Early Years Matters
Issue 14
Autumn 2008
newsletter
In this issue
Curriculum for Excellence
Update
HMIE – New Inspection
Models
Integrated Services
www.LTScotland.org.uk
1
Early Years team: Lynda Bancroft, Jane Stirling, Annette Burns (back row), Linda Lauchlan, Jean Carwood-Edwards (seated)
Dear Colleagues
Welcome to the 14th edition of Early Years Matters.
Contents
Early Years – Update from the Scottish
Government
3
Curriculum for Excellence Update
4
Positive Behaviour Study
6
Healthy Living with Healthy Heroes
8
National Glow Group for Early Years 9
We hope you will find this publication informative, interesting and inspiring.
We look forward to hearing your comments about the articles via our new
online feedback service (www.LTScotland.org.uk/earlyyearsmatters/
comments.asp).
We are most grateful to all of our most ‘effective contributors’, to whom
we would like to say a very big thank you. We appreciate your generosity of
spirit, your willingness to work hard, your success in producing high quality
articles, as well as your co-operation to meet copy deadlines.
I’m sure most of you will agree that there is a real buzz in the early years
community these days: what with the Early Years and Early Intervention
Framework about to be published, Curriculum for Excellence taking off,
the increased focus on higher level qualifications for the workforce and the
changes to the inspection frameworks . . . to name but a few!
Early Intervention in Glasgow City Council
10
New HMIE Inspection Models 12
The New HND in Childhood Practice
13
Early Years Reflections from Europe
14
Outdoor Play and Learning
16
Birth to 3 – The Critical Years
18
SSSC – Update on Childhood Practice
Developments
20
Some of our current activity:
Competition – Design a Banner for LTS
21
Care Commission – Risk Assessment
22
• Supporting Curriculum for Excellence developments in this phase of
responding to trialling feedback and working with practitioners and other
partners on the path towards implementation of Curriculum for Excellence.
Integrated Services at the Jeely Piece
Club
24
Scottish Learning Festival Review
26
Conference for Further Education
26
EECERA Conference in Norway
27
Early Years Conference 28
At Learning and Teaching Scotland, we, the members of the Early Years team,
are keen to find different ways of providing both support for early years
practitioners and opportunities to facilitate the sharing of ideas and good
practice. One thing is for sure – the Early Years team at LTS never experience
a dull moment!
• Organising conferences and workshops – our next Saturday Conference,
‘Exploring the Early Years and Early Intervention Framework’, will be held in
the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on 1 November 2008 (see back page).
• Contributing to the development of research – we are currently working
with the University of Strathclyde as it carries out research on CPD in
relation to working with children under 3 years. For more information
visit www.LTScotland.org.uk/aboutlts/whatwedo/research/current/
cpdearlyyears.asp
• Presenting updated news, information, research and examples of good
practice by way of Early Years Online:
www.LTScotland.org.uk/earlyyears/index.asp
Thank you to the children of Eoligarry Primary
School, Barra, and Kilbowie Nursery, West
Dunbartonshire for sharing their inspirational
artwork with everyone.
• Keeping the early years community in the picture by establishing the new
Early Years Glow Group (see page 9).
• Contributing to the work of other national bodies and agencies relating to
the early years sector including further education, SQA, Scotland’s Colleges
(SFEU), higher education, Scottish Social Services Council and others.
Jean Carwood-Edwards
Early Years Team Leader
2
Early Years – Update from
the Scottish Government
I
n the last edition of Early Years Matters,
Adam Ingram, Minister for Children and
Early Years, set out the Scottish Government’s
ambitious programme to give children the
best possible start in life. Since then significant
progress has taken place – particularly the
development of the early years framework.
Early years framework
In the autumn the Scottish Government and the
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) will
publish the early years framework, which will set the
long-term direction of policy and consider the range of
services needed to support children and their families
and help end cycles of poverty, disadvantage and illhealth. We need to move away from picking up the
pieces when a crisis happens, to working to prevent
crises from happening in the first place. The framework
is about providing support and services to enable
individuals, families and communities to secure the best
possible outcomes for themselves within a context of
excellent universal services.
Play
Equally Well, the report of the Ministerial Task Force
on Health Inequalities, published in June 2008, states
that physical environments that promote healthy
lifestyles in children, including opportunities for play,
physical activity and healthy eating, should be a
priority for local authorities and other public services
and that the Government should support the third
sector to increase opportunities for play, through
investing in an Inspiring Scotland theme. As a result,
the Scottish Government and Inspiring Scotland have
since approved the joint commissioning of baseline
research on the play sector in Scotland, with a view to
establishing an Inspiring Scotland Play Fund.
This is an exciting time to be working on early years
and we have a busy programme over the coming
months to deliver these and other early years policies.
We are grateful for all the help from colleagues across
the early years sector who have contributed their time
and expertise. Your contribution is key to developing
policies that meet the needs of children, families and
communities.
Expanding pre-school entitlement
We are well on the way to achieving our
commitment to raise the entitlement to preschool education by 50%. The increase to 475
hours took place last year and the increase to 570
hours was announced for August 2010. As part of
the development of the framework, we are now
considering options for the final expansion in 2011.
We are discussing the options with partners involved
in early years and will now consider the practice,
financial and administrative implications of proposed
changes before any decision is taken.
3
Curriculum for Excellence –
I
n this, my first Early Years Update, I
would like to update you on Building
the Curriculum 3 – a framework for
learning and teaching and outline some
future developments.
Building the Curriculum 3
The third document in the Building
the Curriculum series, Building the
Curriculum 3 – a framework for learning
and teaching, was published in June
2008. A hard copy was sent to every
early years centre and primary school in
the country. It can also be found on the
LTS website (www.LTScotland.org.uk/
curriculumforexcellence/publications/
buildingthecurriculum3/index.asp). This
document replaces the existing guidance
on both the 3–5 curriculum and the 5–14
curriculum.
The document reminds us all of the
entitlements for all children and young
people that Curriculum for Excellence
should provide and outlines important
messages for those involved in planning
the curriculum.
‘The curriculum is the totality of experiences
which are planned for children and young
people through their education, wherever
they are being educated. It includes
the ethos and life of the school as a
community; curriculum areas and subjects;
interdisciplinary learning; and opportunities
for personal achievement.’
4
Building the Curriculum 3
The document also outlines the key features
of the framework at the different stages of
learning.
The early level, which includes both the preschool years and Primary 1, or later for some
children:
• builds upon the current holistic approach
to curriculum design
• provides stimulating contexts for active
learning
• encourages young children as partners in
the learning process
• provides opportunities to ensure
successful transitions through the level.
