Terms of use
The rules for using this website, and a clear line between the website and your childcare arrangement. This is a working draft and has not been checked by a solicitor yet.
These terms are about the website. They are short, because the website does very little: it publishes information and it takes waiting list enquiries.
1.The short version
- This website is information about our settings, plus a form for joining the waiting list.
- Joining the waiting list is not an offer of a place and does not guarantee one.
- These terms do not replace your childcare agreement with us. That is a separate document.
- Fees, opening hours, availability and the State childcare schemes change. Check with us before relying on a number you read here.
- The photographs and words on this site belong to us. Please do not republish them, and please never reuse a photograph of a child.
- The privacy policy explains what happens to anything you send us.
2.Who runs this website
This website is run by Newtown Kids Club, the nature-based creche, preschool and after-school service at Newtown, Abbeyknockmoy, Tuam, Co. Galway. Both services are on the Tusla Early Years Register, under TU2015GY198 and TU2015GY199.
[VERIFY the registered business. The name "Newtown Kids' Club Ltd" appears in published academic work and no Companies Registration Office number has been found for it. These terms need the exact legal name of whoever they are being agreed with, or a statement that the business is a sole trader, naming the person. A contract with an entity that cannot be identified is a weak contract.]
[VERIFY the contact email and the Eircode. Neither has been confirmed, and both belong in this section.]
3.What these terms cover
These terms apply to your use of this website. By reading these pages or sending us an enquiry through the form, you are agreeing to them.
The website is aimed at parents and guardians, who are adults. It is not designed for children to use on their own.
If you do not agree with these terms, please do not use the form. You are still welcome to ring us.
What these terms do not cover
Four things sit outside this page. They matter more than anything on it.
- Your childcare agreement
- The contract for an actual place, covering fees, notice, hours, collection and everything else, is a separate agreement between you and the setting. Nothing on this website changes it. [VERIFY whether a written enrolment agreement and parent handbook exist, and link them here if parents should be able to read them before enrolling.]
- The State childcare schemes
- ECCE and the National Childcare Scheme are run by the State, not by us. Their rules, rates and deadlines are set on gov.ie and can change without us knowing. What we publish about them is a plain-English explanation, not the rules themselves.
- Tusla and regulation
- Our obligations as a registered early years service come from the early years regulations and from Tusla, not from this page. Nothing here limits them.
- Other websites
- We link to gov.ie, Tusla and a small number of other sites. We do not run them and we cannot promise anything about what is on them.
5.The information on this website
We write these pages ourselves and we try hard to keep them right. Even so, things change faster than a website does.
- Fees, opening hours and availability can change. Ask us before you rely on a figure you read here.
- The State scheme pages explain ECCE and the National Childcare Scheme as we understand them. The official rules are on gov.ie and they win.
- The blog and the resources are general information for parents. They are not childcare, educational, medical or legal advice about your own child.
- Nothing on this website is an offer of a place, and nothing here forms a contract for childcare.
[VERIFY: several figures on the fees page are marked for checking against gov.ie before launch. This clause is not a substitute for doing that.]
6.Joining the waiting list
The form on the contact page puts an enquiry in front of us. That is all it does. It does not book anything, hold anything or guarantee anything.
- We read every enquiry ourselves and we will come back to you.
- A place on the waiting list is not a place in the setting, and we cannot promise when or whether one will come up.
- Please only submit your own details, and details about your own child.
- Please do not use the form for anything urgent. Ring us instead.
- Please do not send more than the form asks for. If your child has a health condition or an additional need, we do want to know, and the right moment for that is when we talk rather than in a website form. The privacy policy explains why.
[VERIFY whether to promise a response time here, for example within five working days. A stated timeframe is better for parents, and only worth writing if it can be met.]
7.Using the website properly
This is the short list of things not to do. It exists because the form is open to anyone.
- Do not submit false enquiries, or enquiries in another person's name.
- Do not put anything unlawful, abusive or threatening in the message box.
- Do not try to get into the staff area, or into any part of the site that is not public.
- Do not copy the site automatically at a rate that slows it down for parents.
- Do not use anything here to advertise or to sell to us.
We can block access to the form or to the site if it is being misused.
8.Photographs, words and the logo
The text, photographs, illustrations and logo on this site are ours unless something says otherwise.
- You are welcome to read these pages, print them for yourself, and link to them.
- Please do not republish our words or photographs elsewhere without asking us first.
- Photographs showing children must never be copied, reposted or used anywhere else. Those are other people's children.
[VERIFY who owns the photographs. Several came from the setting's Facebook page and it is not confirmed who took them. If a photographer, a parent or a student took any of them, the right to publish them needs to be in writing before this clause is true.]
9.Links to other websites
We link out to gov.ie, Tusla, the local county childcare committee and a small number of other useful sites. We do not run those sites, we do not control what they publish, and we are not responsible for them. A link is not an endorsement of everything on the other end of it.
10.When the site is unavailable
We do not promise that this website is available all the time. It can go down, and it can be taken down for maintenance. We can add, change or remove pages whenever we need to.
If the form is not working and you need to reach us, ring us.
11.What we are responsible for
This section sets out what we are and are not responsible for if something on this website goes wrong. It has not been drafted yet.
[VERIFY] This clause must be written by a solicitor. Two reasons. Irish consumer law limits what a business can exclude when dealing with consumers, and parents are consumers. And liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and for fraud, cannot be excluded at all. A clause copied from another website is likely to be unenforceable and may be worse than none.
Until it is written, take it that nothing on this website limits any right you have in law, and nothing here limits our responsibilities as a registered early years service.
12.Privacy
Everything about what we collect, why, who can see it and how long we keep it is on the privacy page. It is written in the same plain English as this one.
13.Which law applies
These terms are governed by the law of Ireland, and the Irish courts deal with any dispute about them.
[VERIFY this with the same solicitor who drafts section 11. Consumer rules can give a parent the right to bring a case in their own country, and that has to be reflected here rather than overridden by this sentence.]
14.Changes to these terms
We can change these terms. The date at the top of the page shows when they last changed, and the version on the site at the time you use it is the one that applies.
15.Contacting us
Ask us about anything here and we will answer in plain English.
[VERIFY the email address and the phone number to publish. Neither is confirmed, and these terms cannot go live without a way to reach us in writing.]