Curriculum for Excellence Through Outdoor Learning
Learning outside provides opportunities for children to use all their senses, to experience wonder and enchantment, to work on a larger scale and to enjoy a greater sense of freedom and independence.

Outdoor learning is a natural enhancement and extension of indoor environments and ideally children should be able to choose to play outside at any time: there should be a flow of play between inside and outside.

Outdoor learning is going very well and in order to augment the learning opportunities and strengthen links with Parents, the Nursery has purchased a range of beautiful mini outdoor rucksacks which the children in transition will take home to Parents. A review sheet is included with each bag in order to give us feedback on each bag.

Outdoor learning should be a vital part of the real business of the day – every day regardless of the weather.

Outdoor Learning Presentation: Click to download

Breastfeeding Friendly Schools and Nurseries
The Scottish Government has identified breastfeeding as a key priority. There is good evidence that breastfeeding has significant benefits for infants and mothers and that these benefits continue into adulthood. We all have a role to improve Breastfeeding rates

Breastfeeding Friendly Nurseries and Schools work to promote an environment where breastfeeding is seen as the normal way to feed infants and young children.

This includes:

• Providing education and training  for staff to enable them to promote, protect and support breastfeeding
• Supporting informed choice in relation to infant feeding
• Increasing awareness of support and information for breastfeeding families
• Using resources which reflect breastfeeding as the cultural norm
• Providing a welcoming atmosphere for breastfeeding families and encouraging breastfeeding in the public areas of the establishment
• Supporting breastfeeding staff/users

Staff in Wellington School Nursery have been undertaking training in order to become a ‘Breastfeeding Friendly Nursery’ in support of this important Scottish Government initiative.

Nursery Rhyme Bags for ante Pre-school Children
Wellington Nursery will be introducing Nursery Rhyme Bags to Ante Pre-School Children.

Storysacks have been used very successfully with our Pre-school children for a few years now as part of our literacy home link programme.

In order to extend this programme to our youngest Ante Pre-school children we are launching a range of Nursery Rhyme Bags. Nursery rhymes play a very important part in the development of early literacy skills in children. The Nursery Rhyme Bag is a large cloth bag containing a Nursery Rhyme book with supporting materials which may include: jigsaws, puppets, role play, games and music.

The aim of the Nursery Rhyme Bag is to provide Parents with the opportunity to complement and enhance their child’s early years’ education at home. This home link creates a quality bonding experience where Parents can read to their child and help their child to develop early literacy skills during play activities.

The accompanying article explains more about the importance of rhyme and rhythm and the short video clips show the children being introduced to the Nursery Rhyme Bags.

Nursery rhymes play a very important part in the development of early literacy skills in children. Three key elements within a nursery rhyme are rhythm, rhyme and alliteration.

The rhythm helps the child to break up the words into syllables: Geor-gie Por-gie, pudd-ing and pie.

The rhyme will define the child’s ability of breaking the word into its initial sound (onset) and the end unit, which produces the rhyme, for example w-all, f-all, j-ill, h-ill.

Alliteration is the third useful element to be found in some rhymes, this is a string of words all beginning with the same sound, for example Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling. This will familiarise a sound for the child.

Video Clip 1: Click to download
Video Clip 2: Click to download
Video Clip 3: Click to download
Video Clip 4: Click to download

Nursery Talking and Thinking Floorbooks
The Nursery has been working on involving the children in planning for their own learning using a system developed by Clare Warden of the Mindstretchers Company.

The following article and video clips aim to explain this aspect of our practice. You will see Mrs. Hamilton working with her group as they plan for a new theme “Castles”.

Excerpt from Claire Warden’s book Talking and Thinking Floorbooks:

Consultation with children is important because:

• It creates a closer match between the child and the curriculum it is experiencing.
• It builds self esteem and positive attitudes when the learner is involved in the decision making.
• It increases intrinsic motivation that stays with a child throughout life.
• Children have a right to be treated with respect as individuals. We can show respect by valuing their thoughts and opinions.

The video clips follow the children as the new theme is introduced, the stimulus for talking and thinking is revealed, the children discuss their existing knowledge, the adult helps the children to think about ideas for learning more and then the children draw their ideas on paper.

Video Clip 1: Click to download
Video Clip 2: Click to download
Video Clip 3: Click to download