Education Scotland’s
Early Years
Matters
CURRICULUM FOR EXCELLENCE... THE EARLY YEARS FRAMEWORK // ISSUE 2 // SPRING 2012
Focus on
Involving
Parents
New Minister for Children
and Young People,
Aileen Campbell MSP,
shares her vision for
parents in Scotland
Launch of Education Scotland’s
new parental resource
Every Day’s a Learning Day
1 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SUMMER 2010
ARTICLE TITLE/SECTION HEADER
Welcome
WELCOME
Contents
6
8
10
a Learning Day will assist parents
in supporting the development of
their child’s Health and Wellbeing,
Literacy and Numeracy skills. We
are especially pleased to have
collaborated with the Scottish Book
Trust in this enterprise.
16
Dear Colleagues
Welcome to the second edition
of Education Scotland’s Early
Years Matters.
04 Early Years Team
Update
Keep up to date with
the latest news from the
Early Years team
05 Aileen Campbell MSP
Minister for Children and
Young People
06 Parental Resource
Every Day’s a
Learning Day
08 Parental Involvement –
Sharing Practice
Arthurlie Family Centre
09 Parental Involvement –
Sharing Practice
Involving Parents in
School and Out
10 Research
18Effective Practice
12Play Talk Read
19Parent Toolkit
Measuring Early Child
Development to Reduce
Inequalities
The Scottish
Government’s Play Talk
Read Campaign
13Studying Scotland:
A Wee Bit Mair Than
Burns
with Parents
Improving the Lives
of our Children
Parents as Partners
in Learning:
a CPD Resource
20Growing Up in Scotland
Parenting and Child
Health
14Early Years Glow:
21A Right Wee Blether
15Glow
22National Parent
Did You Know...?
Scots Language
on Glow TV
16Creativity
Plans, portals,
practitioners and children
Says Thank You...
Involvement
Co-ordinator
Moving Forward
with the Parental
Involvement Agenda
24SSSC
Updates on the PDA and
BA Childhood Practice
26NHS Health Scotland
Update
News and Resources
from NHS Health
Scotland
27Update on
Pre-Birth to Three
Positive Outcomes for
Scotland’s Children and
Families
28Conference Blog
Maximising Children’s
Learning: Getting it Right
with Parents
30 Building The
Curriculum 4
Can we Build
employability skills
in the early years?
31Scotland’s Colleges
Webinars
Web-based seminars
25Care Inspectorate
Update
Change is coming to the
Care Inspectorate!
The new agency will soon be a year
old with Dr Bill Maxwell now confirmed
as Chief Executive of Education
Scotland. Throughout the coming
months, we will continue to build
relationships and connections across
teams as we work together with you
to transform lives through learning.
Many of you joined us for our Early
Years Saturday Conference in
November when we looked at how
we can work together with parents
to maximise children’s learning. In
this issue we continue the theme of
parental partnerships and many of
the articles relate to this work. I trust
that you will find the mix of articles
helpful as you continue to develop
your work with parents. Of particular
interest to all practitioners will be
the article from Aileen Campbell
MSP, Minister for Children and Young
People, where the Minister shares the
Scottish Government’s commitment
to parents and talks about the
National Parenting Strategy.
The Early Years team are, as
always, extremely grateful to all
those who have contributed to this
edition of Early Years Matters.
And finally, we would want to say
a fond farewell to Jacqué Fee, as
she leaves the team for pastures
new, having shared her particular
expertise and made a valuable
contribution to the team over the last
year and a half.
We are keen to hear your comments
on this latest issue, including how
useful you find the QR codes, and
welcome any suggestions you may
have for future content.
Best wishes
Myra Struthers
Early Years Team Leader
Early Years Team Members:
Diane Buchanan
Anna Cartlidge
Jacqué Fee
Catherine Hornby
We are also delighted to share with
you, in this edition, exciting news of
a resource that we have developed
with support from teams across
Education Scotland. Every day’s
Throughout this issue of Early Years Matters you will
find Quick Response (QR) Codes, which are a type
of barcode that can be read using smartphones and
dedicated QR reading devices. In this issue they link
directly to websites related to some of the articles.
If you have a smartphone, you can download a QR code
scanner application and use your phone to scan the
QR codes.
Scan this QR code with your phone or visit
www.whatisaqrcode.co.uk for further information
on how to use them.
03
Early Years Team Update
Supporting and
co-ordinating national
networks
Highlighting news,
information, research
and examples of good
practice on Early Years
web pages
Supporting the
implementation of
Scottish Government’s
Literacy Action Plan
Supporting
practitioners in the
development of
further materials on
BtC5 for NAR
Scotland’s Minister for Children and Young People
Supporting
practitioners
in the
implementation
of Curriculum
for Excellence
Working with
Scotland’s
Commissioner
for Children and
Young People
Early Years
Team Update
Redesigning
and updating
the National
Early Years
Glow Group
Contributing
to national
early years
qualification
developments
Working
collaboratively
with national
bodies and other
agencies
4 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
I am delighted to have
been appointed as
the new Minister for
Children and Young
People and like my
predecessor in this post,
I want Scotland to be the
best place for children
to grow up.
Planning the
Pre-Birth to 3
national event
29 March 2012
Developing a
resource for
parents to help
them support their
child’s development
of health and
wellbeing, literacy
and numeracy
skills
Active engagement
with organisational
change within
Education Scotland
Planning the
Early Years
Saturday
Conference
19 May 2012
Aileen
Campbell MSP
Keep up to date with the
latest news from the Early
Years team on Education
Scotland’s Learning Blog.
Minister for
Children and
Young People
writes about
the Scottish
Government’s
commitment
to parents.
We all know that parents are the
strongest influence on a child’s life
and by supporting parents, carers,
families and communities build
better lives for themselves and their
children, we can help ensure that
every child has the best start in life.
The Scottish Government is
committed to developing a
National Parenting Strategy that
will encourage agencies to work
together to improve the delivery
of responsive and family-centred
services. The Strategy will aim to
set out the value and importance
of parenting, and will provide
an overview of the policies at
a national level which support
parenting (covering parents and
carers of all children, from pre-birth
to adulthood). This will help us to
identify gaps and improvements
for future development. We want
to ensure parents get the help
they need, when they need it, and
that services are delivered in an
integrated way by a well trained and
well supported workforce.
It is crucial that the National
Parenting Strategy has the views
of parents at its heart, and so we
are seeking views from parents
across Scotland. A wide range of
organisations who work with parents
and carers have agreed to host
discussions on our behalf. We are
very grateful for their help and we
look forward to hearing what comes
out of those discussions.
We are also planning to engage
with children and young people
and will seek views from practitioners
as part of the consultation on the
Children’s Services Bill.
Being a parent is an amazing
experience, but as a mum myself
I recognise there are difficult times
too. There is no such thing as a
perfect parent and we all need
support at times. We want to support
parents, carers and families and
help build their capacity, confidence
and skills to do and be all they can
be for themselves and their children.
