CP News – Colquhoun Park Early Years Centre

October 31, 2024

CP NEWS – November Edition

Broom Zoom

Our broom zoom is well underway! Big well done to all our children and a thank you to everyone who sponsored them, we have raised over £100 already!!

For anyone who has yet to hand in or collect a sponsor form there is still time, just ask a member of the team.

Gardening Day

Big thank you to all our families who came along to join us on Saturday (26th) for our Gardening day. We were overwhelmed at the support given in helping us get one step closer to creating our sensory garden and growing space for the children to explore and enjoy.

Bubble, Brew & Science too!

Kevin hosted his very 1st stay an play session. Our event was not only Halloween themed but we managed to sneak a little bit of science in there too!

Spooky Scavenger Hunt!

Big well done to Rachael who organised another successful ‘Spooky Scavenger Hunt’.

Over 40 members of of our CP Family turned out to join us on our Spooky Scavenger hunt! Everyone worked super hard searching for our hidden bats, pumpkins, witches hats & skeletons all around the school grounds. It was so dark we had to get our torches out!!

Spending time having fun with our families is one of our favourite things to do. We hope you enjoyed our Halloween night as much as we did!!

Upcoming Opportunities

Bookbug Session – Slinky Malinki

5th November – 5pm to 6pm click the link to register

Interactive workshop – Managing Big Emotions

6th & 7th November – am & pm sessions available click the link to register

DECEMBER – For information ONLY registration not open!

Bookbug Session – Night before Christmas 4th December – 5pm to 6pm

Christmas Crafts – Stay & Play 16th & 17th December (am & pm available)

Children’s Christmas Party – All children 18th December – 10am – 11:30am

Winterwonderland – Evening event 19th December – times to be confirmed

Quality Improvement Review

Throughout the week of the 4th of November our school and EYC will be visited by the Quality Improvement Team. The team will be spending a week in centre with children, staff and SLT. They will be evaluating practice, delivery, interactions and everything else in between. We encourage you to say hello to any faces you don’t recognise and take the opportunity to let the QI team know what you think about our centre.

Lost Property

Lost property and missing items seems to be on the rise. As a centre we try our best to ensure that children’s belongings are returned to the right owner, however, despite our best efforts this does not always happen. We completely understand how frustrating this can be not to mention costly!

Can I ask that everyone have a look at home through your children’s belongings particularly shoes/hats/gloves, if you find something that you do not recognise as your child’s can we ask that you return it to centre in the hope it can be reunited with its rightful owner.

As always we would ask that names be placed on all items to support us in keeping your children’s belongings safe – sharpies are available in centre if required.

Progress Meetings

Sharing your child’s progress with you is important to us. We believe that working together with a shared understanding of what your child needs is paramount in getting the very best out of their learning journey, supporting them to reach their true potential.

Date and time slots have now been released.

We will endeavour to get as close to your requested time/day as possible, however should we be unable to accommodate due to demand, we will contact you with an alternative.

Appointments are made on a first come, first served basis with, so please ensure you get back to us as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Booking Form – Progress Meetings

October 4, 2024October 4, 2024

CP NEWS – October Edition

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.

September 5, 2024September 6, 2024

CP NEWS – September Edition

Our new year is well underway, children are spending time this week selecting their EYC theme, and group name.

Children have been using their right to be heard to choose their favourite ideas. We used a voting system which resulted in stories and characters being this years winner!

Standards & Quality Report 2023-2024

Our Standards & Quality Report outlines the progress we made throughout the year of 2023-24. The quality report measures progress against priorities set within our 2023-24 centre improvement plan.

CP EYC Standards Quality Report 2023-24

We use our evaluation of progress within the report to inform priorities for improvement for the following academic year.

Centre Improvement Plan 2024-25

As a staff team we look closely at the service we offer, critically evaluating the experience and opportunity we provide to our littlest learners and their families. We use quality assurance frameworks and tools to monitor our progress throughout the year and create opportunity for our children and families to have their say on the service we provide and how we can continue to build on the progress we have made.

This year we have identified 3 areas in which we feel deserve priority for improvement.

Outdoor Environment & Opportunities. Create and environment outdoors that is rich with learning opportunities which ignite curiosity, creativity & Independence.

Develop Systems & Frameworks for Operation linking to Wider, Local & National Policy. Use current guidance & legislation, and logistical knowledge of our centre to develop robust systems for self-evaluation and governance.

Curriculum Planning & Tracking. 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.

To read in full, click on the link below

Colquhoun Park EYC – Centre Improvement Plan 2024/25

Family Engagement – Interactive Sessions

We will be running our first interactive sessions in centre next week on the 9th & 10th of September 2024. This session will be based on Literacy & Numeracy – How to support development at home. We appreciate these dates may not suit everyone and additional dates may be added if there is a demand.

Use the link below to secure your space or to inform us of your interest by selecting the can’t make these dates option.

Family Engagement – Events 2024-25

As promised we have created a family events calendar for the year ahead. We are hopeful that we will not have to alter any of these dates/times indicated, however if we do we will endeavour to give as much notice as possible.

Family Engagement Calendar 2024-25

Polite Reminders

All children’s clothes should be labelled with their name, this helps us make sure they make it home at the end of the day.
The car park at the side of the EYC should not be used for drop off or collection of children unless a prior arrangement has been made.

To all our families who put their names forward in support of our parents forum. We are delighted to announce that upon speaking with the school we have been invited to join forces creating a school community council made up of both members of the Early Years & School Committee.

Some of the existing committee members have written an open letter to you all sharing information on what is involved. We are also hopeful to have some representatives available at our Curriculum Evening 10th October 2024 to discuss this further.

Letter from CP Parent Council