I am going to begin by ‘pondering’ over the privilege of having a lead Froebelian role within Froebel in Falkirk. However, for me I am led by the children through the concept of ‘freedom with guidance’ with a strong shared vision where I am guided by my values which are underpinned and lived through Froebelian Principles. It is also extremely important to share I am one of many leaders within our Falkirk Froebel Family and early years community as we are all leaders in our own right where there is equal autonomy and relationships do truly matter. Central to our Froebelian approach is to collaborate, as we live and learn together from one another which includes our youngest wee people, practitioner’s, families, communities embracing a diverse, equitable culture, that respects the environment we live in and with.

 

Falkirk Froebel Family

Currently we have 155 Falkirk Froebel Family Froebelians

We have 34 Falkirk Early learning and childcare and school settings with trained Froebelian’s who have  completed the University of Edinburgh Froebel and Childhood Practice Course.

Currently there are a further 45 funded places for 2022-23 and Falkirk applications have been submitted.

Each Falkirk Froebelian creates a wonderful Froebel project within our Falkirk settings and communities:

 

There have been many highlights throughout the year but here are a few:

In November 2021 I Graduated with a MSc in Early Childhood Practice and Froebel where I focused my dissertation on ‘Exploring Slow Pedagogy through the Froebelian Lens’.

 

 

Froebel and Slow Pedagogy

Following on from my dissertation this year, I have been leading a Froebel Trust funded project on Implementing Slow Pedagogy in ELC through Froebelian Principled Practice. This has involved working with three of our fantastic Falkirk ELC communities: Bantaskin ELC, Larbert ELCC and Glendevon ELCC along with having the pleasure to learn from and with Professor Alison Clark whose Froebel Trust  research ‘Slow knowledge and the unhurried child” was drawn on to support thinking. This has been an amazing way to collectively collaborate and learn together across our communities. I would invite you to consider learning more about slow pedagogy and what this looks like in your community. I have given a snapshot of some of our project below, please view using the QR code.

 

Senior Early Years Officer – Equity Coach

In addition, having the pleasure of supporting SEYO’s through an Equity Coach remit has been a wonderful journey. One of the many positive benefits is the impact and joy ‘Song of the Moment’ is having within the Easter Carmuirs early years community. Where this has very much been a process of starting with the child which embraces the many benefits singing can bring through play and real-life experiences for every child. This has drawn on much of the collaboration of Family Songs and Froebel’s Mother Songs pedagogy/philosophy.

 

Family Songs: Learning together through music

This year relaunched Family songs at home to promote a learning together resource to use at home, in early learning and childcare and throughout our communities. A collaboration created by Falkirk Froebelians, Fab Falkirk Folk, Speech and language therapy, YMI to share and use across our communities.

Click the link for an example of our latest Family Songs sway and we welcome everyone to use this resource: https://sway.office.com/MqgXvYcyNF8hMOwx?ref=Link

 

Froebelian Futures

This year Falkirk were invited to be part of the fabulous Froebelian Futures project, which is in partnership with The University of Edinburgh, Cowgate Under 5’s centre and funded through the Froebel Trust. It aims to provide ongoing Froebelian training as a progression pathway following the Froebel in Childhood Practice course where I have responsibility as the local authority lead with this course:

 

 

So far in 2021-22; 5 x Falkirk settings and 10 x Falkirk Froebelian practitioners and leads have completed or on route to finishing this Practitioners Inquiry course, which has been going on throughout the year. It has given the practitioners and leads the skills and confidence to carry out action research within their establishments and they have produced some wonderful research on “Froebel for Families”,” A Froebelian Approach to Observation”, “Embedding Froebelian Principles in a Progressive Play Pedagogy”, “Are We Seeing the Super in Superhero Play?” and “Making Children’s Participation and Perceptions Matter”. Please click the link to the Froebelian Futures website to find out more: https://www.froebel.ed.ac.uk

If you would like to follow Froebelian Futures on Twitter their handle is @froebelfutures

Current applications are in the process for Falkirk Froebelian’s carrying out this course in 2022-23

 

Froebel Gathering

Delighted to be invited by Professor Tina Bruce to share Falkirk Froebel Family Network Journey at the London Froebel Gathering. Lots of wonderful feedback and fabulous connections made.

