Early Years update - July 2009
Forthcoming events
Early Years Glow Training Event - Building Glow Communities
This event on 26 and 27 August 2009 will enable early years practitioners in pre-school and primary to meet together in Stirling Management Centre to further develop their understanding and knowledge of Glow.
Early years practitioners will work together to create Glow Groups and share resources which can be used for ongoing collaboration as examples of how Glow can enhance practice. The groups created will be shared nationally and follow-up support visits will then be arranged by the Glow team.
Sign up for the Glow training event
Scottish Learning Festival - 23-24 September 2009
There will be a variety of exciting early years events at this year’s Scottish Learning Festival. Professor Carlina Rinaldi, President of Reggio Children and Director of the Loris Malaguzzi International Centre in Reggio Emilia, Italy, will be one of the spotlight speakers and Professor Ferre Laevers, Centre for Experiential Education, University of Leuven, has a keynote presentation and an early years seminar at this year’s event. You should also look out for:
- a variety of early years discussions and seminars
- an education showcase area
- the Scottish Education Village
- the early years zone.
To find more information and to view the conference programme please visit the Scottish Learning Festival website.
Early Years Play and Active Learning Conference
3 October 2009, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
The next Early Years Curriculum for Excellence Saturday Conference will provide an opportunity for practitioners to join the debate around the role of play and active learning as the new Scottish curriculum is implemented. Don't miss this unique opportunity to engage with first-class speakers who are experts in this field.
Early Years international study visit to Sweden
The LTS Early Years team is delighted to announce a forthcoming Scottish Continuing International Professional Development (SCIPD) study visit to Sweden in autumn 2009. The visit will focus on integrated services and will examine different approaches to integrated working such as Sweden’s use of ‘work groups’ where different professions form teams that work together with children on a daily basis, sharing values and goals. Further details of the SCIPD study visit will be advertised on Early Years Online and the International Education website in due course.
FE Early Years Curriculum for Excellence Conference
7 November 2009, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Following the success of last year’s conference for staff in further education who are involved in the Early Years and Childcare Programmes, LTS is delighted to offer a second event. This conference will also be open to private training providers, and it will consider how Curriculum for Excellence can become embedded into Early Years Training Programmes.
Find out more about the Further Education Early Years Curriculum for Excellence Conference.
Recent and current activity
National Early Years Local Authority Forum (NEYLAF)
The second meeting of the forum for local authority staff with a specific responsibility for quality improvement in early years was held in Stirling Management Centre on Thursday 18 June.
This forum arose as a result of local authority staff across Scotland indicating that they would find such a resource informative and fruitful. Its purpose is to enable early years local authority officers to work in partnership and share good practice across Scotland. The forum events are organised by a NEYLAF planning group who are able to suggest the proposed speakers and the content of the forum meetings.
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 1 December in the Beardmore Hotel, Clydebank.
National Under Threes Advisory Group (NUTAG)
The inaugural meeting of the NUTAG group was held on Thursday 4 June. This group has been convened to review the National Birth to Three Guidance as well as updating the Birth to Three area of Early Years Online to include relevant case studies and guidance.
The second meeting of this group will be held on Wednesday 2 September 2009.
Scottish Out of School Care Network (SOSCN) Conference
12 June 2009, Radisson Hotel, Glasgow
Members of the LTS Early Years team presented at this conference, which aimed to explore the importance of positive relationships between out of school care services and Curriculum for Excellence. We aim to further develop this partnership with SOSCN to explore these important connections.
The Early Years Framework - Putting the Vision into Action
This joint LTS/HMIE Good Practice Conference shared examples of practice relating to aspects of the Scottish Government and COSLA's Early Years Framework.
Ken Muir gave an informative and well received presentation that explored HMIE’s perspective of the Early Years Framework as well as highlighting valuable online resources to support practitioners.
The Minister for Children and Early Years, Adam Ingram, then gave a very comprehensive outline of the framework as well as promoting the link between high quality early years provision and a well qualified early years workforce. He also highlighted the forthcoming launch of the new Curriculum for Excellence Early Level DVD resource, which will support practitioners in the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence.
Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, Head of the Violence Reduction Unit, gave an inspiring and powerful presentation on the importance of early intervention and the foreseeable benefits to the lives of children and families in Scotland. He challenged the audience to think differently about our current policies and procedures and reminded us that violence is preventable, not inevitable. There was also an opportunity to hear from early years colleagues who have been successful in taking forward some of the framework's key messages, and important connections to Curriculum for Excellence were explored during the good practice sessions.