The purpose of the curriculum at this
early stage is to support children in all
aspects of their development, enabling
them to become increasingly independent,
responsible and eager to progress in their
learning. Skilled practitioners can build upon
children’s enthusiasm, inventiveness and
creativity to plan learning activities which
combine to achieve this purpose.
So what does this mean for me?
Local authorities, primary schools and preschool settings should become familiar with
this document, using the reflective questions
as a tool to develop their practice in line with
expectations and entitlements of Curriculum
for Excellence.
Early Years Update
The journey ahead for Curriculum for
Excellence – some developments to be
aware of
Engagement
In partnership with local authorities, the
Scottish Government and LTS are in the
process of planning further engagement
opportunities for the early years. We want to
ensure that the key messages of Curriculum
for Excellence have been shared with all
practitioners within pre-school centres and
schools across the country.
Experiences and outcomes
Following a period of consultation and
trialling, work is under way to consider all the
feedback and make any necessary changes
before publishing a final set of experiences
and outcomes for all eight curriculum areas,
early in the new year.
Sharing practice
The LTS website already has examples of
good practice from around the country.
From the autumn, case studies that reflect
the key messages from Building the
Curriculum 3 will also become available on
the website. (www.LTScotland.org.uk/
curriculumforexcellence/sharingpractice/
index.asp)
So what does this mean for me?
During this school year, 2008–09, schools and
pre-school centres should consider the guidance in
Building the Curriculum 3 and plan to implement
approaches based on this guidance from school
year 2009–10.
Pre-school centres and schools must work in
learning partnerships to consider how effective
transitions are when moving from pre-school into
Primary 1 and when moving into second level.
Within your teams, discuss the key messages from
Building the Curriculum 3 and focus on both the
cover papers and the experiences and outcomes
for the eight curriculum areas. (www.LTScotland.
org.uk/curriculumforexcellence/outcomes/
index.asp)
Curriculum for Excellence is not about throwing
out everything that you do and starting again. It is
however about reflecting on current good practice
and then considering any changes required to
encompass the values and purposes (the four
capacities) of Curriculum for Excellence along with
the entitlements for every child.
Tim Wallace
Professional Adviser, Scottish Government
Building the Curriculum series
Future publications in this series will include a
focus on assessment and attainment and skills
development.
My Daddy by Mark, aged 4 years and 5 months
5
Positive Behaviour
Early Years
Perceptions of young children’s
behaviour
In recent years a growing agenda
has emerged about young children’s
behaviours. A media focus has
brought advice for parents in the
form of articles, agony columns and
television programmes such as Super
Nanny and Robert Winston’s Child of
Our Time. At the same time, more
children are in ‘out-of-home’ settings
for increasingly longer periods
of time, and professionals voice
concern about difficult behaviour.
At the University of Strathclyde
our early years team tendered
successfully for a piece of work to
investigate the perceptions held
about young children’s behaviour
by early educators, parents and
service providers, with the proposed
project title of ‘Positive Behaviour
in the Early Years’. The study was
commissioned by the Pupil Support
and Inclusion Division and the Early
Education and Childcare Division,
and was based in two Scottish local
authorities that had opted into the
project.
Aims of the project
We set out to explore and identify:
• the extent to which behaviour of
young children aged 0–6 years is of
concern to staff, service providers
and parents, and any relevant
factors in terms of children’s or
family circumstances or conditions
6
• the approaches and interventions
that parents, staff and service
providers, in a range of nursery
and primary school settings, use to
manage behaviour and promote
pro-social behaviour and whether
particular practices were successful
• the extent to which staff feel
skilled and prepared for the
behaviour that children display.
Most of our research team come
from an early childhood practice
background and this was reflected
in the design of the study, both
in terms of staff involvement and
the kinds of measures we decided
to use. In this project we were
concerned that a focus on young
children’s behaviour should indeed
be positive, and it was agreed from
the start that we would look at
provision as a whole, at behavioural
contexts, and would avoid a negative
focus on individual children’s
behaviour out of context.
Method
The project began with staff
conferences, and training sessions on
children’s wellbeing and involvement
(Laevers, 1994) were offered to
all 41 settings that participated.
Staff then contributed directly to
the research by carrying out whole
class screening for wellbeing and
involvement. At the same time we
took account of the quality of the
early years environments by using the
Early Childhood Environment Rating
Scale (1998). We also explored adult
perceptions and strategies through
the use of the Goodman Strengths
and Difficulties Questionnaire (1997),
the Daily Hassles Questionnaire
(1991), and questionnaires we had
designed ourselves to explore adult
strategies and to bring a focus on
transitions as important times of
change in the lives of young children
and their families.
Findings
There was considerable consistency
in data emerging from all measures
that parents and staff perceived that
the majority of children generally
displayed positive behaviour. Parents
and practitioners consider a minority of
young children (around 20%) to have
some behaviour difficulties, with about
10% of children considered to have
severe difficulties, which represents a
fairly stable level of expressed concern
compared to earlier studies.
Although acknowledging the need
for continued training, nevertheless
staff report confidence in their own
skills with children whose behaviours
cause concern, and consider that
such needs are able to be met by
appropriate provision, team efforts,
and well timed intervention.
Early childhood environments were
found to vary in quality of provision,
in that in some settings the provision
of daily activities scored fairly low
in the
opportunity exists to address this
challenge in ways that are helpful to
children. Development opportunities
for staff are needed to further this
process.
The Positive Behaviour in the Early
Years project has now been reported
to the Scottish Government, and the
Project Report, an Executive Summary
and a Practitioners’ Summary on the
project are available from the Scottish
Government website. We plan to
hold a conference to share the
findings and hear about interesting
practice in this area during 2009
at Jordanhill Campus, University of
Strathclyde.
Professor Aline-Wendy Dunlop,
Principal Investigator, on behalf
of the Project Team, Faculty
of Education, University of
Strathclyde
Full references can be found in the
Project Report:
in this area, as measured by the
Early Childhood Environmental
Rating Scale (ECERS). Taken with the
findings of the relatively low levels
of involvement and concentration
reported for about 50% of children,
this finding sits alongside the HMIE
(2006) report that suggests staff
in early years settings should focus
more on the learning needs of
individual children.
The case study focus indicated that
greater attention needs to be paid to
some features of 0–3 provision in line
with Birth to Three – Supporting our
youngest children (Learning and Teaching
Scotland, 2005). Increased efforts to take
advantage of inter-agency support and
collaboration are also needed in some
settings. Transitions are challenging for
some children, and, with anticipated
changes in curriculum design, an
Dunlop, A-W, Lee, P, Fee, J, Hughes,
A, Grieve, A, and Marwick, H (2008),
Positive Behaviour in the Early Years:
Perceptions of Staff, Service Providers
and Parents in Managing and
Promoting Positive Behaviour in Early
Years and Early Primary Settings,
Edinburgh: Scottish Government
For more information, please look at
The Practitioners’ Summary at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/238273
7
Healthy Living with Healthy Heroes
T
he children of Muirton Community Nursery in
Perth have been learning about healthy living
with the help of their favourite characters
from popular culture. The children’s engagement
with superheroes such as Sportacus and Stephanie
provided a focus for promoting health and wellbeing.
