Aistear Blogs

The Aistear Síolta Practice Guide is an online tool designed to support early years educators in using Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework (GoI, 2024) and Síolta, the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education (GoI, 2017) together in their practice with babies, toddlers and young children.

With the recent update to Aistear, the Practice Guide has also been updated to align with the updated Framework. These updates bring Aistear’s vision to life in everyday practice. The Practice Guide continues to empower educators with the knowledge and support to interpret Aistear, enhance their practice, and create learning experiences that are inclusive, responsive, and meaningful. It promotes the development of early learning environments where babies, toddlers, and young children are not only supported and respected — but recognised as agentic global citizens.

Engaging with the updated Aistear Síolta Practice Guide enables early years educators to build on their existing professional knowledge and deepen their understanding of high-quality practice. The core Principles that underpin both Síolta and Aistear – including relationships, play and children’s rights – remain central to the updates. The Practice Guide recognises educators as agentic, competent, confident and reflective professionals who draw on their knowledge, relationships and judgement to reflect on current practice and identify areas for growth. It continues to support early years educators in working with both Síolta and Aistear in a way that is integrated, reflective and grounded in everyday practice.

To strengthen and align supports for the early years sector, the Aistear Síolta Practice Guide has moved to the Nurturing Skills website. Now part of a broader system of professional learning and development, this move brings the Practice Guide into closer alignment with national policy and makes it easier for early years educators to access a wide range of connected resources in one place. The updated content remains familiar, with further updates and supports planned in the months and years ahead.

Structure of the Practice Guide 
The updated Practice Guide retains the structure of the original, with key updates to the names of the Pillars of Practice to better reflect the updated Aistear. The Practice Guide includes: Curriculum Foundations and, Six interconnected Pillars of Practice 
1.    Partnerships and Connections 
2.    Learning Environments 
3.    Learning through Play 
4.    Relationships and Interactions 
5.    Planning and Assessing 
6.    Supporting Transitions

Contents of the Pillars of Practice 
The Pillars of Practice are designed to support early years educators to reflect on specific aspects of their practice. Each Pillar delves into detail on different areas of practice and supports educators in identifying successes, challenges and areas for improvement through the self-evaluation tools. To support this process, Educator Guides are available on a range of topics – offering deeper insights, practical strategies, and inspiration for meaningful reflection and positive change in daily practice. Existing topics include: developing a rights-based, emergent and inquiry-based curriculum; using open-ended materials; the role of the key person; the importance of slow relational pedagogy in interactions with babies, toddlers and young children; understanding schemas; the importance of play, approaches to developing partnerships and connections with families; approaches to planning and assessment; and support with transitions.

Resources currently in development include new Educator Guides and inspiring practice videos covering a wide range of topics, such as:
•    Children’s rights and agency
•    The agentic educator
•    Equity and inclusion
•    Family and community engagement
•    Engaging with the arts, provocations and outdoor learning
•    Understanding sustainability and intergenerational learning
•    Understanding and responding to the ‘voice’ of babies, toddlers and young children
•    Using the Reflective Cycle of Planning and Assessing

Early years educators are invited to engage with the updated Practice Guide in the same spirit it embodies - with thoughtfulness, curiosity and professional reflection. Each setting will engage with the materials in its own way, guided by the strengths, interests and needs of the babies, toddlers and young children, families and early years educators within it. There is no single path.

Importantly, engagement with the updated Practice Guide can - and should – unfold at a pace that feels manageable. Early years educators are encouraged to take their time, explore areas of interest, revisit familiar supports such as the self-evaluation tools, and gradually make use of new content as it becomes available. 

Read previous blogs here.