Marvellous Mealtime Update

As we return from the Easter break and reflect on this academic year, we cannot believe we are in the last term already. What a busy yet very quick year it has been.

Both Tracey and I have loved visiting various settings across the authority. So far, we have visited a total of 59 settings. These visits consist of 39 nursery classes, 14 standalone ELC centres and 6 private partners. If your setting has not already received a Mealtimes visit you should be expecting one over the coming weeks.

We have enjoyed seeing what your Marvellous Mealtimes feels like, looks like and sounds like. Each one is different and that is okay. We have felt truly privileged to be part of this role this year.

When we have been visiting settings, we have found that 100% of settings are aware of The Marvellous Mealtimes approach and it has been wonderful to see how each setting has adopted and personalised the values to suit their own establishments needs, children and families. We have found that around 30% of settings are aligning the What Matters to Me Approach and Marvellous Mealtimes approach together and it is lovely to see the connection.

I thought it would be a good time to share with you a sneak peak of the content of our Mealtime blogs that will be published this week. You will be able to read a blog each day from Tuesday to Thursday of this week.

You are in for a treat!!

You will be hearing from the following settings:

1. Glendevon ELCC who will be sharing how they have introduced a daily deli and how successful this has been.
2. St Francis ELC who will be sharing their Marvellous Mealtime journey of both indoors and outdoors
3. Avonbridge ELC who will be sharing how they have developed their Marvellous Mealtimes environment.
4. Borrowstoun ELCC who will be sharing how there under three’s have embraced Marvellous Mealtimes.

If you have any further queries of anything relating to snack and mealtimes, please feel free to contact either myself on Ashley.cupples@falkirk.gov.uk or Tracey.sharples@falkirk.gov.uk.

 

Hi,

I’m Susan McElhatton and I am happy to say I love my job as the Curriculum Support Officer within the Early Years team.

They say that in teaching we have our ‘niche’.  For some it is upper school and for others it is middle to lower primary.  Mine has always been early years!  I have had the great privilege of working in the early years sector for almost all of my teaching career – 27 years of it!   Over that time, I have taken on different roles across three different authorities and have learned from every experience I have had (positive and negative) – and continue daily to do so.  I have been part of the central team in Falkirk now for 18 years and have watched it go from strength to strength.  We have such amazing practitioners and leaders right across the authority who have faced so many challenges over recent years with the introduction of 1140 hours coupled by a pandemic!  But, look where we are now!!!  Our care inspectorate and 2.3 visits show that we have faced those challenges head on and come out stronger than before.  We have definitely earned the right to say #FabFalkirkFolk!

As a curriculum support officer here in Falkirk there are many different aspects to my role.  Within our strategic plan for EY my remit is recorded as:

• Oversight of guidance to support the quality of ELC provision across Falkirk.
• Delivery of training and support to key groups including overseeing practitioner networks/collaboratives.
• Provision of support to individual settings as per the quality improvement strategy.
• Provision of pre and post inspection support, as appropriate.
• Oversight and co-ordination key service improvement portals: EY Blog; Twitter; Facebook; termly newsletter.
• Act as service link to the FVWLRIC in respect of Early Years.

One of my big focuses this year and next year is the Assessment and Progression Framework.  This has been a huge part of my workload and has involved both training and supporting individual settings.  It has been so rewarding working with a range of colleagues over the last few years in developing and delivering the framework.  I have gained so much from feedback and the questions that so many of our practitioners and leaders have asked and hope that you have gained as much from me along the way.

This term I am out and about as a quality associate doing 2.3 visits in the nursery classes and centres.  This again is something I have found very rewarding and hopefully valuable and supportive for the settings that I have had the privilege of visiting.

Over the Easter break and into next term I will be working on the CLPL calendar for 23/24 with Fiona Anderson.  The delivery of CLPL is a huge part of the remit of all of us within the central team, whether that is in-house support or a more structured CPD approach.  I know I speak for all of us when I say that we find it so rewarding working with colleagues across the authority.  We definitely promote an ‘Everybody teach, Everybody learn’ approach in Falkirk and a lot of what we share comes from what we learn from you!  We are so grateful for the feedback that you have given us through the MS forms that was sent out a few weeks ago. This has highlighted the positives of our CLPL and the things we need to work on next year.

If there is anything at all that I can support you with then please get in touch.  Remember we also have request for support forms that you can send in if you feel you would like a little more intensive support in a specific area from someone from the central team.  As a team (at all levels) we value and see the request for support forms that are sent in as a strength in settings.   These are based on your own self-evaluation of your setting and show that you know your setting well and are reaching out to improve on the areas you feel could be stronger.  So please get in touch and let us know how we can help.