The children’s thoughts on what made these
characters special, for example ‘They keep fit and
jump and do exercising and push-ups, they eat
properly, eat apples, eat fruit, eat sports candy to
give them energy’, were recorded in their OGI (Our
Good Ideas) Book. They agreed that superheroes kept
themselves healthy, fit and safe. Using healthy heroes
as role models, staff responded to the children’s
ideas and created learning opportunities across the
curriculum which promoted emotional, social and
PC Leitch let us try on his
hat and jacket and speak
into his radio. He told us
how to keep ourselves
safe especially when we
are crossing the road and
asked us to remember
that the police are here
to help us.
Daisy the cow talked about the food she had eaten
and we played Thumbs Up Thumbs Down after
deciding if it was healthy or not. We all got a turn
to brush Daisy’s teeth
and Lee the Dental
Hygienist watched us
brushing ours to see
if we were doing it
properly.
8
physical wellbeing. Responsive learning plans enabled
the children to develop their understanding of:
• caring for themselves and their personal safety
• feeling good and the importance of hygiene, diet
and exercise
• the world of work.
Play experiences supported the children’s entitlement to
feel safe, nurtured, healthy, active, respected, responsible
and included as portrayed by their healthy heroes.
The following evidence from their OGI Book gives
examples of how some of the characters have become
positive and powerful role models for the children.
Linda Sanderson
Muirton Community Nursery, Perth
Soldier John read us
a story called ‘Am I
Fit and Healthy’ and
told us all about how
he looks after himself
to keep fit and active.
We had lots of fun
learning how to
march and how to do exercises like the press-ups
you can see us practising in the picture.
Archie let us visit his
optician. He told us how to
look after our eyes and that
we should get them checked
before we start school. We
got to try on glasses and
use his magic magnifying
mirrors and his measuring
instrument. When we got
back to nursery we made
our own opticians.
National Glow Group for Early Years
G
low is the world’s first national
intranet for education. It provides a
trusted and safe environment with
access to a variety of online tools to enhance
learning experiences.
The early years community now has its own
national Early Years Glow Group, which
includes a vibrant discussion forum, current
news, useful links to online resources and
much more. Please log in to Glow and visit
the National Groups area to join our
group.
Please note that access to Glow is provided
by each local authority, in accordance with its
local rollout strategy. For more information on
the status of your local authority, please see
the ‘Glow in your area’ section of the Glow
Scotland website.
Throughout the newsletter we have various
examples of our new Conferences in Pictures.
They were showcased at this year’s Scottish
Learning Festival and they are an innovative
and fun way of encouraging debate around
topical issues related to early years. The
full set of pictures has also been put on the
National Early Years Glow Group discussion
area and we invite you to join our group and
engage in discussion with us.
https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/
establishments/nationalsite/Early%20Years/
default.aspx
Pre-school to Primary Transition
Ok Primary One,
we’re all going to
learn about
number 5 today
5
Not again! I’ve
known all about
number 5 for
AGES!
I thought school
would be fun, but
it’s really boring
I used to do everything for
myself, and now I have to wait
until I’m told what to do
and how to do it
In your view, how will Curriculum for Excellence affect
pre-school into primary transitions?
9
Prevention Better th
E
arly intervention
– effective early
identification of children
and families at risk, and timely
action taken to address risk
early – holds out the promise
that as a nation we can move
In April 2006, Glasgow City Council
Education Service, along with
Dundee City Council and North
Ayrshire Council, was invited by the
then Scottish Executive to submit
proposals to develop innovative
provision for young children and their
families.
from ‘a focus on ‘picking up
the pieces’ once things have
happened, towards prevention’
(Early Years and Early
Intervention: A joint Scottish
Government and COSLA policy
statement, March 2008).
Giving children the best possible
start in life and improving the
life chances of children, young
people and families at risk has the
potential to make a genuine, longterm contribution to breaking the
cycle of underachievement, poor
educational attainment and poor
life chances.
Based on experiences in Glasgow,
however, this is not as simple as
it sounds. To be effective, early
intervention requires fundamental
changes in the way that policy
makers and practitioners think
and act. How we define ‘at
risk’ or ‘vulnerable’, and what
interventions are likely to prove
really worthwhile in the longer
term, are just some of the
questions that remain to be
answered as practice and services
evolve.
10
Perhaps the greatest challenge faced
in the Vulnerable 2s pilot project
(and nationally) is how we manage
change so that we can provide
integrated services, make innovative
and imaginative use of existing
provision, and develop expertise in
partnerships across services. Taking
positive action now means investing
to improve longer-term outcomes
while continuing to address the real
and pressing problems that are with
us today. It is about commitment.
Glasgow City Council drew on
insights from the Effective Provision
of Pre-School Education (EPPE)
study, accepting the principle that
‘it matters more what parents do
than what they are’. Glasgow built
on the opportunities provided by
the integrated service provision
which had already been developed
and its response highlighted its
aim to provide dedicated outreach
and family support. The proposal
pointed to utilisation of the already
established network of pre-school
provision, and maximisation of
parental involvement in helping
to support children’s emotional,
personal and social development.
Managed jointly by Glasgow’s
Education and Social Work Services,
the Vulnerable 2s project targeted
children and families across the
city. Initially providing 400 parttime places for some of the most
vulnerable children and families,
the project sought to make a real
difference to their life chances.
By building positive relationships
between families and local services and
employing a dedicated Outreach and
Family Support Team to work alongside
staff in pre-school establishments,
the project aimed to take active steps
to ensure that services were fully
accessible to young parents. Children
and families were able to benefit from
the support and expertise provided
by Health, Education, Social Work
and a whole host of other services. It
was about much more than an early
nursery place.
The experience of children, parents
and staff at Bellrock Nursery in
Cranhill gives a flavour of how
the initiative was able to be
effective in meeting the needs of
vulnerable children and families in
the community. With 30 places for
vulnerable 2-year-olds (15 in the
morning and 15 in the afternoon),
Bellrock Nursery was in a position
to provide high quality support to
children and families facing a whole
range of challenging circumstances.
