Category Archives: News

The State of Play

Was at a really interesting seminar in Glasgow this afternoon on the State of Children’s Play. I hope to write more about this later (or bore you all with it 😉 ) but it served only to reinforce my conviction that the play based ethos of a PLAYgroup is significantly beneficial to children. Children need self directed play experiences to allow their brains to develop. In a competitive society, however, where we rush to get children ready for school, we risk forcing education onto children before their brains have developed capacities such as reasoning and self-control. Without these basic skills teaching becomes much more difficult. The analogy of trying to build a house on sand comes to mind.

Yoga for children

We are pleased to say that children at playgroup today (Friday) will have the opportunity to attend a taster yoga session with Lynn who runs regular sessions in the hall🧘🏽‍♀️🧘🏽‍♂️

February

Over the next few sessions at playgroup we will be continuing to develop our children’s interest in their bodies focussing initially on our senses. I will be out of the playroom at meetings on Monday and Tuesday but leave you in Jordan and Sharon’s very capable hands. I will be back on Wednesday when we will also welcome Colette, a student from Forth Valley College, who will be doing her placement activities with us, initially every Wednesday.
February is a short month with our mid term break the w/b Feb 13th. Unfortunately that means we miss some traditional celebrations such as Pancake Day, Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year. We would hope however, depending on children’s interest, still to incorporate some of these festivities within our senses activities.
Meantime, I have registered our playgroup in the Big Schools’ Birdwatch and we hope to be using our senses to see and hear some birds in our playgroup garden and perhaps undertake some activities to encourage more to come and visit. We’d be grateful if you could save your toilet and kitchen roll tubes in case we need some binoculars for our birdwatching 😉
#biggardenbirdwatch

Power Cut

I’m sad to be sending out another apology for a disruption in service today. Thank you for your understanding and patience. We were without power until 12:30. Thankfully the lights are back on again and we look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow when we will hold a delayed celebration of Burns Night 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Parental Engagement

Research clearly shows that children do better in school when their parents are actively involved in their education. The Playgroup model is one which relies on parental involvement so we have a head start when it comes to working with parents. This document sets out some of the background for engaging with parents but also suggests that we evaluate how we engage. It’s worth a read through, and, please do get back to us if you have comments on how we work with parents and/or suggestions as to how we can do it better.

Parental Engagement 2017/2020

Merry Christmas

On behalf of the staff team I’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope there is health and happiness in store for you in 2018. Thanks for your good wishes and kind gifts.

Playgroup will re-open on Monday January 8th 2018 at 9.15 am. We look forward to seeing everyone then.