Milngavie Early Years Centre

Over the next couple of weeks we are updating the layout of our blog.  The categories at the side of the news feed will be updated to include current information on our current staff, family learning and parental support, planning in the moment approach, curriculum, school and nursery holiday calendars etc.   These categories make our blog easier to navigate and they are permanently there for reference.  If there is anything you would like included as a permanent feature of our blog, please can you let us know and we will create a category for it.

On the in-service day next Thursday we have been asked to give a short presentation to our EDC colleagues on how we use our blog.   We would really appreciate any comments you have about our blog – do you find it useful, do you enjoy reading it, or could we improve it for you?  Comments can be made on our blog page or our Facebook page.  We would be very grateful for your opinions.

Just a wee reminder that our centre is closed for the May Holiday on 3rd May.   Staff are having an in-service day on Thursday 6th May – the day of the Scottish Parliamentary elections, and our centre will be closed then too.

We are hoping that the weather warms up a little and we can all enjoy a sunny Spring holiday. 

Many thanks to everyone who came along to the online coffee session last Wednesday.  It was lovely to see so many of you on screen and actually have a bit of a catch-up.  We discussed our pre-schoolers’ transition to Primary 1.  Some of our parents have had the opportunity to visit the Infant Building in the school, for a guided tour with Mrs Stillwell and Mr Graham. If you did not manage to book an appointment to do this, you, and your child, will be welcome to visit on our next in-service day – Thursday 6th May.  Please phone the school office 955-2251 to book a time for your visit.  Our pre-schoolers had an opportunity to visit the Primary 1 classrooms and Active Learning Zone during the Easter Holidays when nursery was open, but the school was not.  The children really enjoyed this visit and came back full of excitement and enthusiasm.  We will be repeating this again over the school’s summer holidays and if your child did not go over in the Easter break there will be more opportunities to get to know the layout of the school building, then.

We traditionally have a joint active learning project which our pre-school children take part in along with the Primary 1 classes.  This year we will not be able to meet up as we are all in our own bubbles, however we have devised a way to take part in collaborative learning, by doing the same activities and investigating the same subjects, then meeting up on Teams to share our learning.  While not ideal, it still allows us to have contact and see each other.  We are going to become explorers and research the lifecycles of butterflies, frogs and sunflowers, watching their development in our classrooms/playrooms, in the garden pond and in the polytunnel.  We are going to have great fun and learn lots!  Look out for news and photos of our learning on your Learning Journal and in the blog.

One of our mum’s asked if there was any chance of having some Forest Kindergarten sessions in this last term as her son had really been looking forward to them.  Unfortunately we will not be able to offer the session a week for 6 weeks we did pre-covid, but we do intend to take groups of our pre-school children for some Forest Play adventures over the next two months.

We also discussed graduation.  At present our plan for graduation is to have a separate wee event for each of our playroom bubbles.  We are really hoping that the infection rate continues to fall and that we will be able to invite parents for this special celebration.  Dates will be confirmed this week and we will keep our fingers and toes crossed!  Should this prove impossible, we will record a wee graduation video for every pre-school child.

Thanks again to all who managed along- apologies for the less than slick presentational style.  Though I have been to loads of them, I have never hosted a Teams chat before! Hopefully I can only get better!!!! Thanks for your patience and good humour!  Hope to see you again soon!

Lisa Smith, one of our Support for Learning Assistants, has been exploring emotions with the children in the Rainbow playroom.  It has been extremely worthwhile in increasing the children’s awareness of reading body language and anticipating how someone might be feeling, to build empathy with others.  We have seen lots of different types of faces as we have role played, drawn and modelled how different emotions look.  It has been lots of fun and made us think carefully about how we feel at different times.  Here are some of Lisa’s posts with some great comments from the children:

On Sunday there is a family work day scheduled, between 1pm and 3pm.    We are planting up big banks of wild flowers and putting in plants, to encourage biodiversity in our amazing outdoor space.  Everyone is welcome to come along – there are jobs for all ages and abilities, and there is enough space for us all to socially distance.

