Our Creche
Our creche caters for children from 12 months to 36 months.
The objectives of Bubbles Crèche are to:
- create a welcoming atmosphere for all service stakeholders
- promote respect for Children, Staff and Families in an inclusive and stimulating enviornment
- encourage appreciation and consideration of Children, Staff and Families
- provide a secure and supportive environment to maximise individual development of each child
- ensure each child reaches their full potential through our high quality childcare curriculum
- provide opportunities for fun learning, creativity, exploration and play
- prepare the child for further education and life-long learning
- provide the child with the best possible foundation for life and early education
Baby Room - children aged 12 - 24 months.
The babies in the Baby Room have access to a wide variety of stimulating soft toys, puzzles, books, and games appropriate to their developmental stage. Staff provide daily opportunities and a range of activities to promote language, social, physical, intellectual and emotional development. A separate sleep room that can be accessed directly from the baby or wobbler room, with individual cots, is provided for the children. The ratio in this room is 1 adult to 5 children.
Wobbler Room - children aged 24 - 36 months.
The children in the Wobbler Room have access to a wide variety of stimulating soft toys, puzzles, books, and games appropriate to their developmental stage. Staff provide daily opportunities and a range of activities to promote language, social, physical, intellectual and emotional development. Each child’s individual requirements are assessed and taken into consideration to ensure quality childcare is provided on an individual basis. The ratio in this room is 1 educator to 6 children.
Playschool Room - children aged 36-48 months.
The children in the playschool room engage in a wide variety of stimulating activities including;
- Socio-dramatic play and drama.
- Sensory play in our sensory room.
- “Stretch and Grow”.
- Messy play (wide variety of messy play and sensory play activities).
- Imaginative play .
- Outdoor play.
- Music.
- Art and crafts .
These activities provide opportunities to promote language and social skills, as well as enhancing emotional and physical development. The ratio in this room is 1 educator to 8 children (1 to 11 for ECCE).
Sensory room
Our specially designed sensory room helps to develop the children’s senses through special lighting, music and sensory objects. It creates a “safe place” for children while also providing a therapeutic opportunity to discover senses.
Outdoor Area
Bubbles Crèche has a secure and enclosed play area with a safety wet pore surface. Children are given daily opportunities to play outside in the play area, which is a safe, secure environment with age appropriate play equipment. In fine weather a lot of the activities are moved outdoors ensuring the children get as much outdoor play as possible.
Bubbles Creche
No 7 Drisin,
Ballymoneen Rd,
Knocknacarra,
Galway, H91C4E3.
Telephone: 091 - 510620
Opening hours & closure days:
Monday to Thursday: 07.30-18.00hrs Friday: 07.30-17.00hrs
Bubbles Creche is open 50 weeks annually, closing one week over Christmas and the first week in August.
Our Montessori
Our Montessori caters for children from 36 months to 6 years.
The Montessori approach is a child-centred method of education that nurtures curiosity, independence, and a lifelong love of learning. Developed by Dr. Maria Montessori, it is based on the belief that children learn best in an environment that supports their natural development.
In a Montessori setting, children are encouraged to explore, discover, and learn at their own pace. Carefully designed materials and hands-on activities help develop practical life skills, sensory awareness, language, mathematics, and social understanding. Teachers act as guides rather than instructors, observing each child and providing gentle support tailored to their individual needs and interests. This fosters confidence, self-discipline, and a sense of responsibility.
The Montessori approach values respect—for the child, for others, and for the environment—helping to build strong foundations for both academic success and personal growth. The children in Montessori respect and care for each other and their environment. This approach nurtures confidence, critical thinking, and a lifelong love of learning.
Bubbles Montessori is a Reggio inspired pre-school Montessori service. The Reggio Emilia–inspired approach is a child-centred philosophy that recognises children as capable, curious, and active participants in their own learning. It emphasises creativity, collaboration, and inquiry as key drivers of development.
Children are encouraged to explore their interests using a variety of expressive forms such as art, language, and play. The environment is carefully designed to support discovery, with open-ended materials that invite investigation and creativity. Educators act as guides. Active collaboration with families further support a connected and enriching learning experience for the child. The Ratio in Montessori is 1 educator to 8 children.
To learn more about the Reggio Approach, please visit the Early Childhood Ireland website:
The objectives of Bubbles Montessori are to:
- create a welcoming atmosphere which promotes respect, appreciation and consideration for all children their families and staff.
- ‘follow’ the child based on his/her own individual learning ability.
- adopt the Montessori child based philosophy and observe the natural tendencies of the child.
- ensure the child reaches their full potential through excellent, quality accredited Montessori education.
- maintain accreditation standards awarded to Bubbles by AMI and IMEB.