Click here for Request for Support Form

Susan

 

 

Hi everyone 😊,

My name is Cheryl Smyth and I am an Early Years Peripatetic Teacher within the Early Years Central Team.  I joined Falkirk Council in August 2018 and have worked with many settings and practitioners across the authority in this time.  This year I have the pleasure of being the link teacher for the Denny and Larbert clusters and I love nothing more than getting to spend time visiting and meeting all their fabulous children and wonderful practitioners.  Before joining Falkirk Council,  I worked in North Lanarkshire Council as an Early Years officer, Nursery Teacher and Primary teacher in Primary 1-4 classes.  I have always wanted to be a teacher and when I initially completed my HNC in Early Education and Childcare and then my BA in Childhood Studies I truly developed my love of the early years which has continued throughout my career.  Completing my PGDE in Primary teaching then allowed me to further develop my knowledge and skills in the primary sector and work with a range of fabulous children, families and professionals.

I am always keen to learn more and since starting this job I have also studied the PGCE in Early Years and am currently completing the Froebel in Childhood Practice course with a wonderful group of colleagues.

I often work with settings to help them develop their systems, including planning, self-evaluation and quality assurance.  We aim to ensure the systems created are manageable, easy to understand and meet the needs of children, families and the team. I particularly enjoy networking with my SEYOs every month, it is truly wonderful to see everyone chatting, sharing ideas, and supporting one another 😊.

I am the Play on Pedals coordinator for the authority, and I often network with other coordinators across the country. I am sure many of you will know me from my emails gathering and spreading information about this initiative.  I am keen to continue to develop this throughout our authority so watch this space!

In the past year I have had the pleasure of mentoring students from one of our local high schools through the Career Ready programme.  It was wonderful to develop my mentoring skills and work with fantastic young people ready to embark on further studies. This role allowed me to network with other professionals across the country and support young people to create CV’s, develop interview skills and learn more about themselves and their skills.

I am sure if you have worked with me you are aware of my love of positivity, often sharing a quote or 2 to provide encouragement or motivation to teams.  I am passionate about staff wellbeing and I always encourage practitioners to look after themselves which will ultimately help them to support their children and families.  Furthermore, I am passionate about children’s mental health and wellbeing and learning about the impact this can have on their learning and development.

 

If there is anything I can help you with please get in touch and I will support you as best I can!

Cheryl

 

Hi everyone

I’m Elaine Craigen, a peripatetic teacher with the Early Years Central Team. I have worked with Falkirk Council for almost 33 year starting my teaching career in Stenhousemuir Primary School. During my years there, I taught all stages from P1 to P7, although the early years was definitely my favourite place to be. When a nursery class was added to the school in 2010, I jumped at the chance to join the team for two days a week. I had found my niche in life and loved my time there!

After nine years in Stenhousemuir ELC, I joined Falkirk Early Years Central Team in my present role.

Throughout my years with the EY Central Team, I have worked with many early years’ settings within the authority, particularly those in the Larbert and Bo’ness clusters. Currently I support both the Falkirk and Braes clusters and visit all the settings at least once per term. I also provide intensive support on a weekly basis to any settings who request this and facilitate regular SEYO network sessions.

Working with colleagues in the EY Central Team, I also deliver CLPL training across the authority and facilitate practitioner networks.

Over the years, I have undertaken further study gaining a PGCE in Early Years’ Teacher Specialism and also a Froebel in Childhood Practice certificate.

Recently, I have become part of an early language development group. I am excited to see how this will grow and develop and what this will mean for Falkirk’s youngest learners.

I love getting out and about visiting different settings. There is nothing I like more than chatting with children and practitioners, finding out about all the amazing things which are happening in Falkirk’s early learning classes and centres. I am always keen to share effective practice I have seen on my travels and signpost settings for practitioners to visit.

 

 

If there is anything I can help you with at all, please get in touch.

Elaine

Hi, my name is Fiona Pascall and this year, I am the link teacher for Bo’ness, Graeme and Grangemouth ELC settings.

I have been a visiting teacher with early learning team for the last 7 years, after working as the nursery class teacher at Carmuirs Primary School for 4 years.

I feel very fortunate to have worked with many staff and settings over my time in the central team and have also been involved in driving forward a range of different initiatives with the primary aim of delivering high quality, child-centred and play-based provision for our learners in Falkirk’s ELC and early primary settings.  I have learned so much from all the different Falkirk team members I have worked with over this time and have also undertaken further study by completing both a PGCE in Early Years Pedagogy and Froebel in Childhood Practice certificate.

