Education Scotland, National Improvement Hub: An Empowered System 
This guidance resource is for everyone involved in working together to improve children and young people’s outcomes.
Education Scotland explains:
“this is a developing resource designed to support our empowered system in its collective endeavour to improve children and young people’s outcomes. The draft jigsaw and supporting guidance explore the contributions of eight key partners in an empowered system. They encourage collaboration, collegiality and mutual respect between all partners”
The guidance resource focuses on the 8 partners to inspire empowerment and collaboration for improvement at all levels, including:
- Empowering Parents and Carers guidance
- Empowering Partners guidance
- Empowering Teachers and Practitioners
For further information and access to the document visit THE NATIONAL IMPROVEMENT HUB
Improving children and young people’s understanding of their wellbeing
Children in Scotland was commissioned by the Scottish Government to produce this guidance resource with the aim to support children and young people’s understanding of their wellbeing.
The resource has been developed in response to the views of children, young people, teachers and practitioners who stated they would want a resource that provided activities that were ‘fun, creative and engaging’.
For those working with children in the early level, pages 6 – 23 of the resource contain a variety of different experiences to provide for children to help them explore wellbeing. All the suggested experiences focus around the story “There’s a Spider in my Hair” which is readily available online. There are also templates to support the experiences along with further reading and resources.
Click here for further information and to access the resource
Click here to access the e-book ‘There is a spider in my hair’
Parent Club
Parent Club is a new site full of helpful advice and information for parents and families with children of all ages, for example, information on how to balance screen time supported with ’25 screen-free activities’ and ‘Tips to avoid a strop at the shop!’
This is an excellent site for settings to signpost their parents too through notice boards, social media, home links, etc. Click here to visit the site.
New Highland Council Safety Bulletin
/0 Comments/in Uncategorised /by ICT AdminSocket covers and square adapters safety information
CLICK HERE to be directed to the Early Learning and Childcare in Highland blog to read the full safety information. This includes links to two very informative short videos that we encourage you to take time to watch.
Tools, resources and links to support practice
/1 Comment/in Uncategorised /by ICT AdminEducation Scotland, National Improvement Hub: An Empowered System
This guidance resource is for everyone involved in working together to improve children and young people’s outcomes.
Education Scotland explains:
The guidance resource focuses on the 8 partners to inspire empowerment and collaboration for improvement at all levels, including:
For further information and access to the document visit THE NATIONAL IMPROVEMENT HUB
Children in Scotland was commissioned by the Scottish Government to produce this guidance resource with the aim to support children and young people’s understanding of their wellbeing.
The resource has been developed in response to the views of children, young people, teachers and practitioners who stated they would want a resource that provided activities that were ‘fun, creative and engaging’.
For those working with children in the early level, pages 6 – 23 of the resource contain a variety of different experiences to provide for children to help them explore wellbeing. All the suggested experiences focus around the story “There’s a Spider in my Hair” which is readily available online. There are also templates to support the experiences along with further reading and resources.
Click here for further information and to access the resource
Click here to access the e-book ‘There is a spider in my hair’
Parent Club is a new site full of helpful advice and information for parents and families with children of all ages, for example, information on how to balance screen time supported with ’25 screen-free activities’ and ‘Tips to avoid a strop at the shop!’
This is an excellent site for settings to signpost their parents too through notice boards, social media, home links, etc. Click here to visit the site.
Safety Concerns are raised about the ‘Tik Tok App’
/0 Comments/in Child Protection /by ICT AdminTikTok (formerly called Musical.ly) is a social media platform that lets you create, share and discover 15-second videos. You can use music and effects to enhance your videos and you can also browse other people’s videos and interact with them.
This app has recently been a focus in the news, highlighting some safety concerns about ‘users’ privacy’ etc.
Read the article from BBC News, published 7/11/19
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50319690
Further information about app can be found on the NSPCC Net Aware website
Safer Recruitment Through Better Recruitment Good Practice Guidance
/0 Comments/in Uncategorised /by ICT AdminThis joint resource from the SSSC and Care Inspectorate was published in 2016 as:
“good practice guidance intended to help employers, especially those in social care, early education and childcare and social work to meet existing legislative and regulatory requirements in relation to the safer recruitment and selection of people who work with individuals who receive support and care from social services in Scotland”
Download ‘Safe Recruitment through Better Recruitment’ by clicking here.
Family Learning in Scotland 2019 survey
/0 Comments/in Uncategorised /by ICT AdminEducation Scotland – Family Learning in Scotland 2019 survey
Education Scotland is looking for all practitioners working with children and families pre-birth -18 years to share their views in their short online survey on family learning:
The survey should take around 10 minutes to complete.
Click here to access the survey
Click here to access ‘Learning together: national action plan on parental involvement, engagement, family learning and learning at home 2018 – 2021’
Continuous Professional Learning Opportunities
/0 Comments/in Uncategorised /by ICT AdminUpcoming Continuous Professional Learning Opportunities (CPL) in NOVEMBER
Over the month of NOVEMBER, there are a variety of CPL opportunities across Highland. Click through the slides below and use the links to find further information and booking details about the individual sessions.
