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.
- Mini Explorers and Forest Programme – In centre initiative to promote connection and understanding of the outdoors.
- Stay and play sessions – Variety of opportunities to come into centre to stay and play with your child.
- Interactive group sessions – These sessions are highly sought and address in a safe space some of the challenges faces during parenthood in the early years.
- Curriculum Fayre – Event ran to give an insight into the behind the scenes of education in the early years.
- Bookbug sessions – open to all these will be run both throughout the day and as twilight sessions
- Grandparent storytelling sessions – We will be looking for volunteers throughout the year to come share a story with our children.
- People who help us – We will be calling all emergency service family members we will be looking for volunteers!!
- Themed days/weeks – We will take part in national events that support our children’s understanding of the world around them. i.e. Maths week, cultural events, road safety week etc.
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💙
