An Duine Beag Montessori Pre-school and Before & After-school

🎊🎉🎊🎉🎊🎉🎊🎉🎊🎉🎊🎉🎊🎉🎊🎉
👩‍🎓 🧑‍🎓 Congratulations to the ‘Class of 2026’
We are so very proud of our little friends 👩‍🎓 🧑‍🎓
Thanks to all the parents for coming and making it such a special night, we hope you enjoyed it!

An Duine Beag Annual Preschool Sports Day 🥇
🤩 🤩 The children were amazing 🤩 🤩
🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️ 🚲 🥇 Thank you all for coming and making our day so special 🥇 🚲 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️

JUNE EDITION OUT NOW!
June’s edition was released earlier THIS WEEK, click below to read it.
https://copper-post.beehiiv.com/p/edition-15

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With thanks to An Duine Beag Montessori Pre-school and Before & After-school for sponsoring this month's edition.

Here’s a taste of what’s inside:
🏃 Anne Valley 5-mile Challenge – Registration is still open, with the Kids’ Race adding extra excitement on the day.
🥇 Ardscoil na Mara – Congratulations to the Clanna Gael boys on winning the U16 Pan Munster Giles Shield.
🌊 Boatstrand Sea Safety Centre – The Harbour of Hope Walk was a wonderful community success, raising funds for Waterford City River Rescue and Pieta House.
🟢 Clanna Gael GAA Club – Well done to players graduating from secondary school, along with strong Waterford development squad representation.
🏐 Dunhill GAA – A busy stretch for the club, with juvenile action, camogie highlights, fundraising and ongoing facility work.
🏐 Dunhill S Centre – Gym updates.
🎾 Dunhill Squash Club – The league season is nearing its end, with semi-finals this week and finals next week.
💚 Fenor GAA Club – League action, strong performances, and music news.
🎳 Fenor Road Bowling Club – Details and photos of the recent Walk To Remember.
⚽ Na Gaeil Juvenile GAA Club – The Cúl Camp portal remains open, with underage blitzes also featuring strongly.
⚽ Seaview Celtic FC Waterford – Summer camps are on the way for boys and girls of all levels.
🏃 Waterford AC – Brilliant marathon results, including Noel Murphy’s excellent 5th place finish in Limerick.
🧈 Irish Gourmet Butter – A proud local success story built on quality, family teamwork, and steady growth.
📚 Down Memory Lane – A nostalgic look back at the Donkey Derby, First Holy Communions in Dunhill and parish tradition.
👑 Rose of Tralee – Dunhill native Rachel Keane has been selected as the East Bay Auckland Rose at this year’s festival.
🤝 Community Care Social Hub – A feature centred on local support and connection.
🧬 Multiple Myeloma Cycling Expedition – An inspiring story of recovery, advocacy, and an upcoming Iceland challenge.
🏊 Memorial Swim For Cora Griffin – Community fundraising helped support Daryl Swift and showed the strength of local generosity.
🏫 Dunhill National School – Communion day, camogie success, athletics, an inter-school blitz, and the 80th anniversary photo appeal all feature.
🧒 Tiny Tots Community Playgroup Dunhill – Enrolments are open for September 2026, with outdoor learning and nature activities highlighted.
🌳 Dunhill Tidy Towns – Volunteers continue their village improvement work with planting and stonework clearing.

Read it here: https://copper-post.beehiiv.com/p/edition-15

Our regular contributors include: Anne Valley Walk Dunhill, Anne Valley 5-mile Challenge, Dunhill GAA, Clanna Gael GAA Club, Dunhill Squash Club, Fenor GAA Club, Fenor Road Bowling Club, Seaview Celtic FC Waterford, Dunhill Multi-Education Centre, Na Gaeil Juvenile GAA Club, Dunhill Ecopark, Dunhill and Fenor Parish, Dunhill National School, Dunhill NS Parents Council, Dunhill Sports Centre, St.Anne's Camogie and Ladies Gaelic Football Club, Boatstrand Sea Safety Centre, Friends of Dunhill Community Hall, Tiny Tots Community Playgroup Dunhill, Fenor NS, Comhar Comaraigh Network, Community Alert, Community Care & Social Hub, Dunhill Tidy Village Group, Dunhill Heritage Keepers, Dunhill Players, Bioregional Weaving Lab.

