Cork preschool won't let 'grand-soft-day' rain stop play

Pupils to have all their learning sessions in the great outdoors due to Covid

Amelie, Elizabeth, Lauren, and Belle play in a sandpit at Farmyard Kindergarden, Strawberry Hill, Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins

Come rain or shine, the kids at one pre-school in Cork city will stay outside this year as it aims to host all learning sessions in the great outdoors.

Farmyard Kindergarten on Strawberry Hill will operate outside fully this year, in almost all weather and across all seasons. The Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) preschool has always focused on staying outside for the most part but this year due to Covid, it decided to run all sessions out in the open.

“The first thing I ask parents when they call to enroll their children is ‘Do you mind your child being out in the rain?’ because we are out in the rain,” laughed Carol Brogan, supervisor and teacher at the school. 

“We only come in really to have a snack and tell a story at the end of the session. I went to so many webinars for going back to preschool and all the guidelines kept changing over the summer about cleaning, hygiene, and protocols. 

Carol Brogan greets the pupils during 'Ring-Time' at the morning group/session at  Farmyard Kindergarden, Strawberry Hill, Cork.  Picture: Larry Cummins

"I just thought ‘You know what, we should just extend what we already do. So I had meetings with the parents about it and everybody was on board.”

Because Farmyard Kindergarten is on the ECCE scheme, children can start at the age of two years and eight months. “We have some children here whose parents aren't happy with them going to primary school amidst the whole Covid situation," Ms Brogan explained. 

"Children legally don’t have to be in school until they are six so they are doing a bit of homeschooling and sending them to us. 

We have children here and a couple of them hadn’t been with other children since March, because people are just scared, people are following the lockdown rules. 

"So it's been a strange back-to-school time for us but we got there."

Covid guidelines still apply to the preschool and among the protocols are a strong focus on hand and respiratory hygiene. 

The school follows Aistear, the early childhood curriculum for children up to the age of six. "We also follow, kind of loosely, a Waldorf-Steiner curriculum," Ms Brogan explained. 

“You can do the exact same learning outside as you can with beads and counters inside. The children have more ownership of it I think when they find the materials themselves with you. 

"We’ve done things like make our own blocks  — we’ve sawed them ourselves, we’ve sandpapered them ourselves. It doesn’t happen overnight but the children have made their own toys."

The covered activity area at Farmyard Kindergarden, Strawberry Hill, Cork. 

The children also have access to a huge garden, she added. "We pick mint and the kids will make their own tea out of it, or we’ll grow lemon balm. 

"We have an apple tree, there’s a pear tree and they pick them themselves. You’re not showing them flashcards about autumn, they are actually feeling it and seeing it themselves." 

Rain gear is mandatory, and the school does not operate outdoors when there is an orange or red weather warning forecast. 

"If the wind starts picking up, or if it's predicted to go between 50 to 55 kilometres an hour, that's not safe so we wouldn't go out." 

Between September and March in the last school year, the school only had to abandon its outside time twice. 

"If it's torrential, we have little shelters that we can go under, and you know yourself after 10 minutes, it blows over and you are back to grand-soft-day rain again."