What an adventure we have had promoting Marvellous Meals throughout our nursery. Over the past year, COVID-19 has put us all through the ringer and challenges through mitigations made snack preparation, baking and making quite difficult. Staff looked over risk benefits for these opportunities and experiences for our children, and managed to let the children be involved through some activities. Since returning in August 2021 for the new session, I wanted Marvellous Meals to be fully embedded into nursery life and to allow all of our children (0-5 years) to be involved in experiences that would benefit all developmental areas. COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon, but the impact this has had on our children through areas such as literacy and numeracy has been fundamental. So, along with the team, we wanted to make a huge difference to our children’s learning.

  Toddler Room 

During the summer we audited our environments throughout all our playrooms and dining room. We redesigned these areas to make them cosy and natural by ordering wooden benches and tables, having cosy areas beside family walls and making the environment look more home like. To outline the journey for each room in the nursery, I drew up an action plan, which has been discussed and implemented by staff. I have taken the staff on the journey of Marvellous Meals by discussing Larder orders, spaces, changing snack to breakfast in the morning and providing the children with a ‘free flow’ lunchtime. Staff discuss snack options with the children and each day they have made or baked something. Staff have changed their own mind-sets and thinking around Marvellous Meals opportunities.

 

   3-5 Room 

Staff have been fully supportive of the Marvellous Meals Approach and have actioned a lot of the elements quicker than any of us could have imagined! Consultations with staff and our families, through questionnaires and Y charts have set our Marvellous Meals Values for Myot View. We wanted everyone’s views on what our values should look, feel and sound like to ensure these experiences and opportunities for our children would be purposeful and meaningful.

 

Babies

We are so proud of our journey so far, the impact that this has had on our children has been amazing while watching them grow and develop through their self-help skills, independence, confidence, early literacy and numeracy skills and most importantly having lots of fun!

Thanks for taking the time to read our journey!

Vikki White

Principal Early Years Officer

Myot View Early Learning and Childcare Centre

Falkirk Council Early Years Central Team have created a self-led CLPL opportunity for settings to develop their understanding of Natural Numeracy. Accessed via the Glow Share Point its aims are to help settings think about their spaces, experiences, and interactions to develop children’s mathematical understanding. Numeracy and maths is much deeper than counting and recognising numbers. The course takes you through Penny Munn’s maths pyramid for babies and young children and helps you consider how to ensure the spaces, experiences and interactions are developmentally appropriate and purposeful for all learners.

  

 

The second part of the course focuses on the Key Concepts of Numeracy and Maths and breaks these concepts down with lots of examples of how these can be promoted in your setting. Throughout the course there are opportunities for you to reflect as a setting and there is an audit to accompany this course which can be used to gain further insight into how your setting promotes these concepts.

Section 3 explores intentional pedagogy, planning to support young children’s early numeracy and maths development. Through core provision, continuous provision, and core experiences it considers what opportunities for high quality interactions, experiences and spaces children have within a setting to develop young children’s numeracy and mathematical skills and understanding. This section also explores maths through stories.

To further support this CLPL we will also be holding a Blether Session based on the course on Wednesday the 23^rd February. This is an opportunity to meet with other practitioners and share ideas, thoughts and practice based on elements of the course.

For further information please contact Rachel Keane (Course Organiser).

I am particularly passionate about writing through play, so much so that my dissertation for my MEd is on playful writing and how it can promote children’s voice and develop their love and identity as a writer. Writing allows children to communicate their interests, ideas and thoughts with others and allows them to express themselves in print. Writing and play go hand in hand as they are both ways children socialise and interact with others.

 

I have had the privilege of visiting many different settings over the past few months and have seen lots of great writing through play opportunities woven throughout the indoor and outdoor spaces. Many settings are already providing lots of mark making opportunities and experiences for children to use writing resources and materials in authentic and purposeful ways.

 

Writing is one of the trickiest things a child will learn to do. The physical act of writing is only one aspect of the process. Children need to able to generate ideas, draw on a bank of vocabulary, understand the many different forms and purposes of writing as well as have the fine and gross motor skills required to hold a pencil.

 

Before children even put pen to paper it is our job to help them develop the skills, characteristics, and attitudes to become a successful writer:

 

• They need to develop fine and gross motor skills; hand-eye coordination; visual memory; alphabetic knowledge; and an understanding of the concept of print.
• They need a well-developed expressive language; an understanding of purpose and audience; an ability to generate and structure ideas; a bank of vocabulary to draw upon; one- to- one correspondence between words and print; and knowledge of the features of different forms of writing (e.g. stories, lists, letters, cards).
• Children also need opportunities to develop confidence, resilience, perseverance, creativity, and motivation to help them through the difficult process of becoming a successful writer.
• Children need certain executive cognitive functions such as the ability to stay focused on a task and the cognitive flexibility to be able to shift between all the processes involved in writing.