I firmly believe that in doing so, we
will help Scotland to maximise its
potential and realise our ambition of
making Scotland the best place to
bring up children.
Aileen Campbell Msp
Minister for Children
and Young People
For inspirational ideas
on a weekly basis, log on
each week for ‘Wise up
Wednesday’!
www.bit.ly/earlyyearsblog
05
Parental Resource
Parental Resource
Education Scotland
Supports Parents
With A New Resource...
Every Day’s
A Learning Day
Every Day’s a Learning Day consists of
two books which reinforce the messages
embedded within Curriculum for Excellence
that the development of health and wellbeing,
literacy and numeracy skills are crucial
throughout life, learning and work. These
books were written to support parents’
understanding of how they can help
their child to develop these skills and the
relevance for their child’s learning, now and
in the future.
Every Day’s a Learning Day supports the
objectives set out in Scottish Government’s
Literacy Action Plan for the early years. The
first book is aimed at parents with children
aged between birth and 3 years and
complements the national guidance, Pre-Birth
to Three: Positive Outcomes for Scotland’s
Children and Families. The second book is
to support parents with children aged 3 to 6
years of age who are working within the early
level of Curriculum for Excellence at nursery
or primary school.
6 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
Findings from Growing up in Scotland
(GUS, 2009) suggest that early childhood
experiences and the activities children are
involved in do have a significant influence on
their cognitive development. It is, therefore
essential to help parents understand how the
experiences they provide for their children
can influence their child’s future capacity to
learn. Every Day’s a Learning Day supports
these findings through highlighting ways that
parents can encourage learning through
every day experiences, such as washing up,
and doing the shopping.
Every Day’s a Learning Day will be
distributed through the Scottish Book Trust.
The partnership between Education Scotland
and the Scottish Book Trust will ensure that
over the coming year, every parent with
a new baby, or a child aged 3 attending
nursery, will receive their copy of Every Day’s
a Learning Day in their child’s Bookbug bag.
Marc Lambert from the Scottish Book Trust comments on the benefits of this new resource.
“The messages and ideas the books contain are of the highest
importance because they demonstrate just how easily a parent
or carer can stimulate and support the development of their
child by incorporating simple activities into everyday life.
The vital, life-affirming fact is that parents and carers do not
always need to make special efforts or set aside special time
to make a huge difference to their child’s life and development.
Fantastic free opportunities exist within the very fabric of a
normal day, and these will help enormously in establishing
a firm basis for a child’s healthy development and future
happiness and achievement. Now, that’s what I call good news!”
Visit www.educationscotland.gov.uk/everydaylearning
for a downloadable English or Gaelic copy and further
helpful links.
07
Parental Involvement – Sharing Practice
If You Go Down To
The Woods Today ...
... you’re sure to find
Arthurlie children,
parents and staff!
Rosamund Rodriguez
Head Teacher, Arthurlie Family Centre
for the parents. This helped them get to know other
parents as they worked together building dens and
creating stories. They also talked about their hopes
and fears around their children developing the
skills they would need to keep safe in the woodland
environment. Additionally, it gave parents lots of ideas
of things they can do with their children on family
adventures outdoors.
In Arthurlie Family Centre in Barrhead,
East Renfrewshire, we work closely
with our parents and families, ensuring
that they are involved in and informed
about their child’s learning.
This year we have been enhancing children’s learning
experiences by embracing nature kindergarten
approaches, using our local woodland. Our parents
have been encouraged to be involved in this from the
outset, as we aim to promote the health and wellbeing
of children and families through increased contact
with the natural world.
In order for this to be successful it is essential that
parents are highly involved and actively support our
vision of enabling our children to learn from, and care
for, their environment through a commitment to outdoor
learning, which nurtures their curiosity and wonder
about nature.
Parents attended an information session introducing
them to nature kindergarten approaches where we
were able to share our philosophy on assessing
and managing risk. Afterwards they were very
positive, enthusiastically anticipating their children’s
involvement:
“Fantastic opportunity
to expand their experiences of
the local area and make informed
decisions on their own.”
Parent
Some parents volunteered to be helpers in the forest
and willingly undertook the necessary checks to
enable them to support the nature kindergarten
wholeheartedly. To show the kinds of experiences
children would have we had a workshop in the woods
8 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
A particular favourite was the Story String, an
idea from Creeping Toad - an artist who creates
celebrations with groups of people about the places
where they live, work and play. A Story String is simply
a length of string which you can tie a few objects
to whilst exploring the woodland, when you come
together as a group you tell stories inspired by the
objects. You can take the story away with you to tell it
again or tie it to a tree for others to find. (To learn more
about Story Strings visit: “Literacy in the Early Years” at
www.bit.ly/eyglowevents)
Parents continue to share in their children’s outdoor
adventures by supporting groups on their visits to
the woods and coming along for special sessions
where children share their learning. Parents provide
ongoing feedback to measure whether the increased
engagement of their children in their local outdoor
environment has encouraged them, as a family,
to spend more time together enjoying the simple
pleasures of nature.
Parental Involvement – Sharing Practice
Involving Parents
In School And Out
Gerry Munro
Head Teacher
Longhaugh Primary School
Dundee City
Many practitioners
will be familiar with
involving parents and
carers in the big events
of school life such
as assemblies and
concerts, where often
there does not seem
to be enough chairs to
go around.
of the blog, which includes photos
of children’s work and information
about our latest learning journeys,
encourages parents to access the
blog frequently and to become
involved with the learning.
Open Doors
We currently have three primary
one classes and every week,
towards the end of the school day,
they hold a joint ‘Open Door’ event.
Parents, carers and extended
family can come in, and enjoy a
relaxed environment within the
school, where they see what is
happening in the class and what
their child is learning. Key to the
success of these sessions is
that parents talk with their child
about their learning in a child-led
conversation.
Both of these strategies employed
in the early stages have not only
had a positive impact on parental
involvement within our school, but
have also impacted throughout the
school, where other classes now
have a blog or wiki and all classes
have regular Open Door events.
Find out how to create a blog in
your establishment:
www.bit.ly/glowbloghelp
The Parental Involvement Act, 2006
challenges schools to engage a
greater number of parents in their
children’s learning as well as in the
everyday life and decision making
of the school. However, this can be
a difficult nut to crack.
At Longhaugh Primary, we have
tried different ways of involving
parents in their child’s learning at
the early stages. Two of the most
successful strategies have been
the use of Glow blogs and our
Open Door events.
Glow Blogs
In my view, there can be no better
strategy than the use of Glow
blogs as a stimulating way of
sharing learning with parents,
and indeed the wider community.