The nursery played a crucial role
in co-ordinating tailored packages
of support and advice, including
parenting classes.
an Cure
Glasgow’s continuing commitment to early
intervention for 2-year-olds
The range of families drawing
on the extended service gives
the lie to the assumption that all
vulnerable families are basically the
same. The flexibility provided by
the addition of an under-3s’ room
meant that the nursery was able
to create learning spaces designed
to meet the changing needs of
children experiencing difficult
times or trauma. Building positive
relationships and involving parents
in their children’s learning helped
contribute to raising achievement,
and promoting children’s learning
and development. At the same time,
‘vulnerable’ children could take their
place alongside contemporaries as
confident, successful learners.
In May 2008, when funding
arrangements for the pilot changed,
Glasgow City Council’s Executive
Committee took the decision to
invest almost £1 million to ensure
that 2-year-olds from vulnerable
family backgrounds in Glasgow would
continue to have the opportunity
to start nursery one year early. This
means that the number of childcare
places for vulnerable children under 3
will increase from around 435 to 500.
life chances of children who
‘face more challenges than
others’, the continuation of the
project will in turn ensure the
continuation of high quality,
effective early intervention
throughout the city of Glasgow.
John Butcher, Head of
Early Childhood and
Childcare Services, and
Gerard McKernan, Quality
Improvement Officer,
Glasgow City Council
As well as being a firm commitment
to making a difference to the
11
New HMIE Inspection Models
H
MIE is introducing new models of inspection
for the school and pre-school sectors in
September 2008.
Our new school inspections will be shorter than
at present and will last no more than four days in
both primary and secondary schools, and could last
for less than four days. In pre-school centres and
nursery classes, activities will last from two to three
days. This will depend on the size of the provision.
We will notify schools and pre-school centres three
weeks before our inspection visit and ask them to
send us only the minimum amount of administrative
information in advance. Inspectors will pick up any
other information they need when in the school or
centre.
An important aspect of the new models is how
the inspection will build on the school or centre’s
account of the quality of education it provides and
how it has brought about improvement through
self-evaluation. One of the first activities will be to
learn about the school or centre in a meeting with
members of the senior management team. At all
stages in the school or centre, we will encourage
professional engagement with staff. We will agree
appropriate times to meet staff both to explore
professional issues and to offer feedback.
Inspections will focus on the quality of children’s
experiences and outcomes, and the school’s
or centre’s success in improving the quality of
education. We will report evaluations of five quality
indicators (QIs) from How Good is Our School 3
or The Child at the Centre 2 and use the six-point
scale. Three of these indicators will feed into the
Government’s National Performance Framework: QI
1.1 Improvements in performance, QI 2.1 Learners’/
Children’s experiences and QI 5.3 Meeting learning
needs. The other two indicators will be QI 5.9
Improvement through self‑evaluation and QI 5.1 The
curriculum. In a primary school with a nursery class,
there will be separate evaluations of the three QIs
for the National Performance Framework. Inspectors
will also focus on literacy and numeracy across the
curriculum.
At the end of the inspection, the inspection team
will meet to discuss the evaluations. We will
feed back to senior managers and the education
authority and discuss with them what the school or
centre will do to make improvements. In the week
following the inspection, we will send the school or
centre a clear and concise short report for comment.
If HMIE decides that follow-through activities would
be helpful, it will discuss these with the school or
centre and education authority.
You can find out more about our new inspections
on the HMIE website www.hmie.gov.uk
Kate Cherry, HM Assistant Chief Inspector, HMIE
Water and Air by Izac, aged 4 years and 1 month
12
The New HND in Childhood
Practice Update
M
any of you will be aware that work has been
going on at SQA to develop a new HND
in Childhood Practice to fill the gap which
currently exists above HNC level in the Scottish Credit
and Qualifications Framework. The new award will
provide practitioners with the opportunity to improve
competence and access awards at a higher level.
The absence of a professional award at HND level has
been a factor which has prevented many people working
in the childhood practice sector from following the route
of HNC followed by HND, with subsequent entry to the
third year of a degree programme. This pathway has
been available to many others in occupations such as
business, IT and social sciences. The new HND therefore
aims to fill that gap with a qualification designed to meet
current and projected workforce demands in an ever
changing work environment.
different disciplines, academic backgrounds and areas
of work have found common threads of experience
and purpose as the challenges have been tackled.
One of the main challenges will be to ensure that this
new qualification is delivered in a manner which both
develops professional roles and builds confidence in
working across traditional boundaries. Undoubtedly the
positive outcomes of working together in this new way
will be quickly realised.
Full details of the structure and potential routes through
the new award will appear soon. However, should you
have any questions or comments you would like to share
with the development team in the meantime, please
contact Marisa at Marisa.Meechan@sqa.org.uk
Eleanor Ramsay, Qualifications Manager, SQA
This new award, which has been project-managed
by Lorna Trainer and George Baker of L&G Learning
(Scotland), has been the subject of a number of
consultation events across the country. Lorna and
George have met with a large number of representatives
from service delivery organisations in the public and
independent sectors, regulatory and advisory bodies, and
institutes of higher education. A Qualification Design
Team has been meeting regularly and a Unit Writing
Team is now producing first drafts for consultation. It is
planned that the award will be available from August
2009.
The HND will give credit for other prior relevant awards
such as PDAs or Open University units. It is envisaged
that likely delivery routes will be based around day
release and distance learning rather than the traditional
additional year at FE college after HNC. Candidates may
choose to follow the HND Childhood Practice route
or the HND Social Service route depending on their
workplace experience and career aspirations.
One of the most challenging, yet ultimately most
rewarding, aspects of managing the development of
this award has been working across different areas of
practice and professional boundaries. People from many
This is my teacher, by Cara, aged 5
13
‘To see ourselves
V
isit reflections from
European Masters in Early
Childhood Education and
Care (EMEC) partner students
from Norway, Sweden and
Germany.
The innovative ERASMUS-funded
EMEC project which brings together
early years tutors and practitioners
from Malta, Germany, Ireland,
Norway, Sweden and Scotland is
nearing completion. The three-year
project has allowed the development
and piloting of a European Early
Childhood Masters programme. The
course is delivered online, with two
intensive residential programmes –
the first was held in Malta and the
second is to be held this September
in Glasgow. All participants are
qualified and experienced early years
practitioners working with children
from birth to 6 years old.
As part of the first module the five
Scottish pilot students were joined
by their European partners for a
long weekend in Glasgow, during
which they focused on professional
development. Students worked
together on their country perspectives
and as well as bowling and a
good Glasgow curry, visits to early
childhood settings were included.
Our thanks go to Mariann, Carmen,
Hiba, Torill and Hanne – the partner
students, who sent reflections on
those visits. Several very clear themes
emerge from their contributions. They
were struck by the:
• warm welcome from every setting
they visited
• way in which rooms are designed
and set up for children
• many activities available
to build a personal relationship
with them, and would have liked to
enquire more about this.