 

 

Luckily our Early Years environments already provide many play experiences that develop all these skills. In addition to providing mark

making opportunities there are lots of things you do every day that are helping children develop all the necessary skills:

 

• Lots of talk to develop vocabulary
• Songs, rhymes, dancing
• A literacy rich environment – books, storytelling, environmental print
• Scribing children’s stories/drawings for them (helicopter stories).
• Arts and crafts to develop creativity, imagination, fine motor skills,
• Imaginative/dramatic play – acting out stories and experiencing how writing materials are used in real life
• Puzzles and games – to develop perseverance, problem solving and fine motor skills
• Risky play – climbing, jumping, balancing to develop gross motor skills
• Sewing/weaving – to develop fine motor skills, planning and creativity
• Block play – drawing plans and blueprints and it also helps to develop symbolic play which is a skill needed for writing as the letters symbolise their thoughts in print.

And many many more…

We want to develop young writers who carry their love and confidence as a writer throughout their lives and we can do that by having less of a focus on letter formation and more focus on all the other skills required.

Play is the perfect context to nurture the cognitive, physical, social and emotional skills children need to develop as confident writers. So, keep on doing what you’re doing 😊.

Frances x

My name is Ashley Cupples and I am one of the Early Years Pedagogues within Falkirk. Since beginning this role in August 2018 myself and my team have been privileged to receive so many wonderful training and continuous professional learning opportunities.

At present I am currently enrolled and actively undertaking The Early Years Leadership Professional Learning Course which is supported by the Professional Learning Office of the Moray School House of Education and Sport at the University of Edinburgh.

This bespoke programme was created for myself, and my team of Early Years Pedagogues and Principal Early Years Officer colleagues and it was designed with our learning interests in mind.  The main aim of the course is to help develop our leadership skills and confidence as leaders.

Each week we are asked to:

• Reflect on our practice, strengths and aspects for development and decide if there is any action we would like to take.
• Be active and present in the cohort group in whole discussions as well as participating in break out room discussions.
• Consider both the opportunities and challenges your role as a leader bring.
• Use a Learning Journal to capture current and developing thinking.

‘Being a reflective practitioner means having the ability to think analytically about your own professional practice, to think about what is happening and why it is happening, to consider how things could be done differently, to support best practice’ – Davis, G and Ryder, G. 2016:127

Due to the recent global pandemic all our sessions are conducted virtually which I think has just become the norm to us all now! I look forward to the day we can all be together again in the one room for CLPL opportunities….but for now I will keep dreaming.

We began undertaking this course in June 2021 and are due to complete it in November 2021. Weirdly, while being enrolled in any other academic study I have always been on the countdown until completion but with this one it is quite the opposite. I think I will be rather sad when the course is finished.

 

So why is the Early Years Leadership Programme any different?

Well here is my three honest reasons:

1. I truly value the fact that we have been allocated time to do this within our working time as it eases the professional reading workload that we are expected to engage in after the session. I spend a few hours per week in the evening accessing the thought-provoking materials to challenge and support my thinking. – This I quite enjoy!
2. I feel it has allowed “protected time” for our cohort of Early Years Pedagogues and Principal Early Years Officer colleagues to network. Without this course we most certainly would not have created this platform.
3. Last but certainly not least, the tutors have been amazing. They each have considerable experience of working in early years and Primary sectors and have a huge array of wealth and knowledge, in learning and teaching, publication and leadership. Juliet Hancock, Peter McNaughton, Joanna Findlay, Mary Pat McConnell, Lorna Willows and Fiona Smyth – Thank you. It can be really difficult to engage people virtually and encourage participation, but you all make it look easy!

Working over the last two years with so many different settings and practitioners across the authority has shown that there is a real commitment and belief in the critical importance of self- evaluation in all of our Falkirk settings.  So many of you have prioritised your time to come along to all of the training around self-evaluation and improvement planning even though the demands and restrictions around covid have been intense.  Feedback and improvement plans this year have highlighted the impact of that commitment.

Self-evaluation for self-improvement is a continuous journey that we embark on because we want to be the best that we can be.  We want to do the best we can for our children and families.  This is our driving force and is what makes the difference and results in real meaningful change that is both impactful and rewarding.

So take time to step back and look back on your journey.  Take pleasure in the impact you have had on not just the learning but the lives of our young children and families over the last 19 months.  Our commitment as individuals and as an authority to knowing who we serve empowers us and enables us to plan our improvement journey to ensure the best outcomes for our children and families.

