Bright Sparks Preschool

We were blown away by the Bright Sparks creativity today 👏🏻🎨

📚✏️ Our Home Corner Has Had a Makeover! ✏️📚

To help support the Bright Spark’s transition to Primary 1, we have transformed our home corner into a mini P1 classroom! 🎒🏫

The children have been enjoying wonderful imaginative play, taking on different roles as teachers and pupils, dressing up in school uniforms, and exploring a range of number and letter recognition activities

Can’t believe we are at this stage of the year already, the children have done amazing! 💛💙

📣NEW Workshop! 👏
🌟Delivered together with Settled Petals
☎Call now to book your place 0808 8020 400

🚜🤎The Bright Sparks loved exploring muddy construction play this morning, digging, scooping, pouring and making tracks with the vehicles. This type of sensory play helps develop imagination, fine motor skills, communication and teamwork, all while having lots of fun!

Sometimes the messiest play creates the best learning experiences 😊

One of the Bright Sparks had a great idea to bath the babies this week! A perfect example of child led learning.

Through this play, the children were developing so many important skills, communication, cooperation, empathy, and independence. 🛁🫧👶🏻

Thank you Connie. We really appreciate the support from all MLAs who have got in touch this week.

𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐒𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐞-𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐥

Yesterday I met with Bright Sparks Preschool Leader, Rowan Barfoot to discuss the challenges associated with the allocation of pre-school places.

Pre-school settings across Northern Ireland are unable to meet demand due to funding constraints and the approach to allocating places. 46 school leaders have written to the Education Authority calling for action to fix this.

Bright Sparks has seen its funded places reduce from 20 to 19 at a time when they are oversubscribed. It is shocking that one child’s family have been left with no alternative but to pay significant fees for their child to attend.

I have written to the Chief Executive of the EA and tabled a written question to the Education Minister on this.

I will continue to push for Bright Sparks to have funding for its 20th place restored, alongside calling for the Minister to meet with pre-school leaders to find a long-term solution.

We’re thrilled so many families received good news about joining us next year, but heartbroken for those we couldn’t accommodate due to limited places. Despite being consistently oversubscribed, our numbers are restricted by the Education Authority’s Pupil Allocation Number (PAN), which doesn’t reflect real local demand. We’ve pushed—alongside political and community support—for an increase, but no changes have been made, leaving many families disappointed again this year. We believe this outdated system needs urgent reform and are working with other settings to advocate for change. If your family has been affected, we encourage you to contact your local MLA—together, we can push for a system that better supports our children and communities.

NI pre-schools: The Cloughmills parents pushing for more places A mother says her son will start primary one at a disadvantage after he didn't get a space at a local pre-school.

📌 Just a reminder, the EA will be emailing applicants on Monday regarding outcomes of Preschool and Primary 1 places. Anyone who applied without an email address will receive a letter in the post.

The Sensory pod is the perfect spot for the children to unwind and relax if they ever feel overwhelmed or just need a safe space to chill out. This supports brain development and helps them understand the world through their senses. 😌💛

What a busy week we’ve had so far. The children have been painting their own interpretation of daffodils, making houses in our 3 little pigs tuff tray and learning all about volcanoes!! 🌋🐷🌼