I have a love of STEM, particularly mathematics and science, having completed a biological science degree, with honours in pharmacology, before beginning my teaching career at Carmuirs Primary in 2006.  I am very passionate about developing our understanding of delivering interdisciplinary learning in ELC through continuous provision.    Those of you who have worked with me will know I also love systems and am very passionate about creating planning and profiling systems which more effectively support teams to provide the best possible spaces, experiences and interactions for their children.

 

How can I help?

• Supporting ELC teams to meet the aims of their improvement plan or improving elements of their core provision, particularly those working in Bo’ness, Graeme or Grangemouth cluster.
• Signpost to new and updated resources and guidance and facilitate discussions through Bo’ness, Graeme and Grangemouth Leaders and SEYOs Microsoft Teams tiles.
• Support and signpost staff to training and resources, particularly for STEM and numeracy, through Twitter and the Falkirk Council EY sharing group on Facebook.

Fiona

 

 

Hi,  I am Fiona Anderson and I am the Team Manager, Early Years. There are many different aspects to my role, but my main focus is to plan and deliver strategic support to establishments across Falkirk Council to ensure there is high quality early learning and childcare for all children and families.   This includes overseeing and developing the strategy for professional learning and development, co-ordinating the deployment of centrally based staff, and directing service delivery relating to quality improvement including about curriculum, learning, teaching and assessment.

Before joining the team in September 2022, I held the role of Head Teacher at Head of Muir Primary School in Denny for nine years and before that,   three years as HT in two schools Stirling Council.    I also have worked within the Additional Support Needs sector as a Support for Learning Co-ordinator and various roles within a special school in North Lanarkshire.

I love my job!  I work with a great team of teachers and pedagogues who are all strong practitioners.   We work well as a team and regularly reflect on our strengths and development needs.  We are forward thinking and solution focussed. We also have a lot of fun and laughter too!

I also enjoy my strategic role working with our Service Manager, Lisa and our Childcare Provision Co-ordinator Karen.  It is so varied and each day is different from the other.  It makes it exciting.  However our commitment to ensuring all children have access to the highest quality of early learning and childcare underpins all our discussions and planning.   Like the central team we have a lot of  laughter too though 😊.

Throughout my role as Team Manager, I endeavour to uphold the values of our service which include positivity, creativity, flexibility and collegiality.  It is a role with great responsibility and I am honoured to hold this position.

Some of the highlights of my role are my visits to establishments where I meet enthusiastic and passionate practitioners, dedicated senior leaders and amazingly creative children.  I enjoy having the opportunity to share in children’s play and learning in rich, inviting and well planned out environments supported by nurturing and caring practitioners. Nothing makes me happier than chatting around the clay, playing hide and seek, cutting and sticking shapes or sitting around a safe and warm campfire followed up by reflective discussions with practitioners.  These experiences inspire me and make me very proud to be a leader in Falkirk!

I am looking forward to future developments within our sector and continuing to support establishments to deliver the highest quality early learning and childcare within Falkirk.   Please feel free to reach out if you would like a chat or blether about ‘all things ELCC’. If you fancy a visit, drop me a line.  I would love to come out and visit if I haven’t yet been to your establishment.

Thanks to everyone for all their hard work, dedication and warmest of welcomes when I visit.

 

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust

 

 

Hi, I’m Lynette Wilson and I am a PEYO at Rannoch ELC Centre. Recently I applied and was successful in being awarded £2164.79 through the Education Scotland ‘Food for Thought’ Fund. You may not have heard about the fund before but it has been running for over 9 years! This year there were only 300 applications with just around 80 being approved!

The Food for Thought Education Fund gives financial support to develop Food and Health as a context for learning. The fund aims to improve practitioner confidence in providing progressive, high quality, skills based learning experiences which help to embed food education into the ethos of the establishment. It also provides an opportunity to plan and implement learning experiences which build sustainability and capacity for future development.

 

You can find the link to more information here….Food for Thought Education Fund 2022 – 2023 | What we do | Education Scotland

The Fund allows Local Authority Primary and Secondary Schools and Early Learning and Childcare settings to apply for grants of up to £3,000 to develop projects that support the aims of the Fund. (Note – ASN establishments in the independent sector are also eligible to apply).

ELCCs that are part of/attached to a primary school must be counted as one establishment.

There is detailed criteria which must be evidenced on your application but to help you understand all of the requirements the website does have guidance notes to support you to fill in your application.