 

 

Please scan the QR codes to see some examples of Froebelian Practice across Falkirk

 

By Donna Green

 

Hi, I’m Louise Harrison, one of Falkirk Council’s team of Pedagogues, and I’m currently based with the fantastic team of practitioners in Bowhouse ELC.  I joined the team just a couple of months before the C word was on everyone’s lips……..COVID of course!  I think it’s probably fair to say that we’re all more than a little tired of COVID and are glad to see things eventually returning to some sort of normality.  However, we cannot underestimate the impact that the pandemic, lockdown in particular, has had on our wee people.

In fact, some of our very youngest learners are coming to us having spent a significant portion of their lives in lockdown, massively limiting their experiences of the world around them compared to those born just a few years before and shrinking their social circle to that of immediate family.  Add to this the wearing of face coverings, which make it difficult for children to differentiate between sounds such as ‘p’ and ‘t’ and virtually impossible to read facial expressions, and it is unsurprising that we are seeing an increase in difficulties with language development and social communication.  And all this during the most critical developmental period for our wee people!

With all this in mind and with early language and social communication development as a priority on Bowhouse ELC’s Improvement Plan, we decided that part of our work this year would be to consider how pretend play can support children with this.

Why pretend play?

Whether domestic role playing in the home corner, zooming around as their favourite superhero, or using small world characters to create a scenario from their imagination, engaging in pretend play provides children with limitless opportunities for talk and interaction.

An environmental audit of current role play provision was carried out on 28^th October which was then shared with the team.

Then………we began to plan!

• What resources would we need, and how many?
• Where could we get them from?
• Where should we set it up?
• How much space should it be given?
• What would our pedagogy around it look like? (eg. is fighting/weapon play acceptable?, can resources be transported?)

We identified that whilst it’s important for children to have access to pretend play opportunities throughout the setting (both indoors and out), it’s helpful to have space identified as the ‘role play’ area, where they know they can find dress up resources and props to support their play.  However, this is obviously space dependant and is by no means essential.  Let’s face it, children can and should engage in pretend play whenever and wherever the fancy takes them.

For the purpose of collecting data to measure the impact of the project, in consultation with key workers, 5 children were identified as our focus group.  Baseline data was gathered for each of them using the Forth Valley Speech and Language pyramid, assessing where each child is currently functioning for each of the key components of language and communication.

When we began to think about how we would develop our pretend play provision, we did some research and had professional dialogue around the developmental stages of pretend play.  We recognised that some of our children needed little more than their own imagination to create the play, some found this easier with the use of open-ended resources to prompt their creativity (boxes, material, pegs) and others would initially need some real objects to support them in developing imaginary play (household items, dolls, clothes).  Taking all this into consideration we created our list of core resources, ensuring there was enough variety to support the developmental stages of all our wee people.

The dress up clothes were really instrumental in sparking the initial interest in pretend play, and led to the creation of lots of characters and rich descriptive language.  This was then developed to include material, pegs, white t shirts and fabric pens to further enhance the creativity and imagination.  Whilst pretend play offers a whole host of benefits for wee people, it’s been important to keep focussed on our aim of improving language development and social communication.  This requires adults to be available and to be involved in the play (when appropriate) in order to provide new vocabulary and extend the play.

In order to provide a link with families, play boxes were created containing a variety of resources to initiate and support pretend play, again including both open ended and everyday objects.  A short video was made demonstrating how they might be used and added to the boxes using a QR code, along with some information about how this type of play can support the development of  language and social communication.

 

If you’d like further information, get in touch with me at louise.harrison@falkirk.gov.uk 

 

By Louise Harrison

 

Hi, my name is Lisa Boa and I have been an Early Years Pedagogue with Falkirk Council since April 2020. In August 2021, I was successful in being seconded to Falkirk Council’s new Early Intervention Team.  I am passionate about Getting it Right for Every Child, ensuring children and families get the right help, at the right time, from the right people.  A huge part of my new role is fostering and developing inclusive and equitable spaces, interactions, practices, and initiatives.  For me it’s all about reflecting on our values, visions, and practice.  We need to reflect upon and ask the why/ why not questions, tune into our children, analyse our observations and create supportive environments.  We also need to consider meeting children’s individual needs by ensuring a right-based approach which helps to celebrate diversities, cultures, and uniqueness.

 

My Early Intervention Role and Responsibilities include:

• Pedagogical support to ELC teams, childminders and partner settings regarding inclusive experiences, spaces, and interactions. Coaching and mentoring, supporting with implementation of strategies and identifying and supporting training that may be helpful.
• A point of contact to source information on partnership agencies, what they can offer, referral processes and contact information.
• Supporting the delivery of family work, including the set up and facilitation of Falkirk’s Peep network.
• Supporting the connection of Falkirk’s SEYO’s that are supporting under 3’s. Encouraging the sharing of best practice and identification of training needs.

