Realising the Ambition: Being me...Realising the Ambition recognises the importance of the Role of the Adult. •How are we supporting our families to realise the deep learning that

REALISING THE AMBITION:BEING ME

CLPL TOOL CREATED BY EARLY YEARS TEAM TO

SUPPORT REFLECTION ON CURRENT PRACTICE

USING THE NEW NATIONAL PRACTICE GUIDANCE

FOR EARLY YEARS IN SCOTLAND

UPDATED MAY 2020

INTRODUCTION

Everyone is finding their way in these new, challenging times.

The questions are related to the Podcasts that Bex Carter produced when speaking to Dr

Marion Burns, Lynn Taylor and Liz Paterson from Education Scotland who were co-authors

on the new national practice guidance.

They are intended to support you and your teams to reflect on current practice to ensure

that it is most effective moving forwards. They are not intended to put pressure on your

teams, and through your own self-evaluation you will be able to identify the areas you want

to prioritise. There is no expectation that you complete all of these self-evaluation

questions.

PODCAST 1- REALISING THE AMBITION

Listen to Podcast 1

https://soundcloud.com/user-227479287-

28906765/realising-the-ambition-1

After listening to episode 1 of the RtA

podcast, we have produced some questions

to support you to reflect on what you have

heard as a team.

https://soundcloud.com/user-227479287-28906765/realising-the-ambition-1

RELATIONSHIPS

Relationships are at the heart of the document.

• How effective have your approaches been to maintaining and

building relationships with your families, children and community

partners?

• What has worked well so far, and how could this be even better?

LEARNING ENVIRONMENTINTERACTIONS, EXPERIENCES AND SPACES

RtA thinks about a child’s learning environment as the totality of interactions, experiences and the

learning space.

• For your children, what is their learning environment? What aspects of that are you able to

support? How will you support your families to make the most of the environment and

resources that they have?

• Up until now, how have you ensured you listened to children’s voices in developing your nursery

provision [experiences, interactions and spaces]?

• Will that work in the new situation?

• What else might you try?

• What aspects of nursery life are you prioritising in capturing children’s voices?

RESPONSIVE PLANNING

High quality practice in the Early Years is rooted in being responsive.

• Are you able to be responsive to your children and their families at

the moment?

• What is working well?

• What might you try next to overcome any barriers that you face?


Listen to Podcast 2




podcast, there are some further questions to

support you to reflect on what you have

heard as a team.


MIND-MINDED

Mind Minded is a term used in Realising the Ambition

• What do you understand by the phrase ‘Mind-minded’? What does this mean in

our current context?

• Do we have opportunities to support our young children to develop their

resilience by borrowing our emotions?

• How are we supporting families and parents in the current circumstances to

support their children?


• What can we try next?

BEING YOU

Self care is highlighted within Realising the Ambition

• How are you supporting each other as individuals?

• What do you lean on to make you feel better?

• What helps to make you feel healthy?

• Thoughts about moving on and coming together again?

ROLE OF THE ADULT

Realising the Ambition recognises the importance of the Role of the

Adult.

• How are we supporting our families to realise the deep learning that

their children are experiencing just by living together and taking

part in daily life?


• What else could we try?

CLPL

• What aspects of professional development are emerging as

priorities for you and your team?

• How are you sharing practice and involving your wider professional

community?

• What is working well and what next?

• ‘Knowing your why’ might help you to think creatively around how

we meet our children’s needs.

TRANSITIONS

There is a high level of uncertainty around the re-opening of settings and the re-

integration of children back into nursery and school life, however it is important

that children and families think positively about transition. Normal transition

activities will not be possible.

• Given the importance of children’s wellbeing, what are your teams priorities for

transition this year? What plans are you putting in place for your children?

• What systems do you have across settings in your cluster to share ideas and

information?


Listen to Podcast 3


28906765/realising-the-ambition-3/s-ktdqn8W5gXA




heard as a team.

https://soundcloud.com/user-227479287-28906765/realising-the-ambition-3/s-ktdqn8W5gXA

MOVING ON

Episode 3 explores transition within

the current COVID 19 climate. As

Marion says, we are not in a position

to determine what moving on will

look like, once our settings start to

open again, but it is important for us

to think about key guiding principles.

Realising the Ambition can support us

to do this.

RELATIONSHIPS AND SELF CARE

The fundamental importance of relationships is threaded through ‘Realising the

Ambition’. The podcast explores the importance of kindness as we come together

as a community once more, after experiencing loss and change.

How might you

• Reassure parents and carers and build their confidence as children return from

the security of home to a group setting?

• As a team, recognise the experiences you are coming back from?

• Do the best for each other, not just as individuals but as a team?

CHILDREN’S EMOTIONAL WELLBEING AND THE ROLE OF THE ADULT

Children don’t always know the root cause of their emotions. We can

anticipate what our children are thinking but we don’t really know.

