Our Early Vocabulary and Language Sub Group met last week. We have been engaged in a harvesting of work to share practice across the RIC. Sound bites of initiatives have also been created to inform practitioners of interventions. Will update with sharing arrangements as soon as these have been finalised.
Category: Early Learning and Child Care
It’s A Good Time to be Two
Looking forward to meeting two year old practitioners across the RIC at the event on 12th February in FV College (Stirling Campus). It will be a fantastic opportunity to share good practice and learn together.
Early Learning and Childcare Inclusion Fund
The third round of the Scottish government’s Early Learning and Childcare Inclusion Fund will open to applications at 12 pm on Monday 4th February 2019.
The ELC inclusion fund provides funding to ELC settings to support children with ASN access their funded ELC entitlement. It funds staff working in ELC settings to receive appropriate training and fund resources, equipment and adaptations. The ELC inclusion fund is funded by the Scottish Government and managed by children in Scotland.
See link for further information
https://childreninscotland.org.uk/our-work/services/early-learning-childcare-inclusion-fund/
A good time to be two
Please see the link below for further details of the “A good time to be 2” conference. Information on the conference will be sent directly to all establishments that currently have 2 year olds. Bookings should be returned to your local authority contact
West Lothian Council
Catherine Thomas – catherine.thomas@westlothian.org.uk
Clackmannanshire Council
Wendy Mackay – wmackay@clacks.gov.uk
Falkirk Council
Susan McElhatton – Susan.McElhatton@falkirk.gov.uk
Stirling Council
Sarah Pirie – piries@stirling.gov.uk.
Early Learning and Childcare
Plans are well in hand for our conference “A good time to be two” on 12th February 2019. Watch out for booking information and the finalised programme which will be emailed to all centres with 2 year olds soon.
Psychology and Numeracy
There are a number of psychology factors that are important in children learning numeracy concepts and skills.
The Educational Psychology Services across the regional collaborative have been engaging in collaborative research on numeracy. There are 4 projects and a meta analysis:
- Attachment and Numeracy, Clackmannanshire Council. This study involved a literature review of research into development of early years numeracy and its links with childhood development and particularly Attachment theory.
- Bridging the Gaps, Falkirk Council. This project focused on longitudinal analysis of pupil outcome data from an action research skills project, involving the Coach Consult method of professional learning, undertaken with teachers and managers from 12 schools, in 4 discrete projects during 2016/17.
- Meta Cognitive development, Stirling Council. This study involved a literature review of meta-cognitive aspects of numeracy development, which in turn is being used to contribute to a professional learning programme for teachers in early primary in Stirling Schools, using appreciative inquiry.
- Pupil Voice, West Lothian Council. This piece of research involved focus groups with 56 participants from 8 high schools. All were studying for National 5 Maths and in S4.
The meta analysis is only partially completed and has already identified 15 factors important for the development of numeracy.
The summary reports will be published on the National Improvement HUB in April 2019. The full reports will be published on the Blogs.
For further information contact your local Educational Psychology Service.
Raising attainment in early learning and child care and closing the poverty related attainment gap
Why is this being prioritised?
Each local authority is undertaking work to improve practitioner professionalism and to raise standards across Early Learning and Childcare settings. By working across the Collaborative, combining existing resources and expertise will support a more consistent approach to the delivery of professional learning and development, and to sharing practice. Practitioners have asked for support in this area to improve the quality of delivery of ELCC.
Overarching Aim
By the end of 2020, 100 % of children aged 2-3 years old will experience good or very good quality ELC in establishments in the FVWL RIC.
What do we want to achieve?
- To build a deeper understanding of the key features of a high quality Early Learning and Childcare workforce
- To establish a CLPL programme across the Collaborative that supports developing high quality learning experiences
- To develop networks that demonstrate the best practice in collective responsibility and collaborative enquiry
- Outcomes for children improve from the support of highly skilled early learning and childcare practitioners
Actions and Indicators of Progress
Short term (February-June 2018)
1. Identify leads from each authority (Early Learning and Childcare Team) to work with EY&CC education officers to develop a plan based on feedback from practitioners
2. Analyse HMI reports and data information from across the RIC
3. Identify common areas for targeting interventions
4. Identify drivers for improvement (Early Learning & Childcare Strategic Plan Appendix 3)
5. Develop a professional learning programme to support the pilot project (to be delivered by numeracy champions)
6. Develop QA framework focusing on Learning and Teaching (Age 2-3) using Building the Ambition resource
7. Trial use of the QA framework with a number of establishments
8. Initiate partnership links with colleges, improvement advisor and Care Inspectorate representative
9. Identify core teaching materials to address common need
10. Share presentations used with staff in each authority and agree on key messages arising from these
Medium term (August 2018 – June 2019)
1. Use feedback from the QA trials to review and further develop the QA framework
2. Discuss and agree next steps for use of the QA framework with a whole scale approach across the RIC
3. Deliver launch event of the QA framework with practitioners and heads of establishments
4. Build shared understanding of the role for ELC graduates
5. A sub-group of the lead work stream has identified parental engagement as a key improvement theme and will examine the quality of this across settings.
6. A parental engagement strategy will be developed building collaborative working practice
7. The lead team will discuss measurement of progress and analysis of data with the Performance Improvement Team
8. Engage with the Communications Team to design a strategy to share practice and develop a practitioner network for early learning and childcare
9. Provide input to the Autumn FV & WL RIC Consultation on the ‘Ask and the Offer’
10. Review ELCC plans in light of the outcomes of the consultation
11. Identify practitioners to undertake leadership and coaching improvement methodology training
Longer term
1. Evaluate the effectiveness of staff development approaches
2. Review progress of children age 2-3 (milestones and CfE) using data analysis, and discuss measurement criteria with the Performance Team
3. A wider collaboration strategy will be developed with partners and stakeholders including CLD, ASN, Ed Psychologist groups and parents
4. Build partnerships with multi-agency partners to deepen knowledge to support children’s progress- across RIC collaborative
5. Develop a plan to promote use of outdoor areas for a variety of activities
6. Develop opportunities for children’s voice in all aspects of provision
Intended Impact of the Early Learning and Childcare Plan
The measures of success will be:
- Practitioner feedback demonstrates improved engagement and confidence in early years delivery
- Take up and evaluative feedback of collaborative CLPL opportunities and models of collaboration
- Participation by practitioners and regional network input
- Engagement and participation with the digital communication platform
- Children (age 2-3) show improvement in progression measures
- Improvement in gradings from the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland
- Recruitment and retention of excellent staff