You will all be aware of the new ‘A quality framework for daycare of children, childminding and school aged childcare’ from Care Inspectorate that was published in June.  As part of a RIC working group I am pleased to say that we have undertaken the task of marrying up the Framework with HGIOELC, the HSC standards and the national standards.  You should now all have been sent a copy of this but it can also be found on our Glow webpage.  A 30 minute update to answer any questions around this will take place on Monday 8^th November (3.30-4).

 

Have you signed up yet for the ASN training “Supporting children with potential ASN in Early Years” which will be held on the inset day on Monday 18^th October?

We are delighted to be working in partnership with both Aberlour and the Inclusion and Wellbeing Service for this training. Practitioners from these services will be sharing their knowledge and expertise with attendees during the different sessions.

Session 1 will be delivered by members of the Early Years Central Team and this will focus briefly on initial steps in supporting children with potential ASN in the early years.

Here we will think about and discuss:

• Different stages of intervention
• Communication
• Sensory
• Behaviour
• Referral Process
• Support available
• Child’s Plan
• Building positive relationships with parents and families

Session 2 will be delivered by practitioners from Aberlour and during this we will focus on nurture, attachment and environments.

This session will incorporate a brief overview of:

• Early Brain Development
• Why our feelings matter
• Why our interactions matter
• The Five to Thrive Approach
• Why the words we use matter
• Why the environment matters
• What to do if it’s not working
• Importance of reflective practice

Session 3 will be delivered by practitioners from the Inclusion and Wellbeing Service and here we will focus on aspects of challenging behaviour and restorative practice in early years.

During this session we will reflect on and discuss:

• Behaviour as communication
• Attachment
• Stress responses
• Triggers
• Conflict cycle
• Strategies to support young people
• Sensory processing

We hope as many settings as possible will access this training so please sign up via CPD Manager. A number of settings have requested input to support children with potential ASN and it is hoped this training will help practitioners to develop further awareness of strategies to support children who potentially have additional support needs.

To have maximum impact it is recommended that all, or almost all, practitioners in a setting complete this training.

If you are not allocated a space, don’t despair this training will run again on both the February and May inset days.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

We are super excited to expand on our very popular ‘Blether sessions’ with the introduction of our new informative ’30 minute updates’ and ‘QI bite size’ sessions.  We hope you agree this is a quick and snappy way of sharing some crucial leadership information with colleagues across the authority.

Our ’30 minute updates’ are being delivered by our very own Heads of Centre who have a wealth of experience and knowledge on the critical day to day running of an Early Years setting.  The sessions share some do’s and don’t on specific areas from ‘Storing of medication’ to ‘Safeguarding: safety and security’.  There are 8 sessions in total that are spread out over the academic year.  Our sessions take place on a Monday from 3.30pm till 4pm.  Although these sessions are mostly aimed at senior leaders, they are relevant to staff at all levels within the ELC with sessions on ‘Infection Prevention and Control’, ‘Risk assessments’ and ‘Accident and incident paperwork’ to name a few.

Our QI bite size sessions are delivered by our very passionate Pedagogue Claudette Wright!  Again, there are 8 quick and snappy 30 minute sessions that will help raise knowledge and skills around the different aspects of the model for improvement.  Over the 8 sessions Claudette will take you through the improvement journey from the ‘introduction to the model for improvement’ to ‘PDSAs’ to ‘a family of measures’!  The QI bite size sessions are also spread throughout the year from 4pm-4.30pm.

Both our 30 minute updates and our QI Bite size sessions are live on CPD manager but can also be accessed directly through the Blether tile on MST.  If you are not already a member of the team then please contact your cluster link with your glow email and they will get you set up.

We are so privileged as an authority to have such amazing staff that are so keen to learn and share their skills and knowledge in so many different and flexible ways.

 

Making Falkirk Proud!

Learning is a journey, not a destination!

Everybody teach, everybody learn!

Over the space of six weeks, Dunipace nursery have been taking part in Claire Warden’s ‘Virtual Nature Schools training’ Cohort 3. The course is completed through; online coaching sessions, video provocations, possible lines of enquiry mind maps, practitioner provocations documents and inquiries planning through floor books documents. These tools together made a detailed thought-provoking journey of learning for both staff and children.

Their fabulous journey, along with amazing experiences is detailed below …….   

