Siolta and Aistear

Along with the Montessori Curriculum, we also implement Siolta and Aistear within D2 Montessori.

What is Siolta?

Síolta is the National Quality Framework for all services working with Birth-6 year old's in the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) sector in Ireland. Síolta, meaning ‘Seeds’, was developed by the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education (CECDE) and was published and launched in 2006.

Síolta is designed to define, assess and support the improvement of quality across all aspects of practice in ECCE settings where children aged birth to six years are present. These settings include:

1. Full and Part-time daycare services
2. Childminding services
3. Sesional services
4. Infant classes in primary schools

What is Aistear?

Aistear is the National Curriculum Framework for children from birth to six years in Ireland. The word Aistear is the Irish word for journey and was chosen because early childhood marks the beginning of children’s lifelong learning journeys. The Aistear framework can be used as a guide in planning learning experiences in sesional, full and part-time day care settings, infant classes in primary schools and childminding services. It can also be used by parents in children’s own homes.

Aistear describes learning and development through four interconnected themes:

1. Well-being
2.  Identity and Belonging
3.  Communicating
4.  Exploring and Thinking