Author: Kady

Family Engagement Opportunities

Bookbug

We have been delighted with the amount of families, who put their name forward to come join us, for this year’s first Bookbug session. Apologies to those of you who were unable to secure a place, but please be assured this is our first of many we intend to run throughout the year. (upcoming dates available in our Family Engagement Calendar 2024-25)

Curriculum Fayre

Our Curriculum Fayre is taking place on Thursday 10th October 6pm – 8pm. This is a drop in event open to all our families (adults only) to come see behind the scenes in our centre. Last entry to this event is 7:30pm. All families should enter through the schools main entrance where a sign in sheet will be located.

Fayre format – Our fayre starts in the Gym hall where we have various stalls available for our families to peruse. Professionals are situated at each stall to answer any and all questions you may have. You will then have the opportunity to move on through up into the EYC where staff will have examples of how we support your child’s learning and development in all areas of the Curriculum, again staff are happy to both demonstrate and discuss this, there may even be opportunity for our adults to have a play! 

Stalls – Located in Gym Hall

Hayely Montgomery – Educational Psychologist

Rachael Donaghy – Family Engagement / Support

Heather Dalton – Children’s Rights

Sophie Crowe – Speech & Language

Mrs Loney & Mrs Readie – School SLT

TBC – Parent Council Representative

Martyn Cosh – EYCAT Representative

Carol & Esther – EYC Teachers

Sponsored Broom Zoom

Children will be taking part in a sponsored Broom Zoom. This will run from the 28th of October through to the 1st of November. Sponsor sheets will be sent home with children around a week in advance.

Bubble, Brew & Science too!! 

Come join us for our Science themed stay and play session on Monday 28th October 10am – 11am. Spaces for this will be limited, therefore will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Stay & Play registration 

Spooky Scavenger Hunt

We will be hosting our annual spooky scavenger hunt on Wednesday 30th of October, 5pm to 6pm. This is open to all our families, taking place around the school grounds.

Stay & Play registration

Interactive family sessions / Family workshops 

We have scheduled 2 interactive family sessions for next month, we would like to base these around what our families feel would be most relevant, in supporting their child’s development.

Please take a few moments to complete our consultation and have your say on what you feel we should focus on.

Interactive Family Sessions – Suggestions for Focus

What’s Happening in Centre?

In centre it is important that each child and families have a sense of belonging in centre, aligning with our values “We create a safe space where relationships and environment nurture all children and families” As part of this, each year our children have the opportunity to pick a theme for our EYC, they choose group names and names for our rooms. This year our favourite Julia Donaldson books were top of the list!

Our group names this year are;

• The Gruffalo
• The Gruffalo’s Child
• The Paper Dolls
• The Scarecrow’s Wedding
• Zog
• Stickman

Our Room names are;

The Smed Room & The Smoo Room

   

We would like to thank the lovely Pauline, our schools SLA who help us in creating our door displays. I think you will agree, they are FABULOUS!!

Forest Programme

Our roll out of the forest programme got underway this week with both the stickman and the scarecrow’s wedding group heading up to Cairnhill woods, where they took part in some access activities. This programme will be rolled out to all pre-school children before Christmas, looking to extend to all children as we move into 2025.

                             

Care home Visits

We paid a visit to Westerton Care Home where children spent time singing songs, painting pictures and spending time with the residents.

Care Plan Review

We had mentioned in our previous news letter that our children’s care plans are due for review. We will be sending these home over the next week and ask that everyone take the time to look over the information inside carefully, blank copies will be given for amendments to be made as required.

Why do we need Care Plans?

Care plans help us ensure that we have the most up to date and relevant information for your child. When your child first starts with us, the completion of their care plan supports the transition process from home to the EYC. We use the information you tell us, to create and environment for you child in which they feel safe, secure and able to develop. We use their interests as a vehicle, growing their confidence and curiosity as they navigate their journey through the early years. Keeping care plans up to date ensures that we can continue to tailor each child’s individual learning journey, considering more that what we observe and know through our relationship with your child, taking a look at the wider factors which influence your child’s life.

 

Children’s Rights 

Establishing an understanding of Children’s Rights within our centre was added to our Improvement Plan this year. Our focus for 2024-25 is to “Introduce all children, families and staff to the UNCRC (United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child), fostering and environment which raises awareness and understanding whilst promoting the rights of the child.”

Heather had expressed an interest in learning more about the rights of the child as part of her own personal development therefore, she will be taking the lead in this area enabling us to achieve what is set out in our priority.

Over the past 6 week Heather has been focusing on Article 1 “Everyone under 18 has rights” beginning to use the language of rights around the children, raising their awareness that they all have rights.

 

On this rotation, Heather will look at Article 42 “You have a right to know about your rights! Adults should know about these rights and help you learn about them too.” Heather will begin to further explore the rights as a collective touching on a variety of different rights to bring familiarity to children’s understanding. Heather will be sharing information with our families to ensure we all have a shared understanding of rights, and how we can both advocate and promote these for our children.