I don’t know who enjoyed it more, the children or the staff 🙂

Click on the SWAY below to see what we got up to 🙂

Dumfries House Trips Coalfield Bus

Over the past month, the children have had the opportunity to visit Dumfries House with their friends and the staff on a Monday. We have travelled there by bus, driven either by Alana, Les…

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Lindsey, our Equity and Excellence Lead’s (EEL) time has almost come to an end with us at the ECC. Over the past 8 weeks she has been carrying out nurture sessions with children across the centre working on emotions, regulation, coping strategies and mindfulness.

As she begins to bring her project to an end she invites parents to join her for an hour on THURSDAY 19th MARCH from 9-10am to share information and techniques.

As always, we would love as many of you to join her workshop and show her your support.

Please add your name to the form below if you are able to attend.

PARENT WORKSHOP – Emotional Regulation and Nurture  – Fill in form

A huge well done to Sherrie this morning for leading an outstanding Parent Workshop focusing on engineering – have a look through some of the photos in the link below.

STEM Workshop – Engineering

Thank you to all the parents that attended our engineering workshop this morning, We appreciate your participation and hope you all had fun. I hope it has allowed you to see some of the act…

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Remember to keep checking back on your Dates for the Diary newsletter for more parent engagement opportunities due soon.

Have a great weekend everyone 🙂

Follow our links below to see just some of the experiences and learning that has taken place this month across our 3-5 playrooms.

Sherrie – In The Mill

The Mill Room

Throughout the month of February the children have been expressing themselves through music, learning about different technologies and how to stay safe when using technology. The children h…

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Carrie – In The Brig 

Chinese New Year

This month our learning focus has been on Chinese New Year. We have been using the internet to find out interesting and new facts about the celebration. We have taken part in a range of sen…

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Rena – In The Square 

Music

This months the children have been exploring sound through ,

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Lesleyanne & Corrie – In our Greenspace

Birds

Within Green space the children had shown great interest in nature and the birds around the nursery garden, the children used the binoculars to look for the different types of birds they co…

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Julie N – In our Landscape Outdoor area

Transport

This month outdoors the children have been learning about different forms of transport. We have looked and researched different types of transport such as cars, trucks, trains, planes, boa…

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It’s Sherrie’s turn this Friday 🙂

Come along to Sherrie’s active workshop, have fun and learn alongside your child 🙂

Please complete the form below.

PARENT WORKSHOP – FRIDAY 27th FEB  –  9am-10am – Fill in form

January has been a busy month for all.

We welcomed 11 new children and families into the centre, as well as our new Equity and Excellence Practitioner and 4 college students who we will continue to support to  settle over the coming weeks. We  were involved in a very successful authority audit, offered a parent workshop and staff have been busy creating Personal Learning Plans for our January starts ahead of our Settling In meetings next Wednesday. (If you are still to book your time for this, please do so at pick up time today or phone in to choose one).

Now for all the fun experiences that the children have been exploring 🙂

Please click on each of the links below to find out more and look through our photos from each of our different rooms and areas 🙂 (Families within our Voes playroom can find their photos on individual Learning Journals weekly)

Music in the Square

Within the square, we have been learning about music, sound and instruments. We have been using instruments to listen and repeat the sounds, learning the names and sounds of each instrument…

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Architects/ Builders (the mill)

Over the month of January within the mill the children have been exploring the roles of Architects and Builders. To do this we have had discussions on what we think they are, used books, vi…

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Weather & Ice

We have been participating in a wide range of activities based on learning about ice. Firstly we discussed what ice was made of and how water can change. We worked as a team to experiment o…

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Robert Burns/Scotland

This month in The Brig the children have been learning all about Robert Burns, where he lived, Scottish poems, Scottish songs and created their own portrait of Robert Burns. They also got t…

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Have a great weekend everyone 🙂

Join Leoni and Julie T on Monday 26th January at 9am to find out more about how you can support your child with the use of visuals and Makaton.  This workshop will be of a huge benefit to parents of children who perhaps require some support with language and communication, as well as support with daily transitions and routines – however it is not only for the above parents. Visuals and Makaton support all. Both sit within our Improvement Plan this year and the full ECC have been learning Makaton, so why not learn a little too?

Please complete the link below to allow us to set up the room accordingly.

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=oyzTzM4Wj0KVQTctawUZKRqhoaEMY8FHkTJQGETc2XZUOVlBVzNaNEw1NkJVNzdLTk1QWUw2TTdXNy4u

Visuals in the ECC boost comprehension, memory and focus by providing permanent, easily processed information that supports all learners. They help structure routines, facilitate transitions, encourage communication and engage students in deeper learning through tools like mind maps and diagrams. 

Makaton in early years boosts communication, reduces frustration and fosters inclusion by combining signs, symbols and speech, helping all children develop language, attention, memory and social skills, making learning more accessible and building confidence for those with communication challenges and their peers. It provides a visual support system that enhances understanding, vocabulary and cognitive development, leading to better engagement and stronger peer relationships in nursery settings. 

Leoni and Julie T’s Parent Workshop – Communication for all – Fill in form

We hope to see you there 🙂

Please see below for important dates for your diary from January to June 2026.

A paper copy will also be displayed in the ECC corridor for ease.

Dates for your Diary

A separate calendar is also available for school transition events.

Please note that are dates are subject to change however if dates/times do change due to unforeseen circumstances we will inform parents ASAP via our ECC APP.

As you all know, enrolment for P1 is open this week for any child due to start school in August this year.

With this in mind, we would like to share our transition calendar with you to enable you to make plans for any changes to drops and/or picks. This will also allow you the chance to find out what opportunities your child will have over the coming months and to talk to them about it (click link at bottom of post)

Your child will be issued with a letter by the end of the week indicating what group they will be in.

Our Literacy, Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing sessions are open to all pre-schoolers regardless of the school they are enrolling for, if you would like them to attend. If you would rather they did not attend these sessions, please make your child’s keyworker or Alana aware.

Please note – Dates for any transition events from other feeder schools will come directly from them.

ECC to P1 Parent Dates for your Diary 25-26

Dates will also be displayed in ECC corridor for ease.

Well …… busy is an understatement! I know I say it every month but the past 3 weeks has been jam packed full of fun. Please see below some SWAYs from December 🙂

Christmas Festivities 2025 Catrine ECC

Here at Catrine, we take this festive season very seriously!

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Sherrie was in The Brig learning all about the story of Christmas

The Story of Christmas

The children have been learning about the story of Christmas. We read the book and listened to the story on the smartboard. We used the dress up resources to explore the different character…

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Abby and her team of “Little Helper’s” were working hard in Santa’s Workshop

Santa’s workshop.

This month we have been very busy working as little elves in Santa’s workshop. We have been building toys, wrapping them up and putting them in Santa’s sleigh, we have been developing our f…

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Whilst in The Square playroom Carrie offered snack each day and once this was tidied away her main focus was on the action songs for our Christmas Carols in the Community. I think you will agree the children all did fantastic – and so did Carrie 🙂

Christmas experiences in the Square room

This month we have worked super hard to learn all our new Christmas songs. We have been learning the actions to the songs, makaton signs and had lots of practice using the props and hats. A…

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Julie and Leoni were exploring Christmas outdoors with the children, both in the community and within our garden areas

Christmas Outdoors

Within outdoors over the month of December with Leoni, Julie, Corrie and Lesleyanne, the children have been getting into the Christmas spirit as they have decorated the garden with tinsel a…

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If your child is in our Voes Room remember to check your child’s Learning Journal for extra photographs on Friday throughout the month.