Because of Covid, we are asking if you to bring your own tools – spades, trowels, gloves etc. to reduce any chance of transmission of germs.

We are also asking, very politely, if our lovely parents might donate some wild flower seeds for us to sow on Sunday.  We have no budget at all for gardening just now and are relying on the amazing generosity of our school community.  The orchard is looking beautiful – Anne, Eric and Sheena have been gardening over the holidays and new growing areas have been created out of the steep banks left by the pitch installation.  Anne is a Brown Owl and her Brownie pack planted lots of wild flowers and plants last night that Anne had seeded in her own garden for us.

We would also be grateful for any ground spreading plants and small bushes you might be able to bring us.

If you are new to nursery and have not had a chance to explore our orchard yet, you can check us out on our Milngavie Orchard Project Facebook page which gives the story of how we created it. Our orchard is a real asset to our school and nursery – a beautiful space which will soon be producing lots of different home grown organic fruits for our children to enjoy.

Garden days are traditionally good fun – we will need to socially distance from each other just now, but it is still a great way to feel involved in the school community and do our bit for the planet!  We’d love to see you there!

We are having an online coffee morning for parents next Wednesday at 10:15 – 10:45. This informal session is an opportunity for parents to get together to catch-up.

All welcome – however please note this session will be particularly relevant to families with children moving to P1 in August as we will highlight some key elements of our transition programme and paperwork.

For more information or to sign up to be involved please email caroline.mcmenemy@eastdunbarton.gov.uk

Recently we have been learning about feelings and emotions. The children enjoyed talking about how they feel, practising facial expressions and using words to describe emotions. During some outdoor activities with our Early Years Support Worker Lisa, children gathered various items from our orchard and garden and used these for transient art with a focus on feelings. We highlighted lots of different feelings, shared some of our feelings and acknowledged that all feelings are okay. The children named lots of different feelings. They had a great time looking in the mirror at their facial expressions – there were some very interesting and entertaining faces! We also discussed the different sensations in our bodies caused by different feelings. We discussed what sort of feelings might arise in different situations and how we can look after our feelings and our friends’ feelings too. The children had lots of fun with this task and showed a good understanding of core emotions

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At Milngavie EYC we understand that parenting can be challenging and our Family Champion (Julie) is always available (currently online or via telephone call) to share parenting top tips to tackle a range of issues. Following positive feedback from families about our bedtime routine post and in response to requests for information on night terrors Julie has prepared the short note below.  

Night terror – what are they?

Night terrors are very common in children between the ages of 3 – 8. Nightmares occur during light sleep and can be recalled by your child however night terrors happen during deep and children can have no memory of them. Night terrors can be caused by an over active mind or being overly stimulated before bedtime. Being overtired can also be a cause so a consistent bedtime routine is very important. If your child seems stressed and upset try to discover the reason by gently probing but not just before bedtime.

What happens? What do night terrors look like?

Night terrors can be alarming and difficult for any parent to handle. Children may have their eyes open and appear awake yet they’re still actually in a state of sleep and unaware that the parent is there. Children may cry out, shout and thrash about and be difficult to comfort. Sometimes your child may physically shake especially when trying to settle down again.

What should I do?

Gentle but firm touch and quietly shooshing your child can help to settle them down although this may take some time. The child could resist a hug as they’re still in the throes of distress.

Your child won’t be aware that this is happening and will not remember it in the morning so it is best not to mention it but maybe gently try to find out if anything is worrying them.

Remember that although it is distressing for you to witness your child is totally unaware and not suffering pain. Children usually grow out of these terrors and they can become less frequent by following a good bedtime routine. If they persist or increase you can speak to your GP.

For more parenting tips please contact our Family Champion (Julie) at jbannerman@milngavie.e-dunbarton.sch.uk