On a weekly basis, our early
years practitioner updates the
blog, highlights what learning has
taken place with the children and
shares the learning planned for the
following week. The regular update
09
Research Findings
Research Findings
Measuring
Early Child
Development
To Reduce
Inequalities:
The Pilot of the Early Development
Instrument in East Lothian
Dr Rosemary Geddes and Professor John Frank
Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy,
Medical Research Council
Children vary a great deal in how ready they are to
benefit from school learning. Evidence shows that
children who are vulnerable at school entry are less
likely to be job ready later in life. There is a large
body of evidence supporting early intervention and
recognition of the long-term social and economic
benefits that can result. There tends to be general
consensus that the best approach is a combination
of targeted programmes against a backdrop of
strong universal services. Less clarity, however, exists
with regard to the best methods for identifying those
individuals or groups who would most benefit from
targeted early years programmes. Furthermore,
evaluating the effectiveness of programmes and
10 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
services implemented in different areas, and changes
in child outcomes over time, in a robust manner,
is often fraught with difficulty.
The Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research
and Policy (SCPHRP), University of Strathclyde
and East Lothian Council decided in 2010-11 to
pilot an internationally validated tool, the Early
Development Instrument (EDI), to measure school
readiness in Scottish children as they enter school.
The results are fed back to local communities,
schools, parents and teachers allowing stakeholders
to judge how local children entering school are
doing, in developmental terms. This also allows
local agencies to geographically target services and
implement early intervention for children, parents,
families, and communities, in order to address any
‘vulnerabilities’ identified by the tool. For example,
should children score low in one or more of the EDI’s
five developmental domains by comparison to children
with a similar socioeconomic profile from a different
area, agencies, in partnership with local communities,
can reflect on local programmes which may be
affecting children’s readiness for school and their early
learning experience.
Since the EDI is not an individual-level tool, it does
not provide teachers with results on the individual
progress of their P1 children. Teachers had to take
on board that they were part of the ‘bigger picture’
of assessing the needs of 0-5 year olds in entire
local communities and the inequalities that may
exist within them.
In 2009 ‘Support from the Start’, the Equally Well
early years test site in East Lothian, was established
with the aim of improving existing service pathways
and/or developing new ones to address health
inequalities in the early years. We were thus able to
take advantage of existing networks to implement
the EDI. During phase 1 of this project, the objective
was to test and adapt the Canadian-designed EDI for
content, language, acceptability and usefulness for the
Scottish context. Phase 1 has shown that the Canadian
EDI required only minor language and terminology
changes for local use. Statistics revealed that
important developmental differences between different
socioeconomic groups can be detected by the EDI in
Scotland. Qualitative work demonstrated that the vast
majority of teachers found the EDI to be
easy to use, acceptable and feasible. They felt that
it was appropriate for the Scottish social, cultural
and geographical context. However, there were a
number of challenges which had to be addressed.
The EDI training and assessment process must fit
in with current education routines and cultures, and
scepticism about time and resource implications are
being addressed. These discussions have provided an
opportunity to improve inter-professional collaboration
and broaden stakeholder involvement.
During the recent phase 2 of the EDI pilot, which took
place in January 2012, the EDI questionnaire was
completed by all P1 teachers in East Lothian. This phase
will provide the research team with a snapshot of child
development across the local authority. The results from
this will be available for dissemination in June 2012. If
it is found, as anticipated, that the information from the
EDI is useful to local stakeholders, then the process will
be repeated every few years (as currently happens in
Canada and Australia) and it may be rolled out to other
interested local authorities. The inclusion of information
from the EDI in Scottish Government’s National
Performance Framework is also being considered.
MORE INFORMATION
To download a copy of our recent review
on early childhood interventions, please see:
www.scphrp.ac.uk/node/4
For more information about the Scottish Collaboration
for Public Health Research and Policy, please visit our
website: www.scphrp.ac.uk where you can also follow
us on Twitter and Facebook.
To read more about EDI go to: www.earlylearning.
ubc.ca/edi
011
Play Talk Read
Studying Scotland
their awareness of the benefits of involving tots
through regular contact every day – having a splishsplash with babies at bathtime or playing ‘spot the red
car’ with tweenies during a bus journey.
Going into the hearts of communities, the bus provides
a play area where grown-ups can learn a variety
of fun tips like making dough from the contents of
their kitchen cupboards. It also provides an area for
Bookbug storytelling and sing-a-long songs as well
as an area promoting the benefits of positive touch
through baby massage classes.
Independent evaluation shows excellent results from
phase 2 which delivered sessions to almost 16,000
Scots with 91% saying they would apply their learning
at home, showing signs of long-term behavioural
change. Our challenge is to keep up momentum and
sustaining this parental engagement when the bus has
gone is key. To aid this, families can choose between
a free interactive book or a DVD, containing interactive
games, Scottish author readings, karaoke-style nursery
rhymes and advice to take home and use every day.
The Scottish Government’s Play Talk Read campaign
took to the road in October on a brand new tour bus.
It aims to encourage parents and carers throughout
Scotland to have fun and learn with their child from day
one. The campaign is now on its third phase. It helps
empower mums and dads, grandparents and carers,
to interact more often with their wee ones and improve
Encompassing Play Talk Read in the forthcoming
National Parenting Strategy and ensuring an evolving
programme of activity is key to its future success. The
future is bright – the future is purple!
Further information about Play Talk Read
including the Play bus schedule can be
found on this website.
www.playtalkread.org
Studying Scotland:
A Wee Bit Mair Than Burns
Jenni Curson
Studying Scotland, Education Scotland
“Understanding Scottish history, language
and culture and connecting with Scotland
as a place through our landscape and
natural heritage are an important part of
developing a sense of identity, confidence
and wellbeing which helps enable people
to flourish in learning, life and work.”
Dr Alisdair Allan, Opening the Scottish Studies
Parliamentary debate - September 2011.
The Studying Scotland website also has a resource
search facility to ease navigation through linked
information and case studies. This ‘one-stop shop’
marks the beginning of an exciting time in Scottish
Education where the Study of Scotland can be
developed in a meaningful and coherent way.
For more information visit:
www.educationscotland.gov.uk/
studyingscotland
The Studying Scotland online resource was launched
at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on Wednesday
21 March 2012 and now forms part of the Education
Scotland website.
Education Scotland was originally tasked by Michael
Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong
Learning to develop this resource. The commitment
to renewing the focus on learning about Scotland in
all educational establishments is being given high
Ministerial priority.
The Studying Scotland online resource brings together
a range of support materials for using Scotland as a
context for learning, including course materials that
have been written by practitioners. The resources are to
support practitioners as they create their own relevant
contexts for children including our youngest learners.
Learners in their early years and throughout
school have an entitlement to learn about Scotland
and its place in the world; the Studying Scotland
online resource aims to support this entitlement.
Engaging with Scotland’s literature, languages,
history, environment, people and innovations will
ensure that children and young people have a more
comprehensive sense of their culture.
12 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
013
Glow
Glow
Early Years Glow:
Did You Know...?
“Glow’s got to remain world leading”. This is what
Michael Russell said back in September 2011 when
he announced the Scottish Government’s plans for
the future of Glow, the world’s first national education
intranet. Since then, the Early Years team at Education
Scotland have created a ‘one-stop shop’ on Glow to
enable Early Years practitioners to access up to date
and relevant resources, CPD and education news.