We started each week with a provocation for the children. We discussed what we were going to be looking at and asked the children what they thought they would see, or what we could use to explore the concept. This was documented in our floor book. We spent the week exploring and documenting our journey; completing the week with a review discussion with the children.
Our reflections were uploaded on our floor book onto a tracker app. This helped us reflect on the activities children participated in; where we are working and what curriculum areas we are delivering. This course was fast paced and staff were supported and guided to review, reflect, and evaluate their practice across a wide range of areas in a short period of time.

Week one:
– Looking up and noticing children’s ideas and theories.

This provocation encouraged us to look up, discuss what we could see and then how we could capture what we saw through various art forms.

 

 

 

Week two:
– Looking down and documenting inside, outside, and beyond.
– We developed using the language of curiosity.

During this provocation the children were looking down during some very wet weather which led us to explore puddles, wellies and mud. Together with the children we gathered photos, drawings, and comments to capture what we saw and discussed this week. The children played with reflections on puddles and explored how the rain makes marks on the surface of puddles.

Wellies helped us explore patterns, size, numbers, and sorting. Mud encouraged us to mark make with nature.

 

Week three:
– Looking through and using self-evaluation to improve our practice
–  We developed using the language of movement.

During this provocation we explored the concept of looking through using the story, ‘We’re going on a bear hunt.’

This encouraged us to experiment with different technologies and how these items change what we see. The children were encouraged to move around different objects to find varying holes and spaces that we could peep through.

 

 

Week Four:

– Looking inside and supporting the children in making plans and designs.

This provocation led the children to exploring getting inside. The children were encouraged to make shapes with string that they could stand inside. Looking inside then led onto making a wormery. The children enjoyed working together to make the wormery and finding different ways to find and collect worms. We discussed the changes of the wormery as the week went on and asked the children questions to deepen their thinking and ask curious questions themselves.

 

 

Week 5:
– Looking at and supporting children to explore depth and the language of theory.
We chose to take a closer look at apples as some of our children had been observed discussing apples and where they come from.

Week 6:
– Looking under and supporting children to consider things they cannot easily see and develop the language of imagination.

During weeks five and six we followed the children’s interest in apples; first exploring apples looking closer at the colours, size, and texture and capturing this through drawings. We explored that apples not only look different but have names for the different types. We tasted them to explore the different tastes. We then explored them further by looking at stories, tools, and their life cycle. This was followed up by exploring how apples can change over time and the different cooking processes we can do with apples changing them from a solid object to a fluid like consistency. The children covered a wide selection of learning outcomes through apples and were encouraged to explore in a variety of ways. This provocation provided lots of wow moments such as finding stars in apples.

At the end of each week the children were encouraged to continue to their investigations at home continuing to promote family learning between nursery and home.
We would advise any team to take part in training opportunities offered by Dr. Claire Warden. She inspires colleagues sharing her knowledge and creativity through simple videos, conversations and questions that prompted, scaffolded and supported professional dialogue across the team. Dr. Claire Warden covers a wide range of current thinking, using the latest local and national documents and practice in a meaningful and manageable way.

The children really enjoyed these provocation enquiries and the staff are excited to continue to use these methods and work with Dr Claire Warden in the future.

Hi everyone, my name is Paula Buist and I’m the SEYO at Stenhousemuir Primary. I’m really happy to have been asked to share some information about my current practitioner inquiry ‘Hygge in the Early Years’ with you and hope you can all find your own little bit of Hygge.

For those of you not yet familiar with Hygge (pronounced hue-guh) it’s a Danish word to describe a feeling of contentment, cosiness connectedness, kinship, security, warmth and comfort. It’s about finding the joy in your everyday life and routines and living in the moment.

My Hygge journey began after completing the Wanderlust: Nature Study and gaining my accreditation. I wanted to harness all of those lovely feelings and bring them to the life of our setting.

Hygge compliments all aspects of current early year’s expectations beautifully. By focusing on the moment we are able to effectively plan in the moment. Hygge nature infused learning spaces, outdoor exploration and the importance of connecting with nature links perfectly with the value Froebel placed on the outdoors as a powerful learning environment. By adopting a nurturing approach to practice and a listening pedagogy we are able to tune into what our children truly need and deserve. Hygge is going home at the end of even our toughest days knowing that we have made a difference.

To find out more visit our new practitioner page on twitter at:
Sten ELC Practitoner Page
@ElcPage

 

 

We created a little Hyggekrog (Huegahkrug) for our children to access when they needed some quiet time away   from the busy nursery environment. Hygge is all about enveloping yourself in warmth and comfort so this space works really well in our setting.

 

 

 

 

 

As I completed each model of the Nature Study course I unlocked badges to show my progression and ironed them onto a chef’s apron. Our children love looking at these and discussing what each one if for.