Don’t forget to regularly check in at www.careandlearningalliance.co.uk and www.calaelearning.co.uk for up to date information on upcoming training and new e-learning modules being added.
CHILDREN’S HEARINGS: PRIVACY, CONFIDENTIALITY & PARTICIPATION
/0 Comments/in Blog update, Child Protection /by ICT AdminWho Cares? Scotland- Children’s Hearings: privacy, confidentiality & participation
Take control: Make your voice
Who Cares? Scotland has been commissioned by The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration to find out how privacy affects young people and their parents and carers’ participation in the Children’s Hearings System.
They aim to:
Whether you have attended a children’s hearing as a child, young person or a parent, carer or foster carer, they would like to hear from you.
You can choose to take part by either:
SCRA Workshop – information & consent
Education Scotland: Refreshed Narrative of CfE
/0 Comments/in Uncategorised /by ICT AdminEducation Scotland: Refreshed Narrative of CfE
Online interactive resource
On the 9th September 2019, Education Scotland published the ‘Refreshed Narrative on Scotland’s Curriculum’.
It sets out Scotland’s approach, revisiting the initial CfE narrative and restating the central importance of the four capacities and the knowledge, skills and attributes that our children and young people need.
The refreshed narrative has been developed with input from practitioners and serves two broad purposes:
As a single point of entry to direct practitioners to a broad range of curriculum advice
It provides a process to facilitate both engagement with the core principles of CfE, and the development of practices to embed them.
The ‘narrative’ is an online interactive resource and provides clear links to further guidance and resources to support practitioner understanding and inspired implementation of CfE at all levels.
You can access the resource at: https://scotlandscurriculum.scot/
Safe Tea Campaign
/0 Comments/in Guidance /by ICT AdminSafe Tea Campaign: Helping to reduce the number of ‘scald injuries’ to young children
The ‘SafeTea’ campaign was launched on October 16th 2019 on social media, TV and radio, and aims to reduce hot drink scalds and improve first aid for children’s burns. The target audience is parents, grandparents and carers of children under 5 across the UK.
The ‘Safe Tea’ campaign states:
‘The British are great tea drinkers, but this social habit has one undesirable consequence – the scalding of young children with hot liquids, usually pulled down over themselves. Across the UK, 30 young children attend hospital every day for treatment of hot drink scalds’
The ‘Safe Tea’ campaign recognises that many of these injuries are preventable. Through sharing key information on safe practice of hot drinks around small children and first aid advice on what to do in the event of an accident, the campaign aims to tackle this problem and reduce the number of children being scalded by hot drinks.
SafeTea Ambassadors are organisations and groups who support the aims of the campaign and agree to disseminate information about SafeTea to their networks , promote campaign messages on social media and encourage individuals to get involved by become supporters.
Please visit the SafeTea website to see the resources available www.safetea.org.uk
SafeTea is a national evidence-based campaign targeting one of the commonest preventable injuries to young children- please get involved and make help a difference by becoming a SafeTea Ambassador.
Click here to download poster for sharing
Bookbug Training
/0 Comments/in Training /by ICT AdminBookbug Training Opportunities in Dingwall and Inverness
Dingwall, Highland: Wednesday 13 November 2019, 10am–11:30am
Inverness, Highland: Thursday 21 November, 10am–11:30am
These training opportunities were recently promoted through the EARLY LEARNING AND CHILDCARE IN HIGHLAND BLOG – for further details and booking links, access the blog post at:
https://elchighland.com/2019/10/17/bookbug-explorer-training-opportunities-in-dingwall-and-inverness/
The Highland Third Sector Representation Pathway
/0 Comments/in Blog update /by ICT AdminCOMMITTEES/GROUPS/PARTNERSHIPS OPEN FOR NOMINATION FOR THIRD SECTOR REPRESENTATIVES
Click here for details of group guide and nomination form
The Highland Third Sector Representation Pathway
The following Committees/Groups/Partnerships are open for Third Sector Representatives nomination then selection on the 22nd of November at the Highland Third Sector Assembly.
To nominate for one or more of the opportunities below please email [email protected] with the following information clearly listed:
Name of the individual nominated:
Link/connection to the Third Sector in Highland: i.e. their paid or voluntary role(s)
A short bio outlining the skills relevant to the role being nominated for. (Maximum 150 words)
Nominations and the information provided will be circulated to the HTSI membership prior to the Assembly for democratic selection on the 22nd of November 2018 at the Highland Third Sector Assembly.
Please note that nominations must be returned to the HTSI no later than 5pm on the 31 October.
Safe Sleep Scotland Workshop
/0 Comments/in Training /by ICT AdminSafe Sleep Scotland will be delivering a FREE ‘Safe Sleep’ education session for professionals in health and childcare on:
Thursday 7th November
5-6.30pm
CALA, Kintail House, Inverness IV2 3BW.
This session will help raise your awareness of how we can reduce the risks of sudden and unexpected death in infancy occurring and good practice to support a baby or young child’s sleep.
Click here to book online or call the CALA office on 01463 222569