This dynamic site aims to support practitioners in their
Explore the Early Years section
of Education Scotland’s
CPD Central. We are keen
to build a community of
practitioners in the sector to
share innovative ideas and
learn from others at the same time.
establishments to experiment and share good practice
in the use of technology to enhance learning.
The Glow site includes direct links to Education
Scotland websites including: Early Years, Pre-Birth
to Three, Curriculum for Excellence and Assessment.
Below is a guide to exploring everything the Early
Years Glow site has to offer.
Introduce
children to Glow
by exploring
the educational
websites
recommended
by practitioners
which children
can navigate.
Visit the parents’ section where you will
find a comprehensive list of resources
to help parents support their child’s
learning, including links to ‘Play Talk
Read’ and regular news updates.
Tune in to Early
Years Glow TV,
an interactive
online CPD
resource.
After our recent
successful
Glow Meets,
we are keen to
continue with
more exciting
events, so
watch this
space!
Take part in
discussions
with other
professionals.
For example,
see our
discussions
relating to the
Early Years
Saturday
Conferences
and Glow
meets.
Visit
www.bit.ly/earlyglow
and get ‘Glow’ing
today. If you cannot
access Glow please
contact your Local
Authority who will be
able to advise you.
14 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
Find useful educational websites all together with direct links
to the Early Years resources within them. The Aardvark’s store
cupboard is full of Early Years ICT resources.
Three small steps
will make all the
difference!
• Visit the
blog every
Wednesday.
• Register for
Glow TV.
• Join the Early
Years community
by creating
a profile on
CPD Central.
Scots
Language
On Glow Tv
Scots Author, Matthew Fitt, talks
about his recent Glow TV appearance
I was recently invited by the Early
Years team at Education Scotland to
participate in their first early years
Scots language Glow Meet.
As an author, I feel very comfortable speaking in front
of large groups of people, but knowing I would be
talking via Glow TV to an eager early years audience
aged between three and eight years, whom I wouldn’t
be able to see, didna half make me pause! Armed
with some props and the Itchy Coo books for early
years, I took my place on the comfy sofa in the Glow
TV studio.
develop an understanding that Scots is not ‘slang’.
Learning more about Scots also improves children’s
English skills and, since Scots is a part of who we are,
we should welcome and celebrate it.
That’s certainly what I and several hundred bairns
and weans did during the first ever nationwide Scots
language TV broadcast. More Scots on Glow TV and
from other sources is absolutely necessary to support
early years practitioners aiming to include our other
national tongue in learning.
To find out more about Matthew Fitt
follow the link: www.mfitt.co.uk
Lights, camera, action!
Watch Matthew’s Scots Language Glow Meet on:
Early Years Glow TV- Watch Again.
Straight into songs like Coulter’s Candy and Katie
Bairdie and then an introduction to vocabulary
like coo, moose, breeks – with me so far? – and
bubblyjock, tod and semmit. The half hour flew by with
me sweating in front of the camera and youngsters
across the country sending in messages and
questions. The event was a real success, with staff
and children from around twenty establishments tuning
in to the Glow Meet. However, in terms of provision of
the Scots language in early years establishments and
schools across Scotland, it may have been something
of a small revolution!
www.bit.ly/eyglowevents
Share your thoughts on Scots Language in the early
years in our Discussion Forum.
www.bit.ly/eydiscuss
Scots is recognised as a valuable part of learning
in Scotland by Curriculum for Excellence. Many tens
of thousands of children are brought up in families
where the main language of communication is Scots.
But when most youngsters begin formal education,
too often they are corrected when they use the
Scots words learned at home. Instead of being an
aberration, Scots offers rich learning experiences
which can connect learner, practitioner and community
with Scotland’s culture. Whether through Scots songs,
rhymes or games, learners in the early years can
015
CREATIVITY
CREATIVITY
The considered integration of more creativity within
the curriculum is likely to require more flexible
approaches to longer-term planning. For example,
there was widespread recognition that creativity needs
a gestation period and is difficult to timetable, which
could have positive implications for home-school
links. The ongoing tension between performance and
creativity was also highlighted in the research as a
barrier as was lack of time for practitioners to plan and
follow up worthwhile lines of investigation.
Creativity –
Plans, Portals,
Practitioners
And Children
Maureen Finn
Creativity Team, Education Scotland
Creative activity has always been
one of the lynchpins of early years
learning and teaching. In early
years settings we can observe the
developmental benefits for young
children as they draw on their
senses to ask questions, test ideas,
problem solve, use imaginations –
all to help them make sense of their
own worlds.
However, somewhere along the education journey,
these very skills can become lost or forgotten. Is it
perhaps because of the myths surrounding creativity
- that it is synonymous with the arts, that it is elitist, or
that it is a unique gift, only for the talented?
Thankfully, recent progress in Scottish education has
meant that some of the myths have been dispelled;
as educators we now recognise the value of creativity
to a range of agendas, not least health and wellbeing,
inclusion, attainment, lifelong learning and the Scottish
economy.
In 2010 the two Scottish Government departments
responsible for Culture and Education and Lifelong
Learning came together in the production of the
Education and the Arts, Culture and Creativity Action
16 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
The research has informed the design of a series of
creativity seminars delivered by Education Scotland
where practitioners can:
■ reflect on developing their own creative skills
■ adopt systems for planning and assessing
creative learning
■ consider the various roles of the practitioner in
a creative learning environment
■ identify creative partnerships with external
agencies.
Plan. Since then, Education Scotland has worked
in partnership with Creative Scotland on the Plan’s
delivery and to encourage many of the agencies
responsible for young people to come together to
ensure high quality creative experiences.
Most importantly, the research reminds us that
creativity does impact positively on children and young
people’s confidence, self-esteem, achievement and
attainment. The value of creative enquiry, relationships
and environments in helping children develop as
confident, creative thinkers should not be underrated.
1
A recent literature review1, commissioned by
Education Scotland, has provided evidence from
a range of studies to help our understanding of the
most effective creative learning environments.
The positive role of the practitioner was seen to be the
key to creative success. The research found that some
lacked confidence in creative pedagogies having only
had a prescriptive professional training. Improvements
were seen when practitioners were able to take on
the role of learners, or when they were working coconstructively with learners and other professionals.
Practitioners were also seen to build confidence by
developing their own creative skills, for example,
by working with a mentor or coach. A professional
learning culture, which allows practitioners to take
risks within a supportive environment, was also seen
to encourage creativity.
Davies, D., Jindal-Snape, D., Collier, C., Digby, R., Hay, P. and Howe,
A. (2011) Creative Learning Environments in Education – A Systematic
Literature Review, Centre for Research in Early Scientific Learning (CRESL)
For those wishing to affect creative change
the Creativity Portal should be one of the first
ports of call. The Creativity Portal includes
creative case studies, research, resources
and links to organisations that will work in
partnership with early years practitioners on
creative projects. The Portal is currently being
redeveloped and early years practitioners can
expect to have dedicated searches, reading
lists and targeted support. A new creativity
and early years newsfeed allows practitioners
to receive news and opportunities direct from
the seventy seven quality-assured creative
partners by email, Facebook or Twitter. They
currently range from museums and galleries to
national dance and theatre companies, many
with dedicated projects and programmes of
CPD and experiences on offer for early years.