Some things contrasted quite
sharply with their own practices, in
particular our attitudes to outdoor
areas and how we use them, the way
in which we emphasise resourcebased learning through the provision
of many different resources, our
pedagogical approach, the use of
technology and what they saw
as a lack of much in the way of
imaginative play despite the fact that
all settings were well equipped for
this. Their comments reflect these
ideas.
• quality of the resources
‘On each visit they had sandbox and
• excellent staff-child ratios
really strange, interesting and raised
water-play boxes inside which was
• documentation which included
many examples of children’s own
creativity and imagination.
questions about the outdoors where
They did however wonder how each
practitioner gets to know sometimes
as many as 150 children well enough
designed rooms for children’s learning.
these things naturally take place for us.’
‘Many activities and wonderfully
When I say learning I don’t think of
space to run around and to hide away
with your friends and get into free play .
. . but great learning space for exploring,
curiosity, learning numeracy and
literacy and getting into construction
and role play.’
‘In my experience I am used to giving
the children a bucket and a shovel
to run round and explore, dig in the
ground, building a den, clearing a path,
making friends, play role-play, solve
problems together and simply interact
with each other to learn empathy and
other social skills and be children.’
14
as others see us’
‘Do adults steer children with their own notions on
outdoors? – in some nurseries there is open access
but this is not much taken up; in others staff don’t
want to go outside – what about the children’s
voices?’
‘I like the idea that children grow up in a place where
the environment gets respect and is protected – the
pedagogical work follows the framework like the other
nurseries, apart from a real focus on sustainability.
But what is special is their Froebelian approach
that influences the work with the children. So, the
philosophy is child-centred.’
‘I was impressed with the amount of materials and
how many activities and plays the children were being
offered. What I came to think about was that I didn’t
see any children in imaginary play. With imaginary
play I mean what we in Sweden most of the times
call ‘free’ play. Free play is interesting to observe and
during my years as a teacher I usually use this kind
of play as an important source for learning. I prefer
to call it imaginary play because the word ‘free’ can
mislead teachers and other people working with and
for the children.’
‘What I also could observe was that I didn’t see many
conflicts between the children, could this also indicate
that the children were so busy with the material and
not playing enough? Problem-solving situations,
‘Do adults steer children with
their own notions on outdoors?
– in some nurseries there is
open access but this is not
much taken up; in others staff
don’t want to go outside – what
about the children’s voices?’
conflicts and so forth can develop significant skills for
children to bring with them to school.’
So our visitors found different approaches in
Scotland than at home; they were impressed by
many aspects of their visits but speculated about
the differences too!
The Scottish Co-ordinator for European Masters in
Early Childhood Education and Care is Professor
Aline-Wendy Dunlop at the University
of Strathclyde.
15
The Great Outdoors –
Outdoor Play and Learning
Aileen Anderson, Development Officer, Grounds for Learning
O
ur article starts off by providing a case
study example of how Grounds for Learning
supported a nursery to develop and
transform its outdoor space. In the second part
of the article, readers can find innovative activity
ideas to try out in their own setting.
Case study – Active Learning in an Unlikely Space
Despite the lack of windows, the inside space at
Geppetto Nursery in South Lanarkshire is a stimulating
and interesting place to be. However, access to the
outdoors and natural environment was previously very
limited. An audit of the outside space highlighted the
need for both staff and children to be close to nature
in their urban environment. Could the small, kerbside
area of grass and weeds to the rear of the building
be transformed into a safe garden space? This would
allow the children to experience nature first-hand and
increase the outdoor space available. Having looked at
lots of different garden features, the children created a
model of their perfect garden using recycled materials.
The nursery used this to raise awareness of the project
in the local community and offers of materials and
volunteer help flooded in. After a small grant of £450
was obtained from Grounds for Learning, the children
visited a local plant nursery to select plants and features
for their garden. Children, staff and parents then
worked hard to create the garden and transform their
outdoor space. The new garden includes fencing, a
shallow pond, a fruit tree, a habitat pile, pebbles, bark,
Grounds for Learning is
the Scottish programme of
Learning through Landscapes,
the UK school grounds charity.
We support schools and early
years settings to use and
develop inspiring outdoor
spaces for play, learning, health
and sustainability.
16
stepping stones, containers, wind chimes and garden
ornaments! The existing railings were painted and used
as a backdrop for hanging baskets and containers made
from wellington boots and lemonade bottles. Despite the
size and location of the space available, the vision and
hard work of all those involved has created an extremely
popular garden area. This exciting space has created new
opportunities
for enriching
active learning
experiences
outdoors –
whatever the
weather!
Grounds for
Learning can
support schools and early years settings in a variety
of ways
Training. We offer a range of courses to support early
years practitioners in the use and development of their
outdoor spaces, including twilights and INSET courses
for individual settings, and central courses through local
authorities and from our base in Alloa.
Advisory visits. For settings that would like individual
support to use and develop their grounds, one of our
experienced professionals can visit to have a look at your
outdoor space, meet staff and provide you with tailored
advice.
Membership support. Join Early Years Outdoors and
benefit from personalised advice by phone or email,
regular resource mailings, online access to our resource
library and discounts on conferences and publications.
Settings in urban areas are currently eligible for funding
to help cover the costs of our advisory service and
membership support. For further information
contact:
Grounds for Learning, Inglewood House, Alloa
FK10 2HU
tel: 01259 220887, email: gfl@ltl.org.uk
web: www.gflscotland.org.uk
Activity Ideas from our Early Years Outdoors membership
materials – Celebrating Outdoor Play
Celebrating space
Lie down and look at the clouds, talk about the shapes they
make.
Explore
dimensions
Notice the light and shadow as the sun passes across trees and
buildings.
Blow bubbles, fly balloons on string or tie ribbons to tall
bamboo canes and watch them move in the breeze.
Encourage
movement
Make stretches of tarmac or grass more interesting with chalk or
cones or set up an obstacle course with crates, planks, tunnels,
tyres, cones.
Read a story, song or poem together that inspires movement:
Get physical jumping, spinning, hopping.
Celebrating creativity
Investigate
natural
resources
Think big
Get creative with natural resources such as mud, sand, and
water.
Provide different tools for digging, mixing, collecting and
transporting.
Get messy and experience how it feels to use mud or wet sand
to form pits, build mounds and create mini play worlds.
Encourage large artwork by spreading a sheet, wallpaper or
tarpaulin on the ground.
Provide ready mixed paint in small squirty bottles, powder paint in
shakers, or make runny mud paint with old buckets and spoons.