As a team we are continually using the model for improvement to measure and analyse the impact we are having.  It is important to us, as an Early Intervention Team that we have direction and clear aims to work towards.  Our aims for this year are:

• By June 2022 the CARE group will allocate the best support and interventions at the right time, to 100% of the referrals discussed by the group.

So far: Vicki and the CARE Group have supported 53 children and families through a variety of early support and interventions. Positive feedback about the group has been given from a wide range of partner agencies.  I was delighted to read the positive outcomes within the reviews from parents/carers and support services; “I think the intervention/extra support will make an incredible difference to this family”, “I appreciate the time you have taken to consider this referral”, “The impact that it will make to the family will be of great support and allow them to get back on track”.

 

The Childcare Allocation, Review and Evaluation Group (known as the CARE Group) is a multi-agency group, which is led by Falkirk Council Children’s Services.  The group allocates support to children and their families during the Early Years.  If you would like to know more about the CARE Group, the leaflet can be found on the FC Glow website or contact Vicki Muir.

 

• By December 2021, 100% of establishments with a Scottish Government funded PEEP trained practitioner, will have led at least one PEEP session and gathered feedback using the evaluation tools

So far: 71% of Peep trained practitioners have delivered a Peep session through SWAY, virtual online sessions, outdoor sessions and 1:1 sessions.  Remember you don’t need to be Peep trained to deliver family learning sessions they can comprise of varying experiences; rhyme times, Bookbug, storytelling sessions, outdoor play and stay, buggy walks, walk and talk, sharing link resources through social media and so much more.  Learning from and with our parents/carers and creating those invaluable relationships are key to providing the best opportunities for our little people to be the best they can be.

 

• By June 2022, 40% of targeted ELC practitioners will have developed their confidence and knowledge of ASN, reducing the requests for exceptional SfLA hours by 30%

So far: 60% of our nurseries have attended the in-service training.  44% of the practitioners that attended the training have increased in confidence and knowledge in supporting children with ASN.  We have also had good examples of the impact the training has made on practitioners’ practices eg. creating team agreements around consistent language and strategies, child behaviours changing because of strategies suggested at the training and the benefits of open and honest dialogue within teams.  I would also like to thank our colleagues in Inclusion & Wellbeing and Aberlour for the fantastic input they provide at the training, they are invaluable.  If you haven’t already signed up, please sign up for the May In-service, it is one of Falkirk’s BIG priorities this year and has had great feedback.

 

By Lisa Boa

 

Hello! I am Elaine Haughton and this session I have been supporting Victoria ELC with their improvement journey. Priorities for my improvement work link to the school and ELC improvement plan. This year for the ELC there is a focus on children’s emotional well-being and how this is supported by the environment, improving children’s progress in literacy, and ensuring children’s learning is visible and their voice is heard.

 

During session 20-21 ELC children were supported to manage their emotions by building on and expanding emotion word vocabulary. This session, practitioners continue to support children to explore and manage their emotions. Children are encouraged to resolve conflict through restorative approaches, and the team are working together to develop cosy and nurturing spaces. It is essential that practitioners provide an environment for children that supports their emotional wellbeing. Children need positive and nurturing relationships. They engage in learning experiences best when they are feeling calm and alert and should be encouraged to self-regulate with the support of an adult. The environment plays a fundamental part in supporting children’s emotional wellbeing, as sometimes very small changes can have a huge impact on children’s experiences.

 

 

Children should be at the centre of how we practice. It is important that we follow their lead in planning for their development and learning, focusing on what matters to them. Through participation, children acquire skills, build competence, extend aspirations, and gain confidence.

The ELC are on a journey to make children’s learning visible through documentation. Practitioners need to be able to truly listen to children through their observations, involvement, and interactions. The team are also recognising the UNCRC articles when planning for experiences and spaces. There is a focus on the importance of listening to children’s voice and documenting what matters to them during interactions, the experiences offered, and spaces provided both indoors and out. By making learning more visible, families can play a greater part in the everyday life of the ELC setting and their child’s learning.

