Brucehill Education and Childcare Centre - science boxes
About the centre
Brucehill Education and Childcare Centre is 33 years old and the largest pre-5 establishment in West Dunbartonshire Council. The centre's capacity is 80 three- to five-year-old children in the morning and 74 in the afternoon. Twenty-three per cent of the children have access for more than four hours in a day. The centre is surrounded by an economically and socially diverse community, which is reflected within the nursery.
Project aims
Lynn McCafferty, Head of Brucehill Education and Childcare Centre, says: 'Although we are fortunate to have established positive relationships with parents, we felt that there was always room for improvement. In the past, parents have been very supportive with our literacy and maths home links schemes, but they were initiated by trained educators and were subject to our own agenda.
'We did not want just another home links scheme; we wanted parents to be involved in the creation and participation of their child's learning and for this attitude to learning to be carried on after their child began formal education. We looked forward to the opportunity to enhance our relationships with parents by working in partnership with them.'
Project description
The idea behind the project was for the parents to work with staff to develop the science boxes. The parents and staff were involved in the research, monitoring and evaluation of science boxes. The staff thought that parents felt they had contributed a great deal to their child's learning, and that this positive attitude would spill over to primary school.
Why science?
The staff felt that science could be a scary and mysterious subject to many, but that it was an area which neeeded attention and so it was included in their development plan.
Video - science project overview
'One of the most important things is the parents are involved in their children's learning. They're taking this home. This sort of whole thing about science being a scary word is not any more.'
| Brucehill science project overview | |
|---|---|
| Description | Lynn McCafferty, Head of Brucehill Education and Childcare Centre, talks about the aims of the project and what she thinks the benefits have been for parents and staff. |
| Duration | 1 minute 55 seconds |
| Windows version |  Windows Media file: Brucehill science project overview |
| Mac version |  QuickTime file: Brucehill science project overview (modem) |
| Mac version | QuickTime file: Brucehill science project overview (ISDN) |
| Transcript | Transcript of video: Brucehill science project overview |
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