What have we done with our grant?

Cook to Connect

Our project is called ‘Cook to Connect.’ Our Project supported our families to connect with each other through working together on food experiences. We have worked collaboratively with local businesses and other agencies to develop knowledge of home grown, economical, environmentally friendly meal options and snacks together. We are developing our understanding as a group ways of making healthy food choices and reducing food waste. The project continues to work towards the goals in the guidance from ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ to help us drive forward, the global need to eliminate food waste by turning unused food into meals rather than going in the bin. With our partnership with Fare Share we have also been turning our food bank donations into healthy meals ideas or snack suggestions where possible.

We established a leadership group within the centre who have responsibility for planning and implementing a series of family workshops with the aim of sourcing local produce and learning together how to make healthy meals as a family unit. Microsoft forms were sent out inviting all families to sign up to register an interest in our first session. The participant session numbers were kept quite low so that we could ensure high quality interactions and engagements could take place and to develop the confidence of our parents, who for a long time, due to Covid-19 and other factors had perhaps not had as many opportunities for social engagement.

We have offered 5 family “Cook to Connect” sessions. Sign up’s were very popular which resulted in the centre offering additional sessions. Our sessions involved parents attending with their children and learning how to prepare food together. We made soup, cakes and meal options. Our families were then giving the food items home to make again with their child. Some parents sent in photos or had discussions about how much they enjoyed doing this with their child.

During November we displayed advice from Child smile and from our Speech and language therapy team on advice around supporting eating and drinking at our ‘communication afternoon’. During our December open evening we linked up with Forth Valley College to provide information and advice on training courses and further learning and careers in the food and drink industry.

Family Breakfast

After discussions with our families, in addition to Cook to Connect, we also introduced family breakfast sessions. Successful implementation of our project relies on our ability to support food experiences with children and families. We are continuing to develop a sophisticated understanding of the relationship between food and the impact on children’s physical health and mental wellbeing.

We used the Larder budget to buy food items and our fund money to source equipment that would enable our sessions to take place. We piloted it with one playroom, and as it was so successful, we have implemented this in all playrooms. We found that families who came along with their children to prepare and enjoy a healthy breakfast started their day off happier and ready to learn. The ’Better Eating/Better living document highlights, that children, who eat better are well placed for learning.

Sustainability

This project has strengthened the centres ability to provide family learning and engagement sessions, specifically around making healthy food choices, reducing food waste and sustainability and practitioner’s confidence in offering further sessions. This has been transferred into practice through the development of larder options and the experiences offered. By purchasing ‘Cook to Connect’ kits for each playroom it breaks down barriers of having to share resources and allows us the opportunity to further offer sessions in all play rooms.

Establishing a ‘Grow a soup bowl’ facility within the grounds of the ELC Centre is our next step. We plan to develop an area that we can plant all the ingredients in that we need to make a variety of home-made soups. This will enable us to use the food within the centre and hopefully if our crop is successful, share with our families to use at home also.

Here is a link to our “Thing Link” with some information and more photographs about our project.

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1671627495222280193

Keep an eye out on Twitter, Education Scotland website and your email’s for future application windows.

Feel free to contact me on lynette.wilson@falkirk.gov.uk or 01324 508700 to chat about the application process or our project further!

Hello! My name is Helena MacPhail and I am the Nature Play Pedagogue based within the Central Team.

I work alongside PEYO Lindsey Thompson, and SEYO Gayle Robinson and we make up The Hub Team based at Woodlands ELCC at Callander Park.

Our vision for The Hub is to create sector leading provision which will impact both on children across Falkirk and the early level workforce, by providing nature play pedagogy and outdoor learning opportunities.

We’re doing this by offering The Hub Programme which consists of both core knowledge and practical sessions.  Core sessions cover risk benefit assessment, barriers and solutions and making the most out of your outdoor space.  Practical sessions involve camp set up, fire lighting and cooking, and nature pedagogy.

Our main aim at The Hub is to motivate your team to see the value of spending time with children in natural spaces.  We also want to build your confidence to facilitate high quality nature play experiences in daily practice, and to provide you with practical experiences to deepen your knowledge of nature play pedagogy.

I am particularly passionate about nature pedagogy and sharing my knowledge on how to deepen children’s awareness of the natural world around them.  I value working seasonally, in ‘nature time’ and the slowing down learning this provides for us all.

Our first cohort, based in the East neighbourhood completed The Hub Programme just before Christmas, and we have received applications for our second and third cohorts from the East and Central neighbourhoods.  We anticipate contacting the West neighbourhood before the summer with application information.