Visit www.creativityportal.org.uk
017
Effective Practice with Parents
Improving
The Lives Of
Our Children
Kate Cherry
HM Assistant Chief Inspector, Education Scotland
What will we do in 2012 to
improve the lives of young people
in Scotland? Improved levels of
qualifications of the early years
workforce, more support for
vulnerable children, and a
continued high profile in realising
GIRFEC principles are all being
taken forward.
Parent Toolkit
What do these mean for you? How can we capitalise
on the fact that nearly all 3 and 4 year olds are in early
years provision? Can we make sure early intervention
works for each child and family? These are questions
which need answered and addressed to close the
gap which persists for some 10 to 20% of children,
and improve their life chances. Parental involvement
is vital in ensuring young children get the best all
round support. How do early years settings do this
effectively? We visit many centres which are doing
really good work with children and their families.
Here are some of the key elements of good
practice we find:
Irene Russell, Parental Involvement, Education Scotland
■ staff provide parents with a range of high-level
support such as meetings, open days and
workshop sessions, and regular written reports
on their children’s progress
■ staff are very skilled in making parents feel well
supported and valued as partners. They make
themselves available to chat with parents at the
start and end of each session and offer advice
where they can
■ staff, parents and children are consulted
regularly about learning and how to improve
the nursery further
■ parents are encouraged to read about, and
respond to, their children’s learning and to
share experiences children have out of the
nursery
■ staff identify, at an early stage, those children
who find learning difficult. They work closely
with parents, carers and other agencies to
provide the right kind of support for children
and, where required, their families. Home-link
staff visit parents at home to offer support.
In one nursery, children and parents often take
time to share a story at the beginning of the day.
This is helping children to develop an interest
in books with their family. In another, staff have
developed home link initiatives such as science
boxes which help parents to become more
involved in, and understand, their children’s
learning.
There are challenges for parents who lead busy
working lives to be involved in the day-to-day work of
their child’s nursery, or for those where involvement
can seem daunting. Let’s look for and share innovative
ways to have meaningful parental involvement in
children’s important early years of education and care.
18 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
Parents As Partners In
Learning: A CPD Resource
Actively involving parents and
carers in all of the decisions
affecting their child’s education and
learning gives them the opportunity
to understand the vital role they play
in supporting and extending their
child’s educational development.
When they take a supportive role in their child’s
learning, parents and carers can make a difference in
improving achievement.
“What parents do
is more important than
who they are”
Professor Charles Desforges OBE
Parents as Partners in Learning is a new online CPD
resource which has been developed by Education
Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Government.
This resource is designed to support staff as they
continue taking forward the parental involvement
agenda within their setting. It includes activities
designed to support practitioners to consider their
understanding of ‘parental involvement’, identify
aspects of good practice in their setting and
develop approaches and opportunities which will
enable all parents to become actively involved in
their children’s learning.
This resource can be used to support a whole staff
team approach or by key practitioners’ groups.
The downloadable activities can be adapted to allow
discussion of relevant issues with parent groups,
to reflect on current practice and to generate
thoughts and ideas which will foster meaningful
parental involvement. It is made up of a number
of modules including:
■ Key challenges to parental involvement – in
actively engaging with all parents we need to
consider the factors that limit parental involvement
within our particular setting and in considering
these key challenges we need to take account of
the parents’ perspective.
■ Involving parents in transitions – when children
move from home to an early years setting or from
early years to primary school, it is important that
we recognise the vital role of parents in supporting
their child at all key transitions points throughout
the process.
Parents as Partners in Learning can be used as
a whole or in part depending on the CPD needs
identified within your setting.
Please follow the link below for more information:
Parents as partners in learning:
a CPD resource:
www.bit.ly/parentcpd
019
Growing Up in Scotland
A Right Wee Blether
New Findings From
Growing Up In Scotland (GUS)
Parenting And Child Health
The wellbeing of children and young
people lies at the heart of the ‘Getting
it Right for Every Child’ agenda.
Given the challenges to successful parenting posed
by difficult circumstances, researchers used data from
GUS to look at how aspects of day-to-day parenting
affect children’s health and health behaviours. They
also considered whether differences in parenting help
to explain inequalities in child health.
Children’s health during their first five years was
examined by exploring data on general health,
longstanding illnesses, behavioural difficulties,
dental health, recent short-term health problems
and accidents and injuries. The health behaviours
considered were physical activity, ‘screen time’
(watching TV or playing computer games), fruit and
vegetable consumption and snacking on crisps,
sweets and sugary drinks.
parenting and child health inequalities. In general,
children living in families experiencing more difficult
circumstances were more likely to experience poor
health and demonstrate less healthy behaviours.
Parenting behaviours also varied according to family
circumstances, with parents living in more difficult
circumstances more likely to have lower parenting
skills. Further analysis shows that differences in
parenting explain some, but not all, of the health
inequalities linked to ‘family adversity’.
These findings suggest that policy measures to
strengthen parenting skills may benefit child physical
and mental health. The health benefits of better
parenting appear greatest for families experiencing
difficult circumstances. Parents in high-risk groups
may need additional help in addressing obstacles to
skilful parenting. This is likely to have wider benefits
on children’s overall development as well as health.
However, programmes to improve parenting skills are
likely to form only part of the solution towards
a reduction in child health inequalities.
Three aspects of parenting were also examined:
‘connection’ (love and togetherness), ‘negativity’
(conflict and harsh discipline) and ‘control’
(supervision, routine and regularity).
A measure of ‘family adversity’ was used to look at
the relationships between difficult circumstances
(such as low income or living in a deprived area),
20 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
The Participation and
Education team at
Scotland’s Commissioner
for Children and Young
People would like to say
a sincere thank you to
everyone in the early
years community who
contributed to A RIGHT
Wee Blether, the creative
conversation with two to
five year olds that took
place from September to
December last year.
By encouraging them to share
their perspectives and imaginative
ideas, A RIGHT Wee Blether
gave these young children an
opportunity to inform and shape
the Commissioner’s work.
The project was designed to
address Article 12 of the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child (the child’s right to
express their views) which states
that the child is able to form views
from the youngest age, even when
they may be unable to express
them verbally.
Findings
The data shows a clear relationship between parenting
and child health. Children whose parents had lower
parenting skills were more likely to experience poorer
health and less healthy lifestyles. In particular, high
levels of parent-child conflict were associated with
social, emotional and behavioural difficulties amongst
children. Children whose parents used low levels
of supervision were more likely to experience poor
general health, long-term illnesses and behavioural
difficulties. In addition, it was found that children
whose parents set rules and played with their children
more often were more likely to experience healthy
behaviours such as better nutrition and more frequent
physical activity than children who took part in few
activities or had few rules at home.
