AGM Tuesday 5th September 2023

A reminder that our Annual General Meeting is coming up on Tuesday September 5th at 6pm in the Community Centre.

Please come along to find out more about our service and our plans to develop it to continue to meet the needs of our children and their families.

All are very welcome.

There will also be an opportunity during the meeting to join our board of directors. If you share our passion and enthusiasm for delivering our unique blend of high quality early learning and childcare in a natural environment with a strong focus on being part of a village community please get in touch to find out more (email us)

Starting School

It’s an exciting day today for our 2023 leavers as they head off to their new “big” schools. We are sure you will all have a great time meeting new friends and teachers. Everyone at #TeamCVN wishes you well 🥰

Frogs!

Over the last few months we have been watching our tadpoles grow in the pond. Today we were very excited, because we found our first little frog!

“It was tickling my hand”
“Its so small, we need to be gentle”
“It’s hopping around”

Summer is here!

Hard to believe we are already at the end of Session 2022/2023. We’ve had a fantastic, if very fast, year with all of our little people. We will miss all of our leavers but wish them well as they move on to their next steps in their education journey.
The staff team received so many kind words and wishes yesterday along with some lovely gifts – thank you, we do appreciate them.
We hope everyone has a wonderful summer break, hopefully with a little more sunshine than we had yesterday 🤞🏻😎.
We will be back in August!

Cambusbarron Gala Day

We were delighted to be part of Cambusbarron Gala Day yesterday. We set up our stall with lots of photos and information about who we are and what we do. It