Our Programs

Afterschool Club

Our Afterschool clubs service the Sacred Heart of Jesus Primary School, Huntstown, and St. Ciaran’s Primary School, Hartstown. Children attending Afterschool club are school going age.

The objective of the Afterschool programme is to provide a safe, exciting, relaxing environment that is reinforced with love, encouragement and praise.

Our teaching is based around the ideas of Aistear and upon the principles of Síolta. Verbal communication regarding the Afterschoolers’ well-being and progress is given daily and formal meetings can be arranged, and are encouraged, between parents and your child’s key teacher.

Drop off & collection for Afterschool Children

Children attending for Drop Off to school begin to arrive from 7.30am. Children are offered breakfast choices of porridge, Weetabix, cereals and toast. We provide all drinks including milk, unsweetened juice and water. Afterschoolers will then have free play until it is time for them to leave for school. Both Tír na nÓg Huntstown and Tír na nÓg Hartstown are located within a safe walking route of the primary schools, and we believe that walking to and from school is more beneficial to the child’s well-being.

Younger children are collected from outside their classrooms, while older children will meet at an agreed location within the school grounds.

Children are encouraged to bring a change of clothes so that they can play indoors and outdoors with ease and comfort.

Homework Time

Homework is supervised by qualified staff and while our goal is to ensure that homework is completed during ‘homework time’ at the creche, we do implement a cut off time of 50 minutes for the older children. After this time period the child has usually become over tired and lacking concentration and is unlikely to benefit from continuing the homework.

Parents are informed if your child has not finished their homework and can choose to write a note for the teacher or complete the homework at home. Junior and Senior infants are given one on one time for their homework. We encourage parents to check your child’s homework in order to stay abreast of your child’s progress.

Afterschool Club at Tír na nÓg

The goal for the Afterschool Club programme is to provide a safe, comfortable and interesting environment for school age children. We endeavour to support children in completing their homework so that when you collect your child after a busy day in work, there is more time for the fun stuff. Our aim is to provide fun filled activity in a relaxed yet stimulating environment, to promote independence, support friendships and to help school age children to continue to develop social-emotional skills, confidence, self-awareness and self-care.

Fun Activities

Once homework is complete children part-take in a range of fun activities including outdoor games and free-play, art & crafts, construction, board games, quizzes, baking, imaginative and role play. Activities are child lead and our aim is to ensure that after a busy day in school, where there are lots of rules and regulations, that Afterschoolers feel relaxed, comfortable, at ease and that they have plenty of choices while in the Afterschool Club.

Dinner Time

Dinner is served at approximately 2.45pm and is a well -balanced, nutritious hot meal, containing fresh wholesome ingredients, while also being appealing to children’s tastes.

Tea- Time

Tea-time is at approximately 4.45pm and again children will have choices between a variety of fruits, crackers and sandwiches with a range of toppings and fillings.

What happens during school closures?

During days off, mid-term breaks and school holidays parents can book Afterschool children in for full days. We try to make these days as fun as possible for children and we have outings to the Millennium Park Playground, Hartstown Park, the cinema, playcentres or bowling. Parents are asked to pre-sign an outings permission form and we ensure that we adhere to staff/child outings ratios.

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