whether you are a provider, childminder, parent, student, or other)

This service is open to all those working in childcare settings, not just to managers/leaders.

© 2010 Donegal County Childcare Committee
This e-mail is from Donegal County Childcare Committee Ltd, 1st Floor, Glenview Business Park, Donegal Road, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal, Ireland.

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