A Right Wee Blether
Says Thank You...
GUS is the longitudinal research study following the lives
of thousands of children and their families right across
Scotland from birth through to the teenage years. GUS
is funded by the Scottish Government and is carried out
by the ScotCen Social Research in collaboration with the
Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the
University of Edinburgh and the MRC Social and Public
Health Sciences Unit in Glasgow.
For more information please visit:
www.growingupinscotland.org.uk
Every child who took part in the
project received a beautifully
illustrated Wee Book About Me,
in which they could describe
their involvement in A RIGHT
Wee Blether. Adults received
Our Wee Storybook, where they
were able to record more detail
about the conversations that took
place. Illustrations for the project
were supplied by award-winning
children’s book illustrator and
author Ross Collins.
In total 610 books were received,
which included the views,
observations and illustrations of
12,722 children.
The Participation and Education
team is in the process of
analysing the information which
has come back to the office. An
external analysis of some of the
more interesting comments and
anecdotes will be commissioned,
and a final report about the findings
from A RIGHT Wee Blether will be
published later this year.
For more information about
A RIGHT Wee Blether visit:
www.bit.ly/rightwee
021
National Parent Involvement Co-ordinator
National Parent Involvement Co-ordinator
Moving Forward
With The Parental
Involvement Agenda
Lorraine Sanda, National Parent Involvement
Co-ordinator, talks to Early Years Matters
about her role
My role as National Parent Involvement Co-ordinator
was established following the Scottish Schools
(Parental Involvement) Act 2006.
There are three important strands to this legislation:
■ home/school partnership
■ s upporting parents to support their child’s learning
at home and in the community
■ p
arental representation at school, local authority
and national level.
Working within Scottish Government I am involved
in advising and helping people who are devising
policies and legislation, to make sure that parental
involvement is part of the process. It is my job to
consider how the three strands are working and
how they are co-ordinated to ensure that all areas
are being addressed. Although the Parental
Involvement Act is a Schools Act, there are clear
links for parents and children in early years.
Curriculum for Excellence encompasses children
from 3-18 and the national guidance, Pre-Birth to
Three: Positive Outcomes for Scotland’s Children
and Families also promotes the importance of the
parent’s role from the very outset.
Most recently, I have been working on the last
strand – national representation. I have had the really
rewarding experience of helping establish the
National Parent Forum of Scotland as a voice for
parents on national policy and decision making.
I have learnt so much from working with such a varied
22 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
and talented group of parents. They are a big band
of volunteers, from varied backgrounds and from
different parts of the country – over 30 of them
in total. I have been supporting them in getting
to grips with the policy landscape, but just as
importantly they are supporting us in understanding
the parent perspective. They are now bringing a really
effective, rich and informed parent voice to the table
and we can see the benefit of their contribution to the
Curriculum For Excellence Management Board, the
Early Years Task Force, the Outdoor Learning Network
and many others.
“I have never come
across a parent
who did not want the
best for their child.”
My experience throughout the years working on the
parental involvement agenda is that we have always
known the importance of this area of work. However
there is a growing recognition across policy and
practice that we can’t get it right for the child unless
we work with our families. This is where the new
National Parenting Strategy comes in. We want to
support parents to get it right. As the Minister has
highlighted, that is why the Scottish Government has
commissioned a consultation towards formulating
a National Parenting Strategy, which ran between
January and March 2012. This phase is crucial in
order to capture what parents tell us that they
actually want and the findings should help bring
together policies and initiatives that support parents
across Scotland.
Although there is no statutory obligation for early
years centres to have a Parent Council, some local
authorities are taking innovative approaches to ensure
parents are represented in the decision making
process. Of course parents of children who attend
a nursery class within a school will automatically
be members of the Parent Forum and represented
through the Parent Council.
Starting school can be both an exciting and an
anxious time for children and their parents. It is
crucial that we work together to prepare parents for
the transition from nursery to primary school. The
Parent Council has a pivotal role in making those
links with parents, such as participating in transition
events, through welcoming new parents and speaking
to them about what they do. We are also currently
working on new School Handbook legislation which
will help ensure that parents get the right type of
information they want when their child starts school,
and throughout their school years. We listened very
carefully to what parents told us in the consultation
and I hope we can deliver something much more
relevant to parents in Scotland today.
“Effective involvement
at these early stages
can help parents and
children prepare for the
transition to school and
make involvement
of parents in school
education easier.”
Parental Involvement Act 2006
I am a great believer in partnership working and look
forward to continuing to work closely with Education
Scotland. The new parental resource for parents and
carers, Every Day’s a Learning Day is a fantastic
example of policy translated into practice. It also
sends out a clear message that we think parents are
important and brings parental involvement back to the
top of the agenda!
023
SSSC UPDATE
Care Inspectorate UPDATE
SSSC: Updates On The Pda
And Ba Childhood Practice
Childhood Practice – the
Professional Development Award
The SSSC is pleased to announce that on
27 January the Children’s House, Aberdeen,
became the first centre to be approved to deliver the
Professional Development Award (PDA) Childhood
Practice (at SCQF level 9). The PDA provides
managers of services with an alternative to the degree
and postgraduate routes to meeting the Childhood
Practice requirements for registration with the SSSC.
The PDA is equivalent to the BA Childhood Practice,
at SCQF level 9 and made up of 360 academic credits.
There are currently seven universities supporting
over 900 students as they work towards completing
the BA/Postgraduate Diploma in Childhood Practice.
Visit the Childhood Practice section of our website to
find out more.
Childhood Practice making a difference!
Recent graduates from the BA Childhood Practice
programme have been speaking about the difference
the award has made to their practice. One graduate
from the University of the Highlands and Islands, said:
“I am much more confident particularly in inter-agency
meetings. I can now assert my views in an evidenceinformed way”. Another graduate, when asked about
how the award has had an impact on the quality of the
service she works in, commented: “It’s given me the
confidence to make necessary changes”.
To celebrate the difference the award is making
to practice and to the outcomes for children,
young people and their families, the SSSC is
showcasing research that has been carried
out by recent Childhood Practice graduates
on the SSSC Workforce Solutions portal
http://workforcesolutions.sssc.uk.com
The Childhood Practice area within Workforce
Solutions has examples of current policy driven
research. Topics include emotional intelligence,
health promotion and self-assessment. Feedback
about the research to date has been positive.
Also housed on the portal is a Childhood Practice
simulation programme. This programme takes the user
through a challenging scenario which allows them to
rehearse the skills required in real-world situations –
with the benefit that mistakes made throughout will not
have real-world consequences, but rather encourage
further learning and research.
Consolidated qualification criteria
now on the website
Following the SSSC’s recent consultation on the
consolidation of qualifications for registration the
revised qualification criteria can now be viewed
online and will be implemented from 1 April 2012.
