We are all back with batteries recharged and ready for the exciting run up to Christmas!  This is always a special time of year in Nursery with lots to learn about colder weather, longer nights and fun festivals to light up the darkness.

Our staff team have been very busy – on our in service day we looked at our Outdoor Policy, Five to Thrive and watched Suzanne Zeedyk’s youtube talk on the need to address Adverse Childhood Experiences when tackling Scotland’s Attainment Gap.  Kate also attended a really interesting LGBT awareness event and the rest of the staff went to a meeting to find out more about East Dunbartonshire’s plans for rolling out the new nursery provision required by the extension of hours from 600 to 1140, in 2020.  This increase in hours will have a very significant impact on all Early Learning and Childcare centres in Scotland.  We will hear more about the plans for Milngavie ELCC, and our staff, in the next two weeks.

This morning we had training on the Development of Language in young children, with Jade Brooker, our link Speech and Language Therapist and Gail Hendry, our Educational Psychologist.  This was part of our journey to make Milngavie ELCC a “Language and Communication Friendly Environment”.  We got lots of good advice and strategies to use to increase children’s confidence in the use of their language in the nursery setting.  We would like to share the things we are learning with parents and to ask for your opinions on the changes we are making within nursery, to encourage our children’s language.

Wednesday is gym day and two groups will be visiting the gym for some energetic fun and games.

On Friday we have a music workshop with Susan,  and Mr Snappy- the friendly crocodile with the interesting backpack. It is always fun finding out what he has brought to show us this week!!!

On Friday two groups of pre-school children will be heading to Barloch Moor for the first of six Forest Kindergarten  sessions.  All our pre-schoolers will be invited, over the course of the year, to participate in this very exciting and worthwhile part of our curriculum.  If your child is in this first group, you will get a letter over the next couple of days in their group tray.

Our group activity this week is to explore the orchard and list things we need to be careful of.  By thinking about our safety and creating our own rules about how to stay safe, the rules become much more meaningful and memorable.  We can have fun doing this (believe it or not!) and might just put the odd crazy rule in to make life more interesting.  We’ll let you know what the children come up with!