Play with your own volume control: use voices, clap hands,
stamp feet.
Experiment
with sound
Have a range of instruments like whistles and bells or
homemade ones such as buckets and wooden spoons.
Set up a musical story-trail by hiding bags with instruments.
At appropriate points in a story, find the best instrument to
make sounds like rain/horses’ hooves/swishy grass.
Celebrating nature
Explore
different
surfaces
Handle, smell and describe different natural materials such as
herbs, leaves, sand and soil, using various parts of the body:
lie down and feel grass tickle your neck, feel sand or puddles
between your toes.
Collect natural materials and make a 3D, touchy-feely collage.
Uncover
wildlife
Explore to see what’s hiding underneath objects like logs and
bushes.
Offer new resources for exploring, for example magnifying
glasses, soft paint brushes for sweeping insects onto paper,
torches and mirrors for looking under and around objects.
Create potential for dens by opening up an entrance into a
cluster of bushes or clearing a neglected area.
Build dens
Provide den-building resources such as crates, cardboard boxes,
blankets and tarpaulins. Include ‘joining tools’ such as string,
tape, ropes and pegs.
Add to imaginative play by creating a home for animals or
storybook characters and explore what type of home would suit
their needs.
17
Their Life in You
Birth to 3 – The Critical Years
The development of children
from birth to 3 is both rapid and
eventful. Understanding the
process of child development is
essential for all adults working
with very young children to
ensure their needs are met with
respect and dignity. Play is the
child’s method of learning and
discovering the world in which
they live. It is a training ground
for them to practise and perfect
the necessary skills which will
enable them to play a purposeful
role in society – key concepts in
Curriculum for Excellence.
18
The importance of well informed
and caring staff
It is vital that every child has the
opportunity to live and develop in a
warm, loving and rich environment. The
early years are of critical importance
to the child’s later social development
and skilful interactions are essential
to that development. The role for staff
in the early years sector is to provide
children with space, time, materials,
encouragement and the confidence
to be who they are and to enjoy the
freedom and wonder that childhood
brings. Understanding how children
learn is central to enabling this progress.
New brain research informs us of
the uppermost importance of the
relationship between caregiver and
child in the first years of life and
affords us a wonderful opportunity to
enrich the lives of children in order to
help them realise their full potential.
Research demonstrates how the brain
is remarkably unfinished at birth;
early experiences actually affect the
way a child’s brain becomes ‘wired’.
Relationships with parents and
caregivers, the sights, sounds, smells,
and feelings children experience and
the challenges they meet, all help
determine the structure of the brain.
r Hands
Peripatetic trainers
It is imperative that all adults and
young people working with very
young children are well informed
and take responsibility for ensuring
that the principles within Birth to
Three – supporting our youngest
children are embedded in their
everyday practice. To assist with the
implementation of Birth to Three,
West Dunbartonshire Council has
committed to provide a team of five
experienced early years peripatetic
trainers to support staff in all
authority and partnership nurseries.
These experienced staff have recently
been assigned to a cluster of centres
and offer support and guidance in
a very practical way. Nurseries can
contact their designated trainer to
request support and together with the
Education Support Officer an action
plan can be drawn up offering staff
one or two days of practical support.
A small budget has been allocated for
staff cover.
To date the trainers have been able to
offer staff practical support in:
• understanding the ways in which
young children learn
• responsively planning for children’s
development and learning
• understanding the importance of
promoting positive relationships with
children and their parents/carers
• creating environments that respect
and reflect each child’s needs and
disposition
• understanding the importance of
developing empathy and resilience
in young children
• understanding the importance
of tuning into the clues and cues
that very young children give long
before they are able to articulate
their needs.
In one particular case, staff who
had previously worked with preschool children were now working
with under-3s. They were slightly
apprehensive about providing
appropriate learning environments
and assessing very young children’s
development and learning. They
contacted their designated trainer
and arrangements were made for the
trainer to work alongside the staff for
two days. Staff were encouraged to
observe the children closely and then
discuss the next steps in learning with
their colleagues. As a result, the room
layout was adapted to better suit the
individual needs of the children and
the resources were carefully chosen
to reflect the developmental stages
of each child. Staff created several
discovery areas and placed the sand
and malleable materials at floor
level, offering children multi-sensory
experiences. The staff agreed that
the support and guidance from the
trainer had been invaluable. They
also said that the practical aspect
of the trainer’s support had had the
biggest impact on their practice.
They felt reassured and confident in
their ability to continue to provide
a quality provision that reflected
the principles within Birth to Three.
This model of practice also helps to
promote leadership for learning and
peer assessment in a very positive and
non-threatening manner.
How Am I Doing?
To assist staff and parents in the
assessment of young children, West
Dunbartonshire Council has produced
its own document aptly named How
Am I Doing?. The document is split
into three sections and offers staff
and parents helpful information on
child development and appropriate
experiences for babies and
young children. It also includes a
comprehensive assessment section
tracking children’s development and
learning over a three-year period.
The document also provides useful
proformas including observations
and room planning, progress reports,
next steps in learning, etc. The
document will prove a useful tool in
light of the joint Government and
COSLA policy, Early Years and Early
Intervention Framework, and Getting
it Right for Every Child. The How Am
I Doing? materials have been
designed to mirror the values and
principles within the national Birth
to Three guidelines and will provide
invaluable support to establishments
as they progress towards full
implementation.
Annette Burns,
Education Support Office –
Early Years,
West Dunbartonshire Council
(Annette has now joined the LTS Early
Years team)
For further information about the
document, please contact:
Sandra Love, Head of Service, tel:
01389 737304, email: sandra.love@
west-dunbarton.gov.uk
19
Childhood
Practice
Developments
Scottish Benchmark Standard for Childhood Practice
The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) was asked
by Ministers to develop a Scottish Benchmark Standard
for Childhood Practice. The intention behind this was
to provide a basis for an integrated qualifications and
professional development framework for the early years
and childcare workforce in Scotland. The Standard was
launched by the Minister for Children and Early Years,
Adam Ingram, in October 2007 and has subsequently
led to the development of new awards of 360 credits
at SCQF level 9 in Childhood Practice. To date all new
awards are being developed as BA Childhood Practice
and four universities propose to offer this from late
September 2008. They are Strathclyde with partners
from the UHI, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. All
the universities are working in partnership with others
including employers and some of Scotland’s colleges.
The awards at level 9 and with 360 credits will be
required by managers of day care of children services for
registration with the SSSC from 2011.
Workshops for employers
The SSSC provided further information to employers
about the Standard and the requirements of the Standard
at two workshops for employers in June 2008. The events
helped to disseminate key information about the Standard
including three of the most important features of any
programme: the awards must show how candidates are
given recognition for their prior learning either before or
within the programme; they must show how partnerships
are used to deliver the award; and they must show ways
that work-based learning is embedded in them.