• What is your role in supporting children’s emotional wellbeing?

• What strategies do you already use?

• What might you need to consider in future?

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Children’s experiences have not stopped, therefore the learning has

not stopped during this closure.

Each child will have had different experiences whilst being at home

and will have been impacted differently by the changes.

They may have moved on, but will need support to build confidence

and self-assurance.

INTERACTIONS, EXPERIENCES AND THE SPACES

How might you

• Ensure that you recognise the value of the home experiences?

• Reassure families that life during closure has offered valuable

learning experiences for children?

• Provide a welcoming environment that offers familiarity, and a

responsive ethos where practitioners are attuned to the child in

front of them?


Listen to Podcast 4






heard as a team.


STARTING WITH THE CHILD

Podcast 4 continues with the theme of transitions and focuses on

starting with the child and empowerment.

It reassures us that we are all doing the very best to meet our

children’s needs and we have a shared end point which is providing

the very best for the children in our setting.

• What information do you consider is required for a successful

transition for our children?

EMPOWERMENT

The discussion highlights the importance of sharing, talking and collaborating.

• How will you meaningfully capture both the voices of your children’s and

parents/carers?

• How will you collaborate with your community to overcome barriers you may

encounter?

Information gathering is important but it is what we do with the information that is

key to supporting the transition.

• How will you use the information to prepare and plan for the children’s return?

PLANNING FOR MOVING ON

We hope that this resource so far has supported rich dialogue within

your team to self-evaluate where you are and are supported you to

identify your priorities moving forward. The following two podcasts

include James McTaggart, an Educational Psychologist from Highland

Council, who contributed to Realising the Ambition. They revisit

some of the themes that we have started to explore through the

discussion around transitions for our children.


Listen to Podcast 5



There is a clear message in the podcast that this is not new. We are returning to the values and principles that lie at the heart of Early Level within CfE. These principles underlie the pedagogy that will shape the key pillars: interactions, experiences and spaces


GETTING TO KNOW THE CHILD AND THE FAMILY IN FRONT OF YOU

When planning transitions for returning to our settings, the discussion highlights the

need to be careful about the assumptions we make about our children and families

and their experiences during the closure.

• How are we going to gather valuable information about how our children are

doing?

• We’re already skilled at observing and settling children and families- but how will

we find time and space for dialogue?

• How will we create an open ethos where families feel safe sharing information?


James McTaggart reminds us that ‘behaviour as communication is central idea in

Realising the Ambition’. Children's responses to the interactions, experiences and

spaces within the environment will give us messages to ensure that we can provide

the children with what they need. When we return to our settings our children may

not present the way we remember them.

• How will you develop a consistent approach to being responsive, understanding

behaviour, and supporting children towards self-regulation?


The discussion suggests ‘We really have to step into the children’s world and the

family’s world and work from inside it.’

Building a picture for each child and identifying how things are going for them is

crucial when we return to our settings.

• How will you identify what is the most important thing for each child?

• Some children need the challenge of nursery life and learning as well as nurturing

experiences. How will you provide the balance?


Listen to Podcast 6



In this Podcast James McTaggart talks about ‘mind

mindedness’ and the attachment research that

underlies this idea, child development and the

ecological model of ELC.


MIND MINDEDNESS

James McTaggart describes the importance of the way we think about children.

Some people describe what children do, some people focus on the child’s ideas,

plans and character and how they think and feel.

• How do you see children? (Further support on reflecting on your image of the

child is can be found within the Play for Learning in P1 guidance)

• Do you, as a team, attune to your children and enable them to ‘borrow’ from

you?

STEPPING INTO THEIR WORLD

The discussion has previously talked about how to meet children where they are

and the importance of stepping into their world. James McTaggart talks about

recognising that we are all part of the learning community.

• How are you going to make space to step into each other’s worlds? Think about

this in terms of your staff team and the relationships you form/ reform within

your own context.

• He describes the setting is a human space where we are co-learning and co-

regulating with our children. What does that mean for the practitioner/teacher

role?

KNOW YOUR WHY?

Dr Marion Burns asks us to think about our ‘why’. Why do we what we do in every

situation? Where do our ideas and thoughts come from, and are they right for this

point in time?

• Do you know what you take for granted?

• What are the ideas and theories that influence you?

• How will you find time to talk about this as a team, and make sure you are

responding consistently to the child in front of you?

A SHARED NEW NORMAL

Over the course of the six podcasts we have used the principles from Realising the Ambition: Being me as a framework to facilitate professional dialogue to support teams to ensure we are getting it right for our young learners moving into the shared new normal.

Documents

Realising the Ambition: Being me...Realising the Ambition recognises the importance of the Role of the Adult. •How are we supporting our families to realise the deep learning that