Since August 2022 I along with two other colleagues have taken on the role of Marvellous Mealtime Pedagogue. I will be supporting the Denny, Falkirk, Grangemouth and Larbert Clusters. I have a particular focus on supporting settings in developing a high-quality personalised approach to Marvellous Mealtimes, as aligned by the values and standards.
As many settings will be aware our Marvellous Mealtime consultants are visiting settings across the authority and by the end of term two, we visited a whopping forty-eight settings. If we have not already contacted your setting, we will be doing so in the coming weeks to visit you in either term three or four. I think I can speak on behalf of the Marvellous mealtime team when I say we have felt so privileged to be able to undertake this role as it has enabled us to witness how Marvellous Mealtimes has evolved over the last four years and that is testament to practitioners and individual settings hard work, dedication and commitment to embedding the approach.
Like many other settings Airth ELC have been on a transformational journey when developing and implementing their Marvellous Mealtimes approach.
You can read their care study below (you will need access to your Falkirk Glow Site)
Children should be offered both cooking and baking experiences as part of core provision within ELC. Practitioners should be reflecting regularly on the balance of this in line with nutritional guidance.
According to the Scottish Public Health Observatory 15.5% of primary one children in Scotland were at risk of being obese. A greater percentage of boys (16.2 %) were found to be obese over girls (14.7%) (September 2022).
Snack and mealtimes are such a crucial part of a child’s day. I would like to take this opportunity to signpost you to guidance and documentation which are relevant to Mealtimes that I would urge you to explore further.
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- Froebel Cooking and Baking with young children Pamphlet Layout 1 (froebel.org.uk)
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- Good Practice Prevention and Management of Chocking guidance Good practice guidance prevention and management of choking episodes in babies and children.pdf (careinspectorate.com)
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- Health and Social Care Standards Health and Social Care Standards: My support, my life (www.gov.scot)
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- Keeping Children Safe; Supporting positive Mealtime experience in ELC. elc-practice-note-4-mealtimes.pdf (careinspectorate.com)
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- Setting the table – Nutritional Guidance Setting the table (healthscotland.com)
Some reflective Questions?
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- Are you familiar with the Eatwell Guide?
- Do you provide a balance across the five food groups?
- Do you place the same importance on cooking as you do baking in your ELC?
- What nutritional considerations do you take into account when celebrating a child’s birthday?
Finally, I would like to extend a MASSIVE thank you to all Support for Learning Assistants, Early Years Practitioners and Early Learning and childcare Assistants who attended our most recent CLPL in the month of November between both sessions we had around 230 practitioners. To have this many people attending shows how much Marvellous Mealtimes is truly valued in our authority and beyond.
As always please just get in touch if you have any questions at ashley.cupples@falkirk.gov.uk.
Remember to access the marvellous mealtimes section on Falkirk Early Learning – Home