Further information can be found at:
www.sssc.uk.com
Change Is Coming To The Care Inspectorate!
Last September
Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet
Secretary for Health,
agreed and reported
to Parliament that the
everyday name for Social
Care and Social Work
Improvement Scotland
(SCSWIS) would become
the ‘Care Inspectorate’.
The Social Work Inspection Agency
and the child protection arm of
HM Inspectorate of Education
were originally brought together to
form one body, SCSWIS, on 1 April
2011. In February 2012, almost
a year after its inception, Annette
Bruton was appointed as Chief
Executive of the Care Inspectorate.
Further changes are under way
with a whole new approach to
inspecting children’s services
being designed.
Inspections of individual services
will continue, but the new
approach, being led by Karen
Anderson, Director of Operations,
will report on the effectiveness
of how children’s services are
designed and delivered by local
authorities, health boards and
police.
Building on the highly successful
inspections of social work
departments and six years of
inspection of child protection
services, the aim is to improve
the lives of the most vulnerable
children in Scotland, by focusing
on how successful services are at
working together to deliver better
outcomes for children and young
people. The new ‘whole system’
model will focus specifically on
the impact on children’s lives
in keeping with the Scottish
Government’s Getting it Right for
Every Child approach.
This new model, which will involve
children, young people, their
families and carers in the design
and delivery of inspections, is due
to be piloted later this year. More
information can be found at:
www.careinspectorate.com
Annette Bruton,
Chief Executive of the Care
Inspectorate
The Scottish Learning Festival
Creative Learning . . . Creative Thinking
Organised by
Funded by
Exhibition partner
www.scottishlearningfestival.org.uk
24 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
025
NHS HEALTH SCOTLAND UPDATE
NHS HEALTH SCOTLAND UPDATE
News And Resources From
NHS Health Scotland
Adventures in Foodland will soon appear as a new combined resource
with the Early Years Nutritional Guidance, a more comprehensive
professional resource which will be available in summer 2012.
Singapore Delegation to Scotland
The Early Years Team at NHS Health Scotland played
host to a visiting party of social workers from The Ang
Mo Kio Family Service Centre in Singapore. The party
were visiting Scotland to attend the Helping Families
Change Conference in Glasgow and spent some of
their time before the conference learning about family
support in Scotland. As well as hearing from the Early
Years Team about policy development and service
delivery in Scotland, they had an opportunity to see
the wide range of resources available to parents and
professionals across Scotland.
The visitors gave a presentation to the NHS Health
Scotland team about their own work with vulnerable
families in Singapore and the challenges that they
face. There were found to be similarities in the health
issues faced by families in Singapore compared
with families in Scotland, therefore the exchange of
information and ideas was mutually beneficial.
Another universal resource, the play@home Baby book has now also
received a makeover with new design and photographs replacing the
illustrations. The Toddler and Pre-school books are currently undergoing
similar changes and will be available by the end of March 2012.
NHS Health Scotland is currently updating a number
of their early years resources. Ready Steady Baby!
has now been refreshed and reprinted and Ready
Steady Toddler! is undergoing a similar process at
present. The Ready Steady Baby! and Ready Steady
Toddler! websites will be updated throughout the year.
Alternative resources to Ready Steady Baby and
Ready Steady Toddler are available for parents with
learning disabilities. We provide three resources
produced in conjunction with CHANGE, a charity who
works directly with parents with learning disabilities:
‘My Pregnancy My Choice’, ‘You and Your Baby’ and
‘You and Your Little Child’.
Further information
Information on all our health resources is available at
www.healthscotland.com and our early years network provides
monthly updates on relevant early years information. Sign up for the
network and keep up to date at www.maternal-and-early-years.org.uk
Alternative languages and formats are available on request.
Please contact nhs.healthscotland-alternativeformats@nhs.net or
call 0131 536 5500.
Pre-Birth to Three
www.readysteadybaby.org.uk/
www.readysteadytoddler.org.uk/
Updated versions of You and Your Baby and You and
Your Little Child will be available later in 2012.
You can read more about Change Resources
for parents with learning disabilities at:
www.healthscotland.com/documents/5517.aspx
Update On Pre-Birth To Three: Positive Outcomes For
Scotland’s Children And Families
The national guidance and multimedia resource,
Pre-Birth to Three: Positive Outcomes for Scotland’s
Children and Families, was published in December
2010 to support and inform practice with very young
children and their families across Scotland. The most
recent addition to this resource is an information leaflet
for parents and carers with accompanying film clips
The leaflet recognises and values the important role
of parents in their child’s life as well as highlighting
the important influence they can have pre-birth and
on their child’s brain development. With this in mind
the new leaflet will support practitioners, parents and
carers in developing a shared understanding of the
four key principles set out in the national Pre-Birth to
Three Guidance: Rights of the Child, Relationships,
Responsive Care and Respect. The leaflet has already
been distributed to all nurseries in Scotland and is
available to download from Education Scotland’s
website where you will also find the film clips:
www.ltscotland.org.uk/earlyyears/prebirthtothree/
parentsandcarers.asp
The leaflet and fuller guidance have been cross
referenced in the Birth to Three years edition of
Every Day’s a Learning Day, a recent publication
by Education Scotland.
On Thursday 29 March, Education Scotland hosted the
annual Pre-Birth to Three national conference where
practitioners from Scotland shared the ways in which
they have been implementing the national Pre-Birth to
Three guidance.
26 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
027
CONFERENCE BLOG
CONFERENCE BLOG
Maximising Children’s
Learning: Getting It Right
With Parents
David Gilmour, Web Officer from Curriculum ICT
in East Lothian Council, explains the ‘Support
from the Start’ blog.
Pen Green Centre
Sheila Laing Prestonpans Infant School
The Early Years Saturday
Conference held on 19 November
2011, provided an opportunity
for practitioners to develop their
understanding of the pivotal role
of parents in supporting their
children’s learning and development.
Here, Sheila Laing, from
Prestonpans Infant School, uses
a blog post to share her experience
of the day and how she will build
on the key messages within her
own practice.
Sheila is also the Education Service Champion for
the Equally Well implementation Test Site in East
Lothian. The test site is called ‘Support from the
Start’ and the multi-agency learning network use
a blog to share their learning and good practice.
“A service champion for
Support from the Start is
an individual who has a passion
for early years, and a willingness
as well as management
permission to take part in a
shared learning process with
other champions. Service
champions are expected to
cascade information and learning
within their own areas from the
test site Support from the Start.”
A group of seven teachers from Wallyford and
Prestonpans Infant School attended Education
Scotland’s Early Years Conference in November.
It was heartening to hear Angela Constance MSP,
Minister for Children and Young People and Dr Bill
Maxwell, Chief Executive of Education Scotland affirm
their commitment and support in moving forward
strongly to give Scotland’s young children the very
best opportunities to develop and learn.
