Supporting Children & Families
We hope that you will find the information contained in our handbook below to be informative and interesting. Reading through it will give you some idea of the many activities that take place in Colquhoun Park Early Years Centre, giving you a feel for the service we provide and the vision, aims and values that we follow.
We are a local authority early years centre registered to provide flexible childcare for 40 children aged 3 to 5 years and 10 children aged 2 – 3 years at any one time. We offer an extended day/extended year service opening from 8am till 6pm, only closing for public holidays, in service days and the period of time between Christmas and new year.
We are an integral part of the wider school community and have strong links with our colleagues in Colquhoun Park Primary School with collaborative working across the early level. Claire Loney, Head Teacher leads our team sharing a clear and mutually agreed vision, values and aims.
Teaching staff and early years workers work in partnership with children and parents to promote learning, develop links with home and take forward initiatives within the centre. All staff have relevant childcare qualifications, are registered with the appropriate body and update their knowledge and skills by regularly accessing professional development opportunities. New members of staff are mentored by more experienced members of staff for a period of 6 months to ensure a consistent approach and shared understanding of priorities. These supports ensure we deliver high quality learning experiences which promote investigation, exploration and curiosity in a safe and stimulating environment both indoors and out.
We use established frameworks and guidance including Curriculum for Excellence, Pre Birth to Three, Realising the Ambition and Space to Grow to ensure children experience a coherent and holistic curriculum which will support them in developing lifelong skills, knowledge and attributes including resilience and critical thinking. Learning experiences are designed to provide appropriate levels of challenge and support and use children’s interests as a context.
Children are consulted and listened to, and their thoughts and ideas are actively acted upon.
We follow physical activity guidelines to ensure children have access to the recommended time spent in active and outdoor play and are currently developing an outside in approach where children can choose to remain outdoors when being dropped off by their parents each day; our outdoor area is an extension of our indoor playrooms and not seen as a separate environment.
We place a strong emphasis on health and wellbeing and this is demonstrated by our positive relationships and nurturing ethos, both evident throughout the centre. We work in partnership with parents and recognise that children come to us having already developed a wide range of skills and knowledge from home and their wider experiences. When they are happy and settled and have formed a trusting relationship with their keyworker we can begin to build on these further, supporting children to reach their full potential.
Children have opportunity to participate in a range of initiatives on offer: we are a Smile Too nursery promoting good oral hygiene. Children take part in daily toothbrushing (an opt out programme) and are offered a range of healthy snacks and drinks. We also deliver Paths, Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies to support emotional development and wellbeing. We deliver forest schools where children learn to assess and manage risk and explore literacy, numeracy and other curricular areas in an outdoor environment.
OUR VISION
Children will develop emotional resilience in a safe and nurturing, play based environment, where they are supported and
encouraged to be the best version of themselves.
Our ethos promotes a sense of curiosity and heightened wellbeing, both indoors and out, recognising individual achievements and the need for a holistic approach.
OUR VALUES
We nurture the expression of individuality and embrace all types of play and enjoyment.
We value and appreciate children, families and the wider community associated with our centre.
We recognise and celebrate all achievements, providing challenge and support to realise children’s full potential
We create a safe space where relationships and environment nurture all children and families
OUR AIMS
We aim to promote positive, open and honest communication to maintain and secure effective relationships and to work in partnership to achieve positive outcomes for all.
We aim to encourage independence and confidence, supporting children to become successful learners, and to build their resilience to navigate the wider world around them.
We aim to promote curiosity through active learning opportunities and discovery.
We aim to ensure that children are safe and secure in an inclusive environment.
2026 – 2027 academic year has arrived!!!
It has been a busy summer for us here at Colquhoun enjoying lots of fun in the sun and making sure that our pre-schoolers got the send off they deserved at their very special graduation. They were all so ready and we are delighted to report that we must’ve made it to the cool list this year as they still want to talk to us in the corridors! Please do not forget to send us your children’s first day at school photos if you haven’t already. Children who have moved onto school will lose access to their online learning system on Sunday 13th of September, information on how to export your child’s learning journey is detailed below.
Exporting and saving your profile
When it comes time for you to move on or leave the school you can export everything that has ever been uploaded. This means all your observations, stories, parent contributions as well as every photo or video.
Just click on the Convert Profile To PDF button. You’ll then just select from some options, e.g. do you want everything or just the last 2 years?
The system will then create a PDF for you which will become available from your downloads tab.
We are delighted to welcome so many new faces to join us in Centre this year. We feel very lucky to be part of your child’s early years journey but we also know that starting anywhere new can be daunting. We would like to make that transition as seamless as possible, we have an open door policy here for our families and we encourage anyone at any time to pop in for a chat if they need to, or pick up a phone, one of our team will always be willing to support in any way we can.
Joint Inspection – HMIE & Care Inspectorate
In April, the EYC was inspected by both HMIE & Care Inspectorate. Colquhoun Park EYC was the first in EDC to be inspected under this new model and we are delighted to say that in June we received the result for this. Our EYC was graded VERY GOOD (5) in all 4 areas inspected; Learning, teaching and assessment, Children’s progress, Staff skills, knowledge, values and deployment, Nurturing care and support.
To read the full report, click the link below.
Care Inspectorate & HMIE Report 2026
Inspection follow up
“We suggested reviewing drop-off arrangements for families as part of their self-evaluation process. At some points families dropped children at the nursery gate, instead of coming into the setting play spaces. Management were receptive and were signposted to the Care Inspectorate best practice note, ‘Me, my family and my childcare setting’. Supporting families to come into the setting could further strengthen relationships and positive attachments.”
Whilst we ask this to promote the children’s safety and wellbeing we do understand that for some families this may cause a bit of barrier when it comes to feeling welcomed in centre or indeed building relationships with our team. It goes without saying that we value the relationships we have with our families massively and would never want to do anything that may be detrimental to fostering positive connections with everyone.
We would been keen to get your views on this procedure. We will use your answers to determine how we go forward and any changes/adaptations that may need to be made.
Procedure Review – Collection / Drop off
Upcoming Events
We are currently making the final tweaks to our events calendar, and we can already see this year is shaping up to be a good one.
Communication Survey
We realise that when it comes to communication a one size fits all approach is not effective, we also understand that life is busy and that the most important thing when it comes to getting information is that is accessible to you by means/method that suits and your families needs.
We have lots of different methods of communication, however we are not confident that these are all as effective or as fit for purpose as we would have hoped or even how they were originally.
We would like to as you to take this quick survey to help us understand the best way to engage with our families.
Communication Survey – Fill in form
Space to Share
If there is anything going on in our community or you think would be good to share with other families, please let us know and we will be sure to include it in our next edition!
Team Colquhoun💙
| 2026 | 13th – 14th August | In-service Days |
| Fri 25th – Mon 28th September | Public Holidays | |
| Friday 9th October | In-Service Day | |
| Thurs 25th December to Monday 4th January (inclusive) | Christmas Holidays | |
| 2027 | Wed 17th Feb | In-Service Day |
| Friday 26th – Monday 29th March | Easter Weekend | |
| Monday 3rd May | May Public Holiday | |
| Thursday 6th May | In-Service Day | |
| Friday 28th – Monday 31st May | May Weekend | |
| Monday 19th July | Fair Monday |