I’m sure by now that most of you are aware of how highly I value the importance of repeated reading with young children. To help to improve literacy outcomes for children the ELC have significantly reduced the number of books on offer at story area, offering eight core books over the year. Through this, practitioners will support children to further extend their vocabulary and ability to recall and retell a story. Along with EYO literacy champion we have engaged in collaborative working with link Speech and language therapist Iona Smith to develop a user-friendly vocabulary toolkit. I look forward to sharing this more widely once data has been gathered, analysed, and evaluated. The concept of repeated reading is shared through home links with families and a SWAY was created to highlight to parents the importance of reading with their child. Home links help to ensure there are increased opportunities for children to engage with the same story, across both the ELC and home setting, with an adult.

Working with families is such an important part of the work that we all do in early years. Over the past couple of months, I have been in contact with the Hospitality Business Development Manager for Forth Valley College. We have been exploring the possibility of eventually being able to utilise one of the rooms within the college to work with a small group of children and their families. I am delighted to say that this partnership journey with Forth Valley College has commenced. Watch this space!

 

By Elaine Haughton

H, I am Claudette Wright, I am an Early Years Pedagogue (Equity Data Coach). I have recently completed my Scottish Improvement Leader Programme. This has given me the in-depth knowledge of Quality Improvement Science and, has given me the opportunity to cascade this across Falkirk. My role is a newly established role. I currently support 10 local authority ELC settings and, support the learning/implementation of Quality Improvement Methodology universally across Falkirk’s networks.  I am a data/ quality improvement methodology enthusiast.  Quality Improvement methodology is a fantastic tool to support and ensure equity within our settings. This is something that seems ‘daunting’ to begin with however, this the tools within QI are extremely simple and effective. We are all in this journey together.

 

Quality Improvement Methodology

Quality Improvement Methodology is a fundamental aspect to improving outcomes for children and ensuring equity across our ELC settings. Quality Improvement Methodology is often looked at as the job of those in senior leadership positions, however, finding the magic within this methodology and using this effectively within your setting, at all levels, makes a huge difference! Being creative with the tools, and finding the ones that work for you and your setting, this is what makes the difference.

Ensuring Equity

We hear the word EQUITY flowing around often but do we know what equity really means and, do we know how to really embed this within our settings, to ensure the very best outcome for or children and families who require this this most? The most important part of your jigsaw is ‘understanding and identifying’. You must be able to identify where your equity gaps are, and who is most affected by these gaps. Often these gaps aren’t always clear, we need to construct a contextual analysis, to really get to know our children, families and communities.

 The Equity Leads Quality Improvement Group

Our Quality improvement group is now 5 months in. I support 10 ELC leadership teams, who are embarking on their QI journey. I visit these settings every 3 weeks. We also have our networking group where we come together as a team to discuss all things quality improvement every 2 weeks. We are embarking on our in-depth QI training, with support from the Scottish Government. Our 10 settings are Abbotsgrange ELC, Borrowstoun ELC, Camelon ELC, Kinnaird ELC, Langlees ELC, Larbert ELC, Myotview ELC, Parkhill ELC, Woodburn ELC, Woodlands ELC. These teams have been invested and dedicated throughout the whole project. They have shown commitment and the enthusiasm in learning how to utilise these tools to support equity and excellence within their settings. All settings have an equity based quality improvement project up and running, impacting positively on our children and families who require this the most.

Universal Quality Improvement/Equity Support

Quality Improvement and Equity should be at the forefront of everything we do. Would you like to learn new skills, collaborate with other QI exerts and begin to unpick a range of outstanding tools, which will help you improve outcomes and ensure equity within your setting?

Come along to our Quality Improvement Bite Size Blethers. These will provide you with the learning, development and networking opportunities to build skills, knowledge and confidence, enabling these are held on a monthly basis. It is just 30 minutes which consists of an informative PowerPoint, a relaxed discussion, examples of effective QI practice and relevant tools which you can adapt within your setting.

Microsoft Teams, Falkirk Early Years Blether Platform and CPD Manager (4pm-4:30pm)

Twitter: @MisswrightEY

My name is Cheryl Brisbane and I am an Early Years Pedagogue based in Carmuirs ELC. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you a little bit about me and what I will be working on this year.  I moved to Falkirk Council in August 2021 after working with Clackmannanshire Council for fourteen years.   During my time there I carried out a variety of roles including Family Support Worker, Early Learning and Childcare Educator and Senior Early Learning and Childcare Educator.

