![\"Education](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0_Drumadonnell-Primary-School-Nursery-Unit.jpg\")
Education Minister pictured (l to r) with pupil Jack, Principal Lynn Wilson and pupil Alice during a visit to Drumadonnell Primary School Nursery Unit<\/p>\nIt will provide over 2,500 additional full-time pre-school education placesEducation Minister pictured (l to r) with pupil Jack, Principal Lynn Wilson and pupil Alice during a visit to Drumadonnell Primary School Nursery Unit<\/p>\n
The first cohort of pre-schools in Northern Ireland<\/a> are expanding their provision to full-time sessions under the Pre-School Standardisation Programme.<\/p>\n This standardisation of pre-school settings forms part of a package of measures to support children, parents<\/a> and providers with early learning and childcare.<\/p>\n It has expanded the length of pre-school education sessions to a minimum of 22.5 hours per week for all children aged 3-4, including access to free school meals for eligible children<\/a> from September 2025.<\/p>\n READ MORE: The list of NI schools taking part in new phone-free pilot scheme<\/a>READ MORE: NI MLAs clash over accusation speech was written by AI<\/a><\/p>\n A total of 105 pre-school <\/a>settings have transitioned to the longer session length from September 2025, providing over 2,500 additional full-time pre-school education places in the first cohort of the Standardisation Programme.<\/p>\n Drumadonnell Primary School Nursery Unit in Banbridge<\/a> is one of the first schools <\/a>to successfully complete their transition to full-time pre-school provision.<\/p>\n Speaking during a visit to the school, Education Minister<\/a> Paul Givan said: \u201cThere is a compelling case for providing 22.5 hours of pre-school education, particularly in terms of its positive impact on children\u2019s social and emotional development. Full-time provision allows children extended engagement with pre-school educators, giving them the time and support they need to build essential early skills that are the foundation of future learning.<\/p>\n \u201cLonger session lengths will be especially beneficial for children who require additional support, while also offering significant advantages for many working parents by helping to reduce childcare costs.<\/p>\n \u201cI have secured \u00a380million Executive <\/a>funding over the past two financial years to take forward a package of measures for early learning and childcare services. A significant part of this funding was invested in our pre-school sector which clearly demonstrates the value that we place on early years education in Northern Ireland and delivers on the Programme for Government (PFG) priority of providing more affordable, accessible, high-quality early learning and childcare.\u201d<\/p>\n Lynn Wilson, Principal at Drumadonnell Primary School and Nursery Unit added: \u201cWe are delighted to have been selected in the first cohort of pre-schools to transition to full-time pre-school provision. This transformation will make a real difference in our rural community.<\/p>\n \u201cBy extending our nursery hours, we are able to further enhance and enrich the educational experience of our young learners, laying a strong foundation for the future. Full-time pre-school provision offers additional support and greater flexibility for working families and extends the hours of our dedicated nursery staff.\u201d<\/p>\n Full list of pre-school settings requesting transition from September 2025<\/p>\n Work towards transitioning a further 2,200 additional pre-school places across approximately 100 settings to full-time provision from September 2026 is underway. Consultation on the next cohort of 33 settings under consideration for implementation of the Programme is open until Friday, October 24 2025.<\/p>\n Further consultations on additional settings under consideration for further cohorts will follow in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage<\/strong> here<\/a> and sign up to our daily newsletter<\/a> here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It will provide over 2,500 additional full-time pre-school education placesEducation Minister pictured (l to r) with pupil Jack,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[144635,389,78922,80374,80195,88580,89729,80196,60801,2266,1144,857,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-466448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-banbridge","9":"tag-children","10":"tag-co-antrim","11":"tag-co-armagh","12":"tag-co-derry","13":"tag-co-down","14":"tag-co-fermanagh","15":"tag-co-tyrone","16":"tag-department-of-education","17":"tag-education","18":"tag-northern-ireland","19":"tag-schools","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115300381118412364","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}