Graduation books for a playschool or naionra class
One personalised hardcover for every child leaving your ECCE year for Junior Infants, each the hero of their own story. One parcel to the setting.
The ECCE year ends on 30 June and the children go to Junior Infants in September. That is a fixed, state-set date rather than something each setting decides, which makes it the one leaving moment in Ireland you can plan a keepsake around properly - and the one you cannot move if you start too late.
The ECCE year is the calendar to work back from
ECCE runs 1 September to 30 June, thirty-eight weeks, and it is universal and free - so nearly every child in the country does it and nearly every one of them leaves in the same fortnight. Your leaving group is defined for you.
Work backwards from that. Delivery to Ireland is 9 to 14 days once you approve the class, and the books are NOT printed in Ireland - they come in, which is why the window is wider than a UK setting's. Add a fortnight for families to send photographs, because that part depends on them and not on you.
So send the parent links in the first half of May. A class started in June will not arrive before the children have gone.
Who this suits
Playschools, naionrai, Montessori settings and any sessional service running the ECCE programme, plus primary schools marking the Junior or Senior Infants year. The minimum is five children, so a small sessional room is an ordinary order.
It is worth saying what this is not: not an autograph book, and not a class photo. It is a twelve-chapter illustrated story in which the child holding it is the one who does the brave thing.
ECCE is free, so be careful how you ask
Because the preschool year itself costs families nothing, a keepsake may be the only thing you ever ask them to pay for - and that makes how you ask it matter more here than in a fee-paying setting.
You choose at the start. If the setting funds it, the books are a leaving gift and no family is asked for anything. If families fund it, each parent buys their own child's book from the link you send, the setting handles no money at all, and a family that would rather not simply does not - nothing needs to be said to anyone.
Photograph consent, in a sector that already documents everything
You confirm at the point of ordering that you hold each family's permission, and every parent confirms it again themselves on their own upload page before they can send anything. Two records, two timestamps, made by two different people.
The photograph is used to draw that child's illustrations and then deleted. It is never shown to another family and never appears anywhere findable. There is a full page on this you can print for the folder.
Common questions
When should an Irish playschool order for the end of the ECCE year?
The first half of May. Photograph collection from families realistically takes a fortnight, and delivery to Ireland is 9 to 14 days from the moment you approve the class - the books are not printed in Ireland, so the window is wider than a UK setting's.
Does this suit a naionra?
Yes. The story is written in English and the book is the same for every kind of ECCE setting - what differs is the child in it. If you need the text in Irish, ask before you order rather than after, because it is not something we can change once a class is made.
Who pays, the setting or the parents?
Whichever you choose, and you choose before anything is charged. ECCE itself is free to families, so if you would rather not ask them for money the setting can fund the class outright - and if you would rather spend nothing, each family buys their own child's book directly and you handle none of it.
What is the minimum for a small sessional room?
5 children. A sessional playschool room is an ordinary order rather than an exception.
Are prices in euro?
No - everything is charged in US dollars and your card converts. Delivery to your address is quoted before you pay, and there is one charge for the whole class parcel rather than one per book.
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Start in May and the end of the ECCE year takes care of itself.
Set up a class