My biggest passion is children’s Health and Wellbeing; for me this is fundamental and this is why one of my projects this year will focus on the Child’s Right to be Safe and Healthy.  For me, all children deserve the absolute best and I strive every day to support and ensure every child receives high quality provision within my setting.  Carmuirs Primary School is currently working towards their ‘Gold Rights Respecting School Award’ and this year the ELC will play a big part in this.  By embedding children’s rights in the ELC we are supporting our youngest learners to be aware of their rights and what they need from people around them as they grow and develop.

Within Carmuirs ELC this session I will be establishing positive relationships with children, families and staff as I am new to Falkirk Council and the setting.  Having spent one term at Carmuirs I am focussing my other two projects on Literacy – Developing the use of language through wordless stories and, Numeracy – Developing number recognition and systematic counting. All three projects will support the development of Carmuirs Improvement Plan.

As well as the 3 projects I am leading I will be working alongside Strathdevon ELC and Park ELC from Clackmannanshire on ‘Developing Technology in the Early Years’.  As the Senior ELC at Strathdevon I secured a STEM Grant from Education Scotland to develop a STEM programme across settings and to improve attainment.  This project has now grown and is not only going to be across settings but across Local Authorities also.  This will hopefully lead to some new and innovative STEM opportunities for our children and pave the way for more collaborative partnership working.

I feel very fortunate to have been welcomed so warmly into not only Carmuirs ELC but by Carmuirs Primary also.  It has been an incredibly busy, productive term which I have been lucky to be working with the ELC and Primary Staff. We are working on creating a seamless transition from ELC into Primary 1, which will showcase the experiences and outcomes of the Early Level as one continuous pathway.

I am very much looking forward to undertaking these projects alongside the staff of Carmuirs ELC to enhance the experience for our children and families.

By Cheryl Brisbane

 

I think we would all agree that term 1 has flashed us by and before we know it, the October Break is upon us. It has been great to see all of the fab spaces and experiences that have been developed over the last term for Falkirk’s wee people. Thank you!

In term 2, 3 and 4 we will be looking for settings in different clusters to contribute to our Blog. This gives us the opportunity to share best practice across Falkirk. Let’s fly the Falkirk Flag of Fabulousness!

 

Your blog might involve:

• Telling us about something innovative that is happening in your setting.

 

• Telling us a wee bit more about your new space or building.

 

• Telling us about how you are embracing 1,140 hours through foundational aspects of practice such as marvellous mealtimes.

 

• Celebrating special achievements and events in your setting.

If you would like to be one of our Guest Bloggers, then just get in touch with your EY Cluster Link Person.

We cannot believe we are half way through Term 1 already this year #FabFalkirkFolk!  Our team are finding it so wonderful and beneficial getting back out to visit you all in person in your settings. During these visits we continue to highlight the CLPL opportunities our team (and others) are offering this year to further develop your knowledge, understanding and skills.

You can find a copy of our Early Years CLPL Overview for 2021/22 on our Glow site which you will see features a range of exciting opportunities suitable for everyone working in the early year’s sector in Falkirk.  Every setting has a copy of this CLPL overview so make sure you take a look.

Please sign up for each of these courses on CPD Manager but if you have any problems with this please get in touch with your cluster link officer.  It is not intended that you or your team will attend all training. It is important to be selective as to the professional learning that supports your improvement priorities which you may choose to complete as a full staff team or individually.

Our self-guided CLPL continues to be available on our Glow Sharepoint. As always, we would encourage you to discuss any CLPL you take part in with your colleagues afterwards and remember to review the impact this learning has had on your practice afterwards.

Speech and Language Therapy, as well as our ASN Service continue to offer useful CLPL for  our ELC teams.  These sessions are not available to sign up for via CPD Manager, instead these sessions are on request.  Watch out for more details on each of these shortly!

This year we also have a series of Bitesize Quality Improvement Methodology Blethers.  The first session has a focus on Equity and the Model for Improvement which you can also sign up for on CPD Manager. Don’t miss out!

You will also notice our 30 minute updates highlighted on our CLPL overview which are incredibly helpful for our Senior leaders.  You will gather lots of useful advice and tips during these 30 minutes so make sure you get signed up to join us and have your cuppa ready.

We can’t forget about our Olle Modules which are another great way of achieving your CLPL hours for SSSC registration requirements, as well as meeting areas of your own personal development plan. Olle modules can be accessed remotely and provide you with a wide range of modules accessible from those geared at new employees, to those with aspirations of progression into a  leadership role, and those already in leadership / management roles.

Don’t forget to get signed up for these excellent CLPL opportunities and continue to develop your knowledge and skills #FabFalkirkFolk!

By Cheryl Smyth