Recognition of prior learning
An integral part of the award is the recognition of
prior learning, which means that those managers
who undertake the award will be given credit for any
previous qualification they have done that maps against
the benchmark. An example is that managers with an
SVQ level 4, which is now credit rated and levelled on
the SCQF, will be given credit for the parts that meet
the Standard. This means they will not be required to
undertake the full 360 credits of Childhood Practice.
20
Monsters by Thomas, aged 4 years and 2 months
Similarly, those who come to it with an HNC/PDA
combination will have credit for entry to the programme.
Some of the participants at the workshops voiced
concern over the lack of clarity among the workforce
about how credit works and expressed a hope that the
universities and other training providers would show a
consistent approach to awarding credit.
Employer support
Other workshops at the events discussed the key role
employers had in supporting candidates who will be
doing these awards. It was clear that many employers
were anxious about the commitment they might need to
show to learners. However, all were reassured by the ideas
being put forward of co-ordinated partnerships to provide
local support. They were equally certain of the added
value that would be brought to their service by those
undertaking the award and ways it could have a positive
impact on the quality of service being offered to children
and families. Some felt they would be better placed to
support candidates if they undertook the Practice Learning
Qualifications (Social Services) and members of the SSSC
were on hand to explain how this award at level 8 could
be beneficial in developing the capacity of the early years
workforce now and in the future.
Forthcoming guidance
The SSSC has developed guidance to explain the
requirements of the Standard and to support a better
understanding amongst employers of how work-based
learning, employer support and the recognition of prior
learning might work. This should be available from the
end of September 2008, when it will be distributed to
every registered day care of children service and online at
www.sssc.uk.com
If you would like to discuss anything you have read
about in this article please contact Frances Scott:
frances.scott@sssc.uk.com
Frances Scott, Learning and Development Adviser,
Scottish Social Services Council
Enter our competition!
Design a new LTS Banner
At Learning and Teaching Scotland, we, the Early
Years team, would like to invite practitioners
working with children aged 0–8 years to enter
our new competition.
There are three age categories and we invite
each early years setting to submit one piece of
artwork (original copies) per age range using any
type of media, for example paint, crayons, pastels
etc. The theme of the artwork can be anything
at all – we are leaving it up to the child’s
imagination!
We will then judge the entries in the following
three categories:
• 0–3rd birthday
• 3–5th birthday
• 5–8 years
When submitting the child’s artwork please
write the following details on the back:
• Name of child with age in brackets
• Child’s title/description of image
(where appropriate)
• Name of centre with contact details including email
• Head of centre
• Local authority
We will have a well known and much loved panel
of judges for our competition (details to follow)
and the three winning images will be converted
into bright new banners that will be displayed
at our future Early Years events. We will have
an awards ceremony for our winning artists and
we promise to include photographs of the event
in our next edition of Early Years Matters.
Please send in your entries by Monday 1 December 2008 to
Anne-Marie Lamont, Administrator, Learning and Teaching Scotland, The Optima,
58 Robertson Street, GLASGOW G2 8DU
21
‘We can’t do that
Commission says
T
here are urban myths about many things. These
occasionally include fables about demands by
inspectors when they are looking at risk assessment
of day care for children. One such urban myth was that
nursery staff should tie children to a tree when they were
out fishing! While it is easy to discount such strange
urban myths, we know that some providers and staff
worry about how the Care Commission will approach risk
taking and risk assessment.
We are committed to regulating in a way that supports
best practice, provides assurance and does not stifle
innovation. The first expectation is that a service has a
clear statement of aims and objectives. This ensures that
parents and staff have a shared understanding of what the
22
because the Care
we can’t!’
service provides and how it will go about providing
it. A statement of aims and objectives helps to set
the context in which risk-assessed activities will take
place. Opportunities for young children to engage in
physical activities outdoors and indoors need to be a
part of that context.
The importance of appropriate risk taking in
children’s physical and emotional development is
crucial. All activities will have some degree of risk
associated with them. What is important is that
the service has thought carefully about the risks
involved, considered best practice and guidance,
consulted the children’s parents, assessed that the
risks are not unacceptable, and planned to control
and manage any risks. Ideas for new activities or
ways of doing things should not be discounted
simply because an element of risk may be involved.
We want to encourage good risk management,
not risk aversion.
The Care Commission’s job is to regulate for
improvement, establishing a consistent and
effective system of regulation that puts the safety
and wellbeing of children and others who use care
services at its heart. Our vision is that services should:
• improve people’s lives
• be easy to reach and there when needed
Jacquie Roberts, our Chief Executive, has
supported the principles of the framework and
stated that if, as a society, we are to ensure that
our youngest children have access to high quality
education and care and support, we must ensure
that practitioners working with children are
highly qualified and supported within the range
of multidisciplinary teams working together to
achieve a common aim.
Qualified and confident staff are familiar with
managing risk. They know that being innovative
and delivering stimulating educational activities
goes hand in hand with good risk assessment and
risk management.
So we don’t expect to hear of any children tied
to trees on fishing trips! We want children to be
offered plenty of opportunities to get outdoors,
to explore their environment, to develop their
skills, to gain confidence and to have fun. We do
though expect to hear that managers and staff
have consulted with parents and others about
what they are doing, assessed the risks involved
and have taken all appropriate steps to manage
any risks that there might be.
Ronnie Hill, Director of Children’s Services
Regulation, Care Commission
• be innovative
• support independence and choice
• be staffed by competent, reliable people.
The new self-assessment and grading system we
have introduced gives services an opportunity to
show how they are producing good outcomes for
children, helping them to develop their skills and
independence. We believe that the self-assessment
system can support the development of success
measures and accountability arrangements for the
new Early Years and Early Intervention Framework,
which will be published in late autumn 2008.
23
Integrated Services at
An integrated approach
The Jeely Piece Club is based in
Castlemilk in the south east of
Glasgow. We have been providing
services for children aged 0–12 years
and their families in Castlemilk since
1975. Castlemilk is recognised as
one of the most deprived areas in
Scotland, with large numbers of
people experiencing adverse social
problems. The Jeely aims to reduce
the impact of these difficulties on
children through a holistic and
integrated approach to our service
provision.
We currently operate from two
premises, the Jeely Playzone, a
purpose-built play centre, and the
Jeely Nursery, which is located
within an adapted wing of the local
24
community centre. The key focus
of the Playzone is on children of
primary-school age and the services
provided there include after-school
clubs, Cyber Cafe, Arts Room, Soft
Play, Community Cafe, Learn Direct
Centre and much more.
