Supporting Children & Families
Hi! My name is Amy and I have a full time post here at Colquhoun Park EYC. very recently came from another centre in East Dunbartonshire and have been loving getting to know all of your little ones!
I am originally from Falkirk but have been living locally for the past year.
Can’t wait to meet you all!!
Family Engagement & Events Feedback
Thank you to each and everyone of our families who took the time to complete our family engagement and events feedback form. We were completely overwhelmed by the amount of positive feedback received and also extremely grateful for the constructive suggestions we were given on how we can improve moving forward.
Below are areas suggested for improvement by our families and our plan on how we intend to do so in the future.
What you said ….
Making sure children have jumpers/jackets/water bottles as appropriate on sports day.
What we done/will do…
As our numbers increase on whole centre events we may need to recruit some additional adult support from our families. Water stations are taken down to sports day however, if your would prefer your child bring a water bottle please speak to staff and we will ensure your child has it. Unfortunately, we are not always as lucky with the weather as we hope for, therefore being prepared with children’s jackets/jumpers on standby (instead of last minute dash) is absolutely something we will ensure is done next year – clothing being named will support us in this.
What you said…
More options of stay and play.
What we done/will do…
We are hopeful to run a variety of opportunities for you to come to centre and play with your children we will offer this in a variety of different ways, including scavenger hunts, bookbug sessions, set activities, free play, themed days etc.
What you said….
As much notice as possible to accommodate working hours.
What we done/will do…
We are working towards creating a family events calendar which will list all planned events for families over the 2024/2025 term. These will include, sports day, graduation, stay and play, interactive sessions, bookbug etc.
What you said…
There was a lot of different requests for donations throughout the year which can be stressful.
What we done/will do…
As a centre we receive no source of income for extra curricular expense, such as outings, family sessions, spare clothes, sun creams, celebrations or gifts. We rely solely on the weekly contributions made by our families to our children’s fund. We recognise that we have not been communicating this as well as we could have, and letters with information surrounding our children’s fund have now been sent out to families (end of May). We are hopeful moving forwards this will eradicate our need to request for additional donations.
What you said…
Parent voice – what do parents see as a priority for fundraised money, what shared learning experiences they’d like to participate in, etc.
What we done/will do….
We completely agree, we would love for our parents to be more involved in the daily running of our centre, creating opportunity for their voice to be heard. We are hopeful this year may be the year that the early years centre establish its very own parents forum.
If this is something you would be willing to contribute your time to, please let us know by emailing kady.tamburrini@eastdunbarton.gov.uk with your note of interest.
Enabling Environments – Learning Through Play
We have been working hard over the past year to enhance the learning experience we offer our children both indoors and out. We have considered out curricular delivery process and used Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles to track progress, making adjustments as we go. Recently we have used enabling environment audits as a tool to ensure that the environment we offer for our children continuously cultivates curiosity, creativity and independence for all.
Over the coming weeks we will work alongside our children to redefine our playrooms into an environment that arouses excitement and wonder for our littlest learner. Staff will participate in, in house training, aimed at refreshing and enhancing their knowledge on scaffolding children’s learning by enhancing and extending children’s play. Staff will work together to resource the environment in a way which offers a fresh and invigorating experience, accessible to all children, promoting a sense of autonomy over their learning.
Using a mixture of both child and adult led learning opportunity, we aim to make learning fun, exciting and accessible to all.
We believe the real learning takes place, when children don’t know they are learning at all.
The best way for our children to learn is through PLAY!!!
Centre closure dates 2024-25
Click on the link to access centre closure dates for 2024-25. Voting days do not effect the centre therefore we will remain open as normal.
Centre Outings
We are planning on taking small groups of children out to the local soft play over a 5 week period starting next week (8th July 2024). We will aim to ensure that each child has had the opportunity to attend, by arranging our outings for a different day each week. Each child should have now completed an EV3 form, if not we will need this to be return prior to your child attending. Additional information will be sent home informing families of your child’s outing day/date and arrangements no later than Friday 5th of July. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please do not hesitate in speaking to a member of our team.
Staffing
We would like to welcome Amy & Zoe to our team.
Amy & Zoe joined our team this week after successfully securing permanent posts in centre, both ladies are experienced early years workers who worked within East Dunbartonshire Local Authority Centres prior to coming to Colquhoun Park.
Amy will be working full time in centre (35hrs) between the hours of 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and Zoe will be working part time in centre (30hrs) 12pm to 6pm Monday to Friday.