We also offer outreach support, where we can come to you with practical advice on how to access a local greenspace, how to develop your nature play pedagogy and fire area assessment and practice.

I hope that through reading this blog you have gained some insight into the importance we place on nature play and learning in Falkirk, and how we can support you and your setting to get out into nature!

 

Please follow us on Twitter @hub_woodlands for updates and information, or email us at WoodlandsHub@falkirk.gov.uk with any questions.

My name is Margaret Aitken, and I am one of the ELC Training and Improvement Officers within the EY central team. I have been in post now for just over 3 years and throughout this time I have worked closely with my colleagues across the central team. To date my remit has mainly involved working with partner childminders, Forth Valley College and the SVQ programme.

More recently my remit has been extended to offering advice around the different aspects of Care & Support across our ELC settings.  As part of the suit of support offered by the ELC central team I will be available for in person visits to all of Falkirk Council’s ELC settings and Partner Providers. These support visits will be scheduled in clusters and planned on a date that best suits your setting.

The intention of the visit is to offer support and advice around best practice, legislation, and guidance.   This will involve open discussions around the importance of routines and documentation within settings as part of a health check that is led by the setting itself.

What will our open discussions focus on and what can I support you with?

If more targeted support is requested by the setting at the end of the visit, this will be recorded on an action plan and where possible further inhouse support offered.  Support with the implementation and evaluation of the action plan may be from the settings cluster link teacher or from me if it is felt more intense support is needed.  This will ensure a whole team approach to any support offered from the central team.

As part of this work, I have also been working on documentation and resources to support settings.  There will also be opportunities for further discussions around care & support scheduled into cluster meetings periodically as well.

Should you have any questions in relation to any of the above, please do not hesitate in contacting me to discuss in more detail – margaretd.aitken@falkirk.gov.uk

I look forward to working in collaboration with you all.

Margaret

 

 

Hi I am Claudette Wright, an Early Years Pedagogue (Equity Data Coach).

As many of you know I am a data enthusiast and love all things data! I have been very fortunate to get to share this passion with 12 other ELCC settings across Falkirk. We are now a year into our ‘building quality improvement capacity initiative’ and have 10 high quality equity based initiatives up and running across 12 of our ELC Centres. Our 12 Centres who embarked on their Quality Improvement journey are; Abottsgrange, Bonnypark,  Borrowstoun, Camelon, Glenburn, Kinnaird, Langlees, Inchlair, Myotview, Parkhill, Woodburn, Woodlands. These projects have been designed using a data based approach, this enabled us to use quality improvement methodology to identify where our equity gaps were and supported the richness of planning initiatives which would improve outcomes for our children and families who required this the most.

*Scan the QR code to explore the different equity based initiatives across our centres, some of our initiatives focus on cooking with families, cooking at home, cooking on a budget, transition, enhanced transitions, outdoor family engagement, wellbeing/involvement, early language development, early mathematic developments *

 

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 a ‘managers’ job, however finding the magic within this methodology and using this effectively as a whole staff team 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. There are a range of Quality Improvement Tools to support with:

• Creating conditions for change, understanding current systems, gathering baseline data, gathering equity based data, identifying change ideas, PDSA’s, implementing improvement, sustaining improvement, data analysing and spread/scale.

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 the 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.

 

‘In early childhood settings equity means providing high quality education and care to diverse learners. Each child has a unique learning and development trajectory that may require individualised or additional support for them to be fully engaged in quality education and care.

What’s next?

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?

• ‘TOOL OF THE MONTH’ Keep an eye on twitter for our ‘tool of the month’ we will be showcasing individual quality improvement tools across twitter. Along with PowerPoint training, helpful tips, videos and examples in practice.
• ‘QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PRACTITIONERS PROGRAMMME’– We will be delivering another 2 cohorts of quality improvement training, this will be delivered to HOC’s, Central team and the equity leads within settings. We will be adding more dates during the years for practitioners at all levels.
• ENSURING EQUITY THROGUH QUALITY IMPROVEMENT METHODOLGY GLOW’– on the Falkirk early years’ glow page, under the management and leader section you will find a range of QI support, blank templates and training PowerPoints.

 

Further Quality Improvement / Equity Support

Glow page: https://glowscotland.sharepoint.com/sites/FalkirkCouncil/staff/Falkirkearlyyears/SitePages/Leadership%20and%20Management.aspx

Twitter: @MisswrightEY

Falkirk Early Years Blether Platform