We are pleased to issue our Standards and Qualities Report for session 2023/2024. The full report is available here while a summary version for parents/carers is available below.
Standards and Qualities Report
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Category Archives: News
Campfire and Food Safety Training
TeamCVN are continuing to develop their repertoire of skills. Today we were undertaking campfire and outdoor food hygiene training while cooking a 5 course lunch over a campfire! TeamCVN took on 4 of these, Jane on soup, Lynda on chicken pasta, Katie on a vegan pasta dish and Helen on chocolate brownies. Even if we say so ourselves it was all pretty tasty.
What’s not to love about a day spent in the woodland with a group of like minded people and accompanied by some great food 🥰.
Planning Application Submitted!
We are delighted to report that our architects have today submitted our planning application to Stirling Council!!
This application is to build a wooden shelter in the area next to the walled garden. The shelter will support children’s play and learning experiences in the woods. It will form a base from which our adventures can take place, it will be somewhere to store our equipment and form an emergency shelter in extremes of weather.
This is a significant step in CVN’s journey and worthy of celebrating 🎉
The full report can be read here
First Aid
Our children were learning about first aid today with the help of Lynsay from Mini First Aid Fife & Forth Valley. They learned what do do to stop a cut or graze from bleeding (apply pressure), how to put on a plaster, what to do when you get a bump (apply a cold pack), how to roll someone over to lie on their side and how to call 999 for help if we need it.
We always hope that accidents are rare events but it’s good to be prepared!
Latest Drawings from our Architects
Our architects are continuing to develop our planning application using information from our Preliminary Ecological Appraisal, Topographical Study and feedback from the pre-planning application we submitted for our original project.
Here are their latest drawings for our outdoor shelter.
Updated Preliminary Ecological Appraisal
We are delighted to report that we have now received an updated Preliminary Ecological Appraisal of our outdoor nursery site.
The report states that “There was no field evidence of protected species found during the survey”. The report contains an Ecological Constraints and Opportunities Plan which will guide our development. This will include making sure good practice is followed in relation to
- removing any non-native species (Spanish bluebells and montbretia are noted as examples)
- protecting plant species (native bluebells for example should be retained)
- protecting nesting birds
- installing root protection areas for trees and
- making sure any lighting doesn’t negatively impact on commuting or foraging bats.
There are several ecological enhancements suggested such as creating a wildflower meadow, making hibernacula from deadwood, retaining and creating wetlands, thinning woodland to encourage the under storey to develop and installing bird and bat boxes. These are exciting suggestions and challenges and we look forward to developing these with our children.
Topographical Survey
We have now received a topographical survey of our outdoor nursery site!
We are Accredited Living Wage Employers!
We are pleased to support this commitment to ensure everyone gets paid fairly and to recognise this collective effort which has delivered a pay rise to over 64,000 workers.
At CVN however we want to go a step further. Along with our colleagues in the private, voluntary and independent sectors we are campaigning for equity for our early years staff. We cannot celebrate a system which considers it to be appropriate that staff working in PVI settings should be paid the Real Living Wage while facilitating local authorities to pay their staff some 30% more for doing the same role. Fair Work Practice? Not as far as we are concerned.
CVN Outdoor Nursery Location
Here is a (low flying) bird’s eye view of the location of our outdoor nursery in Gillies Hill Community Woodland. This area to the south west of the walled garden has vast potential for play and learning and we are excited to be starting to develop it in preparation for our move later this year.
Echoes Ecology Visit
We are pleased to say that Kay and Heather are back on site for us today updating the Preliminary Ecological Appraisal (PEA) they conducted for us last year. This documents the range of habitats present and looks for signs of any protected species and also suggests improvements that can be made to benefit wildlife in the environment. Last year’s report stated that “There was no field evidence of protected species found during the survey. There is suitable habitat for nesting birds and commuting and foraging for bats” and that no follow up surveys were recommended. Today Kay and Heather are updating their report to include a survey of the area to the other side of the walled garden where we plan to locate the shelter for our outdoor nursery.
Cambusbarron Village Nursery 