Donegal nursery “staying together by keeping apart”

An Inishowen nursery school has found a novel way of keeping its children occupied during the Covid-19 crisis.

With the government's decision to close the country's schools and early years facilities, Carndonagh-based Little Acorns Nursery and Montessori has not let that stop them in educating their kids as best they can.

Little Acorns Nursery and Montessori owner, Sarah Quigley Burns (pictured below), along with her staff, have made up little activity packs for their kids, which can be collected by parents from the nurseries reception each week.

“When the announcement was made that all schools, including early years had to close, we were scrambling around to figure out what we can do,” Sarah said. “Leo's Varadkar speech, were he said about us coming together by staying apart was really inspiring.

“It really hit the right note and got me thinking. I started looking around the place to see what resources we had at are disposal and that's were we came up with the idea for the packs.”

The activity packs have been prepared by Little Acorns Nursery and Montessori teachers to provide activities that will stimulate children’s learning and development over this difficult time for parents.

These packs contain arts and crafts activities that parents can use indoors and outdoors to help entertain children and promote fine and gross motor skills.

“We are a primarily outdoor based school, which basically means we're out in all types of weather apart from high winds, so we tried to incorporate things that parents can do with their kids in their backyard or wherever.”

To help parents in using the packs, Little Acorns is using the help of an app to explain to parents how to use the contents of the packs provided.

“Our app, the Little Vista App, is great. It allows us to keep in touch with the parents and to keep connected with the children.

“It's like what Leo Varadkar said, coming together by staying apart. We're trying to keep a sense of community, which has so far been great.

“We have had nothing but great feedback from the parents, which really makes it all worthwhile.”