CP NEWS – July Edition

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.

EXTENDED YEAR Calendar 24-25

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.

CP NEWS – October Edition

 

We need to hold our hands up when we recognise we aren’t quite doing as well as we could, in order to ensure we do better!

Our Newsletter has been  completely neglected over the past year and it would seem instead of sending out Newsletters periodically we have opted to partake in lots and lots of good old fashioned chatting to get what we have been up to out to our families – I think we may have got a little carried away with having our families back in centre and being able to have face to face conversations after they were taken away for so long!

Whilst these interactions are invaluable to us, we recognise that we don’t always get the opportunity to do this with everyone and there is still a need for an overview of centre news to be shared and easy to located when needed.

That is why we have opted for this option. At the end of each month an update will be added to our blog and circulated electronically to all of our families.(Hard copies can also be made available on request.)

We will aim to recap on the month past whilst informing our families on what to expect in the month ahead.

This will be over and above face to face, journals, twitter, email, drop in sessions and telephone contact and will not be instead of. We are hopeful that with different methods of communication we are able to engage all of our families in a way that best suits them, however we will monitor this closely as there is a fine line between good communication and overload of which we are aware!

What’s New…

There has been quite a bit of change since our last newsletter so we are hopeful that by the end of today’s read we will have created a bit of a round up of all the information you will have received in the moment during that past few months.

Babies

We said goodbye to both Shannon & Rebecca earlier this year, waving them off to enjoy the adventure that is Motherhood.

Rebecca welcomed her twins Ava & Carter into the world on the 29th of June.

Ava 6lbs 6oz & Carter 7lbs 2oz

Shannon welcomed wee Freddie Jon into the world on the 8th of August.

Freddie Jon 8lbs 4oz

Retirement

On the topic of babies, the lovely Anne Maria welcomed another beautiful Grandchild into the world, Henry. Anne Maria adores being Gran Marie to Izzy and Gia already, but now with baby Henry on the scene Anne Maria has decided to hang up her Depute shoes at Colquhoun Park EYC and focus on being Super Gran full time!

Anne Maria has been a massive part of our journey here at Colquhoun Park EYC, leading our team through some of the toughest challenges we have ever had to face, bringing us out the other end stronger and united in our efforts to make Colquhoun Park EYC the best it can be for our children, families and staff team.

We would all like to thank you for everything you have done and taught us over the years and wish you all the best in your new chapter.

New/Returning Staff 

We welcomed back Kirsty from Maternity Leave in the Summer. Kirsty has came back Part-time working on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

Erinn who had been working with us on supply for quite some time was successful in interview to become Kirsty’s other half. We are delighted as Erinn has now become a permanent fixture at Colquhoun working Thursday & Friday each week.

Caitlyn joined us from Argyll and Bute in August and has made a great addition to our team. Caitlyn is  covering Rebecca’s maternity post.

Rachel joined our team last year as a support worker and loved CPEYC so much she was appointed after interview to take on Shannon’s maternity post.

 

To learn more about our staff team visit Meet our Staff section within our blog

Career Breaks

 

Lucy and Carol have taken a year out this year to spend some quality time with their loved ones. We hope this year provides you both with everything you hoped for and more.

 

Acting up

Since 2021 Kady has been part time Depute in centre, working Monday/Tuesday as Depute and Wednesday/Thursday/Friday as Senior.  Since March this year Kady has been carrying out the role of Depute full time, in an aim to offer continuity to staff, children and families during a time of transition.

During this period Laura, who carried out the role of senior job share with Kady has backfilled the position Kady vacated. Therefore Laura is now carrying out the role of full time Senior Early Years Worker within Centre.

 

 

Curriculum

There have been changes made to our curriculum delivery and securing of children’s progress. Information has been sent out to all parents via letter and can also be accessed at  Tracking and Securing Child Progress

Pencil in – Thursday 2nd of November 6pm – 8pm we are hoping to host our curriculum night in centre where we open up the doors to our children’s adults to come find out more about what we do and understand our WHY. – More information will be sent out in due course once date is confirmed.

Family Engagement Opportunities 

The construction of our family learning calendar is underway. While waiting on this being finalised we held our first ever Bookbug session facilitated by Laura. This proved a big hit with our families and something we will be adding to our delivery.

We aim to share our 2023/2024 calendar with our families in the coming weeks. All families will be notified when this is released.

 

Report a Glow concern
Cookie policy  Privacy policy

Glow Blogs uses cookies to enhance your experience on our service. By using this service or closing this message you consent to our use of those cookies. Please read our Cookie Policy.