About Us
Absolute Angels was founded by the late Marie Jackson in 2003. Sadly Marie passed away on 19th December 2008 after a brave battle with esophageal cancer. All of the Absolute Angels staff who worked with Marie at the time, have lovely memories of her. They described her as a lovely lady to work for, her attitude with staff was “don’t think of me as your boss, but your friend.” If we had had any problems or troubles she was always there to listen and help. She loved working with the children and watching their development. Her saying was “Children are like sponges, everything we teach them, they absorb.” Even when Marie was very ill, she still focused all her energy on the creche. She was very happy when she knew all the children, parents and staff were happy.
When Marie first opened the doors of Absolute Angels in 2003, there were four children, Marie and another member of staff. Marie worked hard to make the creche successful. When Marie passed away (five years later), the creche building was full and she employed nine members of staff.
Twenty years after Absolute Angels opened, there are now 10 classrooms, our new outdoor pre school ‘Muck Angels’, we can cater for up to 132 children at any time and we have a team of over twenty staff. Absolute Angels is now owned and run by two of Marie’s children.
As you can see, we are a long established creche. Some of our staff are with us over seventeen years, many of whom are parents themselves. We care for the children in our creche like they are our own family.
Our Staff
Absolute Angels creche has a team of over 20 staff. Details of our staff’s roles, qualifications and training are displayed on the noticeboard in the hall.
Absolute Angels staff are qualified in childcare and are Garda vetted. The manager is Emma. The assistant manager is Chantelle. Our office administrator is Amie.
Activities and Experiences
There are a wide range of activities and experiences available in Absolute Angels crèche, which promotes children’s well being and learning. Absolute Angels crèche adheres to the national quality framework, Síolta and Aistear. Indoor and outdoor play opportunities and activities are provided to develop children’s physical, intellectual, emotional, social, language and creative capabilities. Children are listened to and respected, they are encouraged to exercise choice and use their initiative.
The rooms have different environments (spaces), which are easily accessible, developmentally appropriate and stimulating for the children. The environments in the rooms encourages children to be confident and independent.
Your involvement and interest in the crèche is vital for the smooth running of the service and the development of your child. We aim at forming positive relationships between parents and staff, working as a partnership with an “open attitude” where any issues can be openly discussed and facilitate a good understanding of individual needs and interests. Absolute Angel’s staff will always do their best to be available to parents to discuss their child’s day and development. We will keep parents informed of any changes, events and nursery activities through newsletters, notice boards and other means.
We value the importance of play for children, free play and structured play is central to the daily routine. We use a respecting difference programme with the children in Absolute Angels, this programme aims to build a better understanding of physical, social and cultural differences and enable children to effectively express their feelings.
Staff are trained in Búntus, a child centered physical activity programme for young children, which provides a range of learning opportunities for children to develop their fundamental motor skills, manipulative skills, co-ordination and balancing skills. Staff carry out Aistear assessments and observations of each child, the weekly talk topic in the curriculum is planned from the findings of these to ensure all areas of each child’s development is stimulated. Please discuss the curriculum with your child’s teacher and the topic of the week with your child at home.
We offer AIM supports under the free pre-school year programme. Aim is a model of supports designed to ensure that children partaking in ECCE reach their full potential.
We provide after school care and provide a free drop off and collection service for the following schools:
- Aston Village E.T.N.S
- St. Oliver’s
- St. Brigid’s and Patricks
Children are supervised with their homework and are provided with a hot meal.
Curriculum
Absolute Angels implement a play based curriculum where children learn through play. Research shows that children learn as they engage in activity and through relationships with others. Children’s play is their mechanism for learning about the world and how to be capable participants in it. In play, children learn to relate to others, to manage their emotions, to contribute ideas and to understand each other’s experiences and perspectives.
Children are encouraged and supported to actively explore and learn about themselves and how the world around them works. We structure our curriculum that it is flexible to enable us to base it on the children’s interests throughout the year. We are guided by the national frameworks Siolta and Aistear. Aistear establishes that early childhood education is about developing:
1) a sense of well-being
2) a strong sense of identity and belonging
3) the ability to communicate well
4) the skills for exploring and thinking
We aim to support children to develop knowledge and skills that are useful and meaningful in their lives and in their community. We aim to build children’s life skills and to enable children to express and develop their ideas and to think creatively. We aim to operate in partnership with parents and support their key role in the learning and development of the child.
Some of our classrooms are Montessori classrooms where there are clear and prescribed learning outcomes, we mix the Montessori curriculum with elements of the play based curriculum.
We use Aistear as a way of documenting the children’s learning journey, which helps us as educators to identify children’s interests and capabilities and to use this information to plan for further learning for each child. Through the use of Aistear and observations we plan our curriculum.
We are committed to delivering a stimulating and caring curriculum that is flexible and adaptable to the individual child and the children with whom we work.