From the 8th of May 2026, all children completing the ECCE programme and starting primary school are invited to visit their local library and pick up a free book bag to support the transition to big school.

The bags will be available throughout the summer.

All families are warmly welcomed to join the library if they aren’t already members.

The books and resources in the book bag support parents and their children in the transition to primary school. The bag contains books for the children to keep, with topics such as starting school, making friends and big emotions. It also has some very useful information for parents on supporting that start in primary school and what’s on offer at each local library.

PRESS RELEASE

Federation of Early Childhood Providers (FECP)

The Federation of Early Childhood Providers (FECP), one of Ireland’s leading representative bodies for early years providers, welcomes the overwhelming support received from its membership to proceed through the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) process on behalf of the sector.

This strong mandate reflects the confidence providers across Ireland continue to place in the Federation’s leadership, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to securing meaningful progress for the entire early years sector.

The FECP enters this process with a clear objective: to work constructively, professionally, and decisively toward an outcome that delivers meaningful wage improvements for early years educators while simultaneously protecting the sustainability and viability of services nationwide.

The Federation of Early Childhood Providers has consistently maintained that the current €45 million allocation, while a welcome step, does not fully reflect the scale of the staffing and retention crisis facing the sector.

Ireland’s early years services continue to operate under extraordinary pressure, with providers burdened daily by rising operational costs, staffing shortages, inflationary pressures, fee freezes, fee caps, regulatory burdens, pension and auto-enrolment costs, rates pressures, and ongoing funding shortfalls.

Despite these pressures, providers continue every day to deliver an essential public service to children, families, communities, and the wider economy.

The FECP believes the sector deserves significantly greater long-term investment and a funding model that genuinely reflects the operational realities providers face on the ground. However, the Federation also recognises the importance of progressing constructively through the current JLC process in good faith and with urgency.

“Our sector cannot continue carrying increasing expectations without realistic and sustainable investment, more is needed and we aim to be an integral component in this for the betterment of all in Early Years,” - Elaine Dunne, Chairperson of the FECP.

“Providers and Educators have carried this sector through years of underfunding, increasing compliance demands, staffing pressures, and operational strain. The FECP is entering this process determined to secure the best possible outcome for the entire sector while ensuring providers are not left exposed to financial risk, implementation gaps, or uncovered costs. €45 million is a step in the right direction but significant investment is needed now to bring about the most necessary changes in the right direction for providers, educators, parents and most importantly the children. We look forward to taking part in this process and given our growing membership of over 1500+ services, we aim to increase our seats at this table in the coming years to further advance our sector together” - Christopher Moran, Operations Director FECP

The Federation confirmed that throughout the JLC process it will continue engaging through consultation, professional analysis, direct provider engagement, and collaboration with relevant bodies to ensure negotiations are grounded in operational reality and sustainability.

As part of this process, the FECP will continue prioritising:

• Fair and meaningful wage increases for staff
• Protection for providers against uncovered costs and funding shortfalls
• Sustainability for sessional, community, and full-day-care services
• Realistic operational funding models
• Long-term workforce retention and recruitment solutions
• Viability protections for providers nationwide
• Policy reforms that reflect the realities of service operation
The abolition of rates for sessional services

The Federation further stated that while the JLC process is critically important, it represents only one part of a much wider challenge facing the sector. The FECP will continue its ongoing advocacy and lobbying efforts around systemic funding issues, policy reform, fee freeze impacts, service sustainability, and the long-term future of early years provision in Ireland.

The FECP remains committed to being a strong, professional, solutions-focused voice for providers large and small. Believing meaningful collaboration, strong representation, and realistic policies and stronger investment are essential to building the viable early years sector Ireland urgently needs.

Together, providers, educators, and representative bodies must now work collectively to strengthen the work needed to ensure more funding is secured for our sector, support the workforce, and ensure a viable future for all nationwide.

Launch of My Little Library for children commencing primary school this September