Amy & Zoe will be spending the next few weeks getting to know children, families, centre staff and routines.
Please be sure to give them a hello when you see them!
Amy
Zoe
Children’s Reports
Final keyworker reports will be sent out for all our children on Wednesday 31st July 2024.
Keyworkers for 2024/25
We are in the process of matching your child with their keyworker for next year, information will be sent out over the next week informing families who your child has been paired with for 2024/25.
With the EUROS on the horizon there has been a lot of chatter in centre surrounding this upcoming event! As we recognise our children as the leaders in their own learning, as a team we will follow their natural interest, adopting the EUROS as an environmental ‘spark’. We will be using this as a vehicle to engage the children in a variety of learning opportunity and experience.
SWEEPSTAKE
Would you like to take part in our CPEYC sweepstake?
There are 24 teams in the EUROS this year. We will be running 3 separate draws, each draw will give you the opportunity to try your luck at picking out your favourite team.
Should your team make it all the way to the final and win, you will become our EURO 2024 Colquhoun Park EYC Winner and have your name added to our family wall “of fame”. There will also be either wee bottle of something fizzy or a dine in gift card for up to £20 to help you celebrate… the choice is up to you!!
If you would like to take part it will be £2 per shot, you can have as many tries as you like. Once all the teams are gone, they are gone!!
** All money raised will be added to your children’s treat fund **
SPORTS DAY 6th June 2024
Keeping in line with our EUROS theme our sports day will be based around your children’s marvellous ball skills. Get involved children are encouraged to wear colours that represent the country they will be cheering on at home with their families or the country that they go to nursery in (Scotland = Blue) this is entirely optional, so please do not go out of your way to kit your child out, its just a bit of fun!
Good old Scottish Weather
When planning our sports day we always envision a nice sunny day where the children can enjoy taking part in their event and the adults can stand by in their shorts and t-shirts cheering them on from the side-lines! HOWEVER…. as we know this is Scotland and we can go from flip flops to snow shovels in less than 24 hrs!! We are planning to go ahead with our sports day unless the weather deems dangerous to do so i.e. extremely high winds, or very heavy rain. Therefore, we ask that you `bring your children a wee change of clothes if you do not already do so, this will allow us to get them changed on their return to centre.
Collections/Drop off
Parents/carers of children who do not attend will have been asked to drop their child at the centre for 9am this will allow for us to make sure all children are accounted for. We will then bring the children down to the pitches all together to kick off their sports day at 9:30am. All parents/carers are asked to remain outside of the green fencing at this time. At 10:30am all children will be taken back to centre where they can then be collected and signed out.
Transitions
To continue on our journey in supporting our children transition to primary 1 from next week on we will beginning to take our pre-school children down to the school lunch hall to familiarise themselves with the school lunch set up and meet our very important dinner ladies. Skills developed during this will be to carry trays, order lunches, wait in line, identify and navigate to their table, be responsible for clearing away their lunch. This is likely to take place on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday. There will be no change to how you order your child’s lunch as this will all be organised in house to ensure they receive what has been ordered.
Staffing
We are delighted to welcome Carol back into centre after career break. Carol is our job-share teacher alongside Esther, and will be in our EYC on a Wednesday, Thursday & Friday.
WELCOME BACK CAROL!!
Raffle Draw
Big thank you to everyone who has taken part in our raffle so far to win a George Foreman Flexi Grill. All money raised will go into your children’s treat fund. The lucky winner will be picked at random on Thursday 6th of June 2024 at our sports day.
GOOD LUCK!!!
**Tickets still available on request**
Special Visitors
Throughout the month of May we were exploring the people who help us.
We would like to Thank Maya for bringing her Mummy along to centre to show us how nurses help keep people healthy every day and Katie for bringing her Daddy to tell us all about the important job police do in keeping us safe.
Milngavie firefighters also made our day by showing up in their fire engine and letting us explore inside… we even got a shot of their hose!
THANK YOU !!
Sunny Weather
As we wishfully wait for Sunny days, we ask that you all mindful of what the forecast is to be throughout the day and have your child prepared with the appropriate clothing and sun protection i.e. hats, creams etc.
Rubber/waterproof footwear
If your child is toilet training or just likes to play in the water it is helpful for us if they have a pair of shoes which are waterproof. These are easy to wipe down in the event of accidents and the straps also ensure they can run around safely. If you could provide your child a pair of rubber/waterproof shoes for nursery we would be grateful.
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