At the Nursery, the provision
includes nursery places for children
aged 6 weeks to 5 years, which are
allocated in line with our Admissions
Policy. The Jeely Admissions Policy
prioritises the vulnerable families
within the local community and we
have developed our service provision
in line with their complex needs.
Integrated Service Provision ensures
close working relationships with all
agencies to the benefit of families in
our area.
With the support of Glasgow City
Council’s Social Work and Education
services, we relocated to our current
premises and were joined by Social
Work’s Family Resource Team, whose
primary focus was early intervention
with vulnerable families of preschool children.
Having professionals
from different services,
including Health, Social
Work and Education,
working from the same
centre facilitates and
enhances the overall
quality of experience for
our children and families.
the Jeely Piece Club
An example of Integrated
Working
One family we have been working
with at the Jeely is a young mother
who has experienced domestic
violence and whose children
have been subject to supervision
requirements through the Children’s
Hearing System because of
concerns over their welfare and
safety. Through Child Protection
meetings it became evident that
there were significant concerns and
the possibility that the child might
be removed from the care of the
mother.
As the mother had issues with
domestic violence we contacted
Castlemilk Domestic Violence Project
to arrange for a meeting between a
project worker and the mother to be
held in the Jeely, as she felt this to
be a safe environment. This enabled
the mother to start to address these
issues. Regular meetings were held
with all the professionals involved to
ensure that everyone was aware of
the progress being made and of any
concerns.
Through integrated working, all of
the family’s needs were able to be
addressed via the ‘safe haven’ of
the Jeely, which acted as a ‘one-stop
shop’ for the family. In the view of
the professionals, integrated working
ensured that the child was safe and
well and being observed on a regular
basis. At present the child remains in
the care of the mother, the level of
concern has been reduced and the
child has been removed from the ‘at
risk’ register.
Intensive support for families
We have recently returned from
our second ‘Residential Intensive
Support Week’. For this week,
a small number of families are
identified by the agencies involved
as needing intensive support in
developing positive parenting skills
and routines for their children. Each
family is assigned a key worker who
works with them throughout the
week, promoting positive parenting,
behaviour management, healthy
eating, physical activity and stress
management. The families involved
have found these sessions to be very
supportive.
There is no doubt that this is a
very intense method of support
and requires a lot of commitment
from staff. However, the positive
outcomes for families have been
such that we believe it should be
an integral part of our work. Some
families require support at this level
and we believe that they should
not be denied the opportunity to
develop the skills that will make life
so much better for them and their
children.
After all, that is the aim of Integrated
Working.
Deborah Blackhurst, Depute
Director, Jeely Piece Club
25
Conference for
Further Education
(Early Years)
Saturday 29 November
Radisson Hotel, Edinburgh
The Scottish
Learning Festival
This year was the largest Scottish Learning
Festival to date, with practitioners from across
Scotland actively learning through an extensive
range of events and attractions. Delegates
engaged with a number of energising keynote
addresses, spotlights and seminars presented by
educational experts.
More than ever before, the early years events
were a focus of much attraction and proved
to be extremely popular. All those interested in
the early years found plenty to choose from,
with a plethora of activities. There were the
ever popular seminars as well as some exciting
new ideas such as Topic Surgeries, Education
Showcases and the Early Years Exchange Wall.
Topical early years issues were recorded by a
graphic artist through ‘Conferences in Pictures’
and you are invited to view these and add your
comments at www.scottishlearningfestival.
org.uk
Events were very well attended, with a record
number of bookings prior to the Learning
Festival. Don’t worry if you missed this year’s
festival or couldn’t attend an event because
it was fully booked, as you can catch up on
keynotes, spotlights and seminars at
www.scottishlearningfestival.org.uk
An opportunity for FE to explore
how Curriculum for Excellence
can be included in initial training
programmes
Learning and Teaching Scotland is organising
a conference for FE lecturers involved in the
provision of early education and childcare
programmes. The conference, which is in
collaboration with SFEU (now Scotland’s
Colleges) and SQA, will focus on suggested
ways of incorporating Curriculum for
Excellence into the main SQA early education
and training programmes, such as NC, HNC,
SVQ and PDA.
The FE Planning Committee which includes
representatives from a range of colleges,
decided that the event should take place
on a Saturday in the hope that as many FE
colleagues as possible would have the option
to attend.
There is no fee for this conference, which
will be held on Saturday 29 November in the
Radisson Hotel in Edinburgh. The conference
will run from 10 am to 3 pm. (A good
opportunity for Christmas shopping afterwards
on nearby Princes Street!)
For more details about the conference and
registration arrangements, please visit
www.LTScotland.org.uk/sharedevents/2008/
eventgeneral_tcm4505508.asp
Also, be at the ready for next year’s festival,
which will be held on 23–24 September 2009.
A Rainbow by Aaron, aged 4 years and 2 months
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The EECERA Conference
T
he 18th Annual EECERA (European Early
Childhood Education Research Association)
Conference was held in Stavanger, Norway,
on 3–6 September 2008. EECERA is a non-profitmaking association owned by its worldwide
membership, who elect an executive of trustees.
It receives no subsidies but is independently
self-funding from its membership fees, from
a proportion of the income from the sale of
its journal and from franchising its annual
conference.
This year’s theme was ‘Reconsidering the Basics in
Early Childhood Education’ and especially focused
on how fundamental values are defined and how
these definitions lead to different policies and
practices.
Two members of the Early Years Team (Jean
Carwood-Edwards and Jane Stirling) attended
the conference this year. The conference provided
a rigorous academic forum for the promotion,
development and dissemination of high quality
research into early childhood education. Jean
and Jane both attended a variety of interesting
research symposiums which focused on themes
such as active learning outdoors, provision for
under-3s, children’s participation and many
others. The sessions aimed to encourage the clear
articulation and communication of the connections
between research, practice and policy.
The Early Years team will now be able to take
forward examples of this new research through the
course of their future work.
EECERA 2009
Next year’s 19th EECERA Conference
will be held on 26–29 August 2009 in
Strasbourg, France.
The theme will be ‘Diversities in early
childhood education’. This theme will
be addressed from the perspectives
of the rights of younger children and
their families.
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Early Years Conference
Exploring the Early Years and Early Intervention Framework
Saturday 1 November 2008, 10.00 – 14.30
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Keynote Speakers
Dr Harry Burns, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland
Donald McGillivray, Head of Early Education and Childcare, Scottish Government
Kenneth Muir, HM Chief Inspector
For further deails visit: www.LTScotland.org.uk
www.LTScotland.org.uk
Learning and Teaching Scotland
Learning and Teaching Scotland
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Glasgow G2 8DU
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enquiries@LTScotland.org.uk
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