- present opportunities for creativity, exploration and play that prepare the child for further education and life-long learning, taking into account each child's own learning abilities.
- develop each child so they have the best possible foundation for life and early education in a welcoming, inclusive and stimulating environment.
- provide a varied daily menu that provides healthy and nutritious meals.
Montessori Room
Bubbles have two classrooms in which 40 children can be registered. Each classroom has fully qualified and dedicated Montessori Educators and assistants. We have a certified Montessori prepared environment that includes a full range of materials for the ages of 3 to 6 years consistent with IMEB and AMI Accreditation.
Children are introduced with the areas of Practical Life, Sensorial, Mathematics, Language, Geography and Culture, Botany and Biology. The children are given opportunities to experience and carry out science experiments. Monthly themes are used, such as Space Exploration or the Life-cycle of a Butterfly to bring reality closer to the child. Baking, arts and crafts and class outings e.g. the Fire Station, The Aquarium and Babaro International Childrens Festival; are regular features of the child's experience with Bubbles. The children also have access to a wide variety of puzzles, books, and games, appropriate to develop imagination and creativity.
Bubbles educators provide daily opportunities to engage the child in activities that promote language, social, physical, intellectual and emotional development. The children in the Montessori service engage in a wide variety of child friendly activities including:
- Socio-dramatic play and drama
- Sensory play
- Messy play
- Baking
- Gardening
- Outdoor play
- Music
- Art and crafts
- Sports
- Stretch n Grow
- Outdoor trips
Outdoor Area
Bubbles Montessori has a secure, enclosed play area designed to meet the developmental needs and requirements of an inquisitive Montessori child. It is a specially designed risk rich environment. Children are given daily opportunities to play outside in the play area with age appropriate play equipment.
Bubbles Montessori
No 18 Leargan,
Western Distributor Rd,
Knocknacarra, Galway, H91TR98.
Telephone: 091 - 510700
Opening hours & closure days:
Monday to Thursday: 07.30-18.00hrs Friday: 07.30-17.00hrs
Bubbles Montessori is open 50 weeks annually, closing one week over Christmas and the first week in August.
Our Curriculum
In addition to the Montessori and Reggio approach to childcare we follow the National Curriculum of Aistear & Siolta.
Aistear
Aistear: the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework celebrates early childhood as a time of being, a time for enjoying and learning from experiences as they unfold, and laying important foundations for later learning and for life.
Because early childhood marks the beginning of babies, toddlers and young children’s lifelong learning journeys, the Framework is called Aistear, the Irish word for journey.
Síolta
Síolta is the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education. Its purpose is designed to define, assess and support all aspects of Early Childhood Education. Síolta enables the staff in Bubbles Montessori to provide a high standard of childcare under its twelve principles.
The Síolta principles are designed with a child’s individual needs as priority, while also developing their social, emotional, cognitive, intellectual and physical skills.
Childpath App
We use an enterprise management system called Childpaths to communicate with parents on their child’s day in Bubbles. Childpath's functionality also assist parents with the tracking and updating of their Government scheme allowances.
As a parent, you want to see it all, the laughs, the learning, the little wins. So when life gets busy, Childpaths keeps you close and updated on your child's progress. It facilitates you staying involved in your child’s development and allows you collaborate, support, and connect to our service staff with confidence.
Once your child is registered with Bubbles, we will set parents up on Childpaths.
Daily Meals
We provide daily meals in our creche and montessori: a mid morning snack, dinner and an afternoon snack is provided with a strong emphasis on healthy food options. In Bubbles Crèche & Montessori all food and drinks are included in our fees. We cater for children who have food allergies or sensitivities to certain foods.
Early Days Foods take pride in providing healthy and nutritionally balanced children’s meals to nursery schools, creches and schools across Ireland. Their tasty meals are carefully crafted with the finest ingredients to meet the nutritional needs of growing infants and children, to help nourish their growing bodies and minds.
Over the years we have supplied millions of meals to little mouths across Ireland, and have a dedicated team working to continually enhance their meals and ensure quality remains consistently high. Their chefs, customer service and delivery teams ensure all kids across Ireland have access to tasty and nutritious meals when at nursery, creche or school.
Moon and Spoon are a unique catering service dedicated to providing nurseries with delicious dishes packed full of nutritious super foods. Created by an experienced chef, the dishes pass the taste test every time. To ensure optimum nutrition is provided a leading consultant dietitian, Gillian Killiner, advises Moon & Spoon on the nutritional composition of the meals.
Using a mix of fun names, aromas, textures and flavours, the dinners appeal specifically to children’s senses. Because the menu is entirely balanced, it helps children develop excellent dietary habits from a very early age. Best of all, the dishes are incredibly tasty so kids simply love tucking in! They have a large variety of different dinners available providing the children with various dinners daily for a month.