Those of us from East Lothian felt very proud during
the next session when Professor John Frank, Scottish
Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy,
demonstrated the need for early intervention strategies
to be informed by strong community assessment. In
January 2012, all Primary 1 pupils in East Lothian were
assessed by their teachers as part of East Lothian
piloting the Early Development Instrument. (You can
read more about the EDI earlier in this magazine.)
Parental input to the EDI assessment and subsequent
action was questioned from the floor. I was able to
speak about East Lothian’s plan to roll out early years
link up groups in each of the six cluster communities
in East Lothian, where people determined to improve
experiences for our youngest children can work
together to create local solutions for the community.
You can read more about this in the blog posted
by our Head of Children’s Services, Ronnie Hill in
October 2011. www.edubuzz.org/equallywell
However, the afternoon presentation was the one that
had every practitioner and parent or carer in the hall
riveted. The enthusiastic, energetic, radical Dr Margy
Whalley, Director of Pen Green Research Centre in
Corby, England, inspired us all to keep fighting for the
best opportunities for our youngest children in true
partnership with their parents and carers.
■ In every small community there should be
a service for children and their families.
■ D
on’t problematise your parents, every parent
finds the job of being a parent hard. Stop
‘othering’ people.
■ The adults around the child need to learn from
each other, accepting that nobody has all the
answers.
“It’s an interesting site, in that
it has contributors not just from
education, but from a range of
agencies, so provides a good
example of how this type of
technology can help to break
down barriers, from the reader’s
perspective, between traditionally
separate service providers.
Working together to create such
a site does of course also help
build sense of shared ownership
between the contributors
involved, helping build bridges
between these groups.”
■ C
hange the power balance between citizens
(parents/carers) and professionals. Embrace
cultural humility.
I loved this one . . .
■ You can’t stretch a two year old. A two
year old has the right to be a two year old.
Over-teaching damages learning!
You can learn more about Margy, her centre and their
approach on their website at www.pengreen.org
I came back fired up with more ideas and determined
to use our new early years link group for Prestonpans
to work with others to support our under threes
especially, and keen to have a ‘Support from the Start’
visit to Corby!
Acknowledgement
This article was originally published on the ‘Support
from the Start’ Blog on 20 November, 2011 and has
been reproduced with kind permission from its creator.
www.edubuzz.org/equallywell/2011/11/20/
education-scotland-early-years-conferencenovember-2011/
What were her key messages? So many, that we could
have listened all afternoon. Why was she only given
one hour?!
Steven Wray, Health Lead
28 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
029
BUILDING THE CURRICULUM 4
FURTHER EDUCATION
Can We Build Employability
Skills In The Early Years?
Ruth Ohldag
Skills for Learning, Life and Work, Education Scotland
“Where people can work in teams,
are creative and enterprising and
hungry to continually learn new
skills, they expect to realise their
aspirations and are equipped
to achieve their potential in
a constantly changing world.”
Skills for Scotland: a lifelong skills strategy (2007)
Development of skills is essential to help our children
towards becoming successful learners, confident
individuals, responsible citizens and effective
contributors. A focus on skills engages our learners
in relevant, challenging and stimulating learning
opportunities and helps equip them to be successful
today and in the future.
Building the Curriculum 4: skills for learning, skills
for life and skills for work is one of a series of five
publications that supports the planning, design and
delivery of Curriculum for Excellence.
“The opportunity to engage in active
learning, interdisciplinary tasks and
to experience learning in practical
contexts is important in enabling
all children and young people to
develop, demonstrate and apply
a wide range of skills.”
Building the Curriculum 4 (2009)
Within the title of this document is ‘skills for work’
which, at first glance, may not appear as directly
relevant to the early years. However, within early years
establishments, practitioners can enable children
to develop, be aware of and apply the skills which
allow them to be lifelong learners and reach their full
potential. These are all skills relevant to employability.
Employability skills are embedded in the experiences
and outcomes. Their development would naturally be
part of planned learning experiences. Where learners
enjoy rich and active learning in a variety of contexts,
skills will be developed. It is their recognition and a
shared dialogue between a learner, their peers and
the teacher that is key.
30 EARLY YEARS MATTERS | SPRING 2012
The Scottish Government’s Skills for Scotland:
a lifelong skills strategy highlights the 10 ‘softer’
employability skills. These are:
■ managing time
■ planning and organising
■ undertaking tasks at short notice
■ solving problems
■ communicating
■ working with others
■ thinking critically and creatively
■ learning and continuing to learn
■ taking responsibility for own development
■ managing and being managed by others.
In discussing and exploring these with colleagues and
learners, you will be able to create your own examples
that are appropriate to the early years.
For more information visit:
www.ltscotland.org.uk/Images/BtC4_Skills_tcm4569141.pdf
www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/
Doc/197204/0052752.pdf
Webinars
Scotland’s Colleges’ successful
pilot of ‘webinars’ during June 2011,
has led to an expansion of these
online events, which support the
college sector in Scotland.
‘Webinar’ is the term used for a web-based seminar,
a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that
is transmitted over the Web. This type of online
event can allow staff in colleges to take part in
professional dialogue at times which fit around their
college timetables. Participants can join and take
part in a webinar from any computer with an internet
connection. There is also no cost in attending these
online events in terms of either attendance fee or travel
costs, which eases the pressure both on staff time
and college budgets.
Scotland’s Colleges is working with staff across the
sector to provide an exciting programme of webinars
covering a wide range of subject areas. Themes
already covered by Scotland’s Colleges include
Leadership and Development, Excellence in Practice,
Curriculum for Excellence, Support for Learners with
Profound and Complex Needs, Quality, CPD and
Practice. Each webinar is recorded and made openly
available after the event.
Both forthcoming and past events can be
accessed from the Scotland’s Colleges website
at www.scotlandscolleges.ac.uk/webinars.
On Wednesday 29 February, Anne Lumsden,
Programme Manager for Care and Hospitality
at Elmwood College, delivered a webinar on the
Integration of Workplace Portfolios for HNC Early
Years practitioners. It was well received, with
delegates particularly happy that they were able to
access good practice in the use of ICT in their area
without actually having to travel! Anne said:
“We have integrated
assessments to cut the
workload, we believe,
successfully. We were
keen to share our practice
with fellow like minded
practitioners, and the use
of webinar technology
made this possible.”
Scotland’s Colleges see the potential to develop
a series of webinars for early years practitioners
around innovation and ICT. Suggested titles
include Virtual Logbook in Childcare & Education,
Using Moodle for Online Assessment and Online
Delivery of HNC units. For more information
about Scotland’s Colleges webinars, please
visit www.scotlandscolleges.ac.uk/webinars or
contact Jackie Graham at jackie.graham@scotcol.ac.uk
Scotland’s Colleges is happy to discuss suggestions
for future webinars and continue to build a varied
programme of online events which supports the needs
of the sector.
031
Education Scotland
Early Years Saturday Conference
Learning about Scotland in the Early Years
Saturday 19 May 2012,
10:00 – 14:30
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Save the Date!
For further information visit:
www.educationscotland.gov.uk/earlyyears