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Tús Maith

The Tús Maith programme is an early year's care and education programme for children aged 3-5 years with an overall outcome of ensuring that children are ready for school. Tús Maith integrates the High/Scope curriculum with the REDI programme in order to maximise the developmental outcomes for children. High/Scope is a well established curriculum which is evidenced to achieve real and lasting outcomes for children including: positive self-esteem, achievement of their developmental and learning potential, improved school readiness, improved and continued engagement with school, and economic independence as adults.

Because of the complexity of the presenting needs of the children in our early year's centres additional supports are required, in particular in relation to the social and emotional competences and language and literacy development. Therefore, REDI (REsearch based, Developmentally Informed) is added.

REDI is a programme which has been shown to enhance the High/Scope curriculum and achieve higher level outcomes in the domains of social and emotional competence and emergent literacy for 3-4 year olds. It addresses children's pro-social skills, emotional competency, self-control and social problem-solving. It also has a language and literacy component, which increases children's vocabulary, phonological sensitivity (exposure to oral) and print awareness (exposure to written word).

Outcomes

The overall outcome of Tús Maith is that the child will be ready for primary school and will develop the specific cognitive skills necessary for this transition.

Emotional

Children can manage their emotions and regulate their behaviour. This will be evidenced by children being able to:

• identify and name emotions
• be aware of their own/others' emotions
• understand and express emotions
• manage conflict and demonstrate empathy for others

Social

Children will experience positive relationships with their peers and early year's staff. This will be evidenced by children being able to:

• manage their emotions
• play cooperatively participate and take turns
• solve problems
• sharemake positive choices

Language, Literacy and Communication

Children will have the necessary emergent language and literacy skills. This will be evidenced by children being able to:

• express and comprehend language
• communicate effectively with peers and adults
• recognise letters, numbers and symbols
• demonstrate developmentally-appropriate fine motor skills

Physical

Children will have healthy physical development. This will be evidenced by children:

• having the ability to perform simple self-care skills
• having key gross motor skills
• eating a range of healthy food