A range of CPD opportunities will be created from this event including interviews with the key speakers, access to a specially devised Glow Group, details of the discussions from the workshops and much more. These CPD materials will be available on the HMIE/LTS Good Practice Conferences pages very soon.
LTS and University of Strathclyde Creative Curriculum Conference
This LTS and University of Strathclyde Joint Early Years Conference was held on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 April 2009 as a celebration of interesting early years practice. Each day included morning seminar presentations and afternoon practical workshops with artists, dancers, dramatists, storytellers, musicians and film-makers. A conference report is now available.
CPD and working with children under 3 years
Early Years Research into Practice Dissemination Event 26 May 2009
Learning and Teaching Scotland commissioned the Faculty of Education at the University of Strathclyde to carry out research exploring continuing professional development (CPD) provision for early years practitioners and managers working with children under the age of 3. View details of this research and obtain a copy of the report.
The dissemination event aimed to explore the research recommendations with a multi-agency group of participants to ensure that the research will have an impact on future practice. The discussions from this event will be available on Early Years Online soon.
Coming soon - A handbook for practitioners that will detail the main findings and key recommendations of the research. There will also be a North Lanarkshire Council multi-agency CPD booklet that will be a helpful guide when exploring effective approaches to integrated working, linking to one of the key recommendations.
New online resources
Details of some recent additions to Early Years Online and other areas of the LTS Online Service.
Early Years Matters
The current issue of Early Years Matters (spring edition) is online and we would encourage practitioners to read the articles and use the online facility that enables you to comment on them as well. This issue has articles on Curriculum for Excellence, integrated working with children and families, CPD and working with under-3s, the Play@home physical activity programme, and much more.
The next edition of Early Years Matters will be distributed in September.
Under-3s case study
Working with children 0-3 in Midlothian is a new case study on Early Years Online. This project aimed to build the capacity of practitioners working in 0-3 group care settings in Midlothian to improve the quality of service for children and parents by examining four key areas of theory and research, acknowledging that these are interlinked. The four key areas are:
- attachment and infant mental health
- brain development
- adult role
- developmentally appropriate experiences and environment.
Growing Up in Scotland report
GUS is the longitudinal research study following the lives of 8000 Scottish children and their families from birth through to adolescence.
Findings from the third year of the GUS study have been published on the following themes:
- Non-resident parents
- Food and activity
- Parenting and the neighbourhood context
- Multiple childcare provision and its effect on child outcomes
- The impact of children's early activities on cognitive development.
New downloadable resources
New downloadable images have been added to the website to depict food, drink and physical activities. Visit our Illustrations area to view and download images.
Curriculum for Excellence Early Level DVD resource
A promotional video has been produced to promote a forthcoming Curriculum for Excellence Early Level DVD Resource entitled 'Curriculum for Excellence - Supporting the Early Level'. This DVD will be delivered to every pre-school and primary setting in Scotland in autumn 2009. The resource:
- shares practical ideas
- shows a variety of settings
- supports practitioners
- builds on strengths.
The DVD will be accompanied by a CPD booklet.
Read more about this resource and watch the promotional video.
LTS Early Years team update
Transitions Advisory Group
The third meeting of the Transitions Advisory Group (TAG) was held on 19 May 2009. This group includes representatives from the Scottish Government, HMIE, LTS, universities, private, voluntary and local authority early years settings and primary schools. The group is currently considering the period of transition between pre-school and primary with regards to Curriculum for Excellence. A Transitions Advisory Glow Group (TAGG) has been specifically created to enable members to collaborate and develop their work online. This group will then be opened nationally at a later stage in the year.
National Early Years Glow Group
We would encourage early years practitioners to visit the National Early Years Glow Group within the National Groups list on Glow to explore the discussions surrounding Curriculum for Excellence, outdoor learning ideas, planning and good early years websites.
We are also in the process of planning some early years Glow Meet sessions using the Glowing Thursdays programme, so look out for some more information coming soon on forthcoming Glow Meet events focusing on:
The Real Starting Point - Research Shows the Way
Transition in the Early Level - Moving Forward.
Scottish Arts Council
The Early Years team has been collaborating with the Scottish Arts Council in order to further develop partnership working and explore the creative approaches within Curriculum for Excellence in the early years. We look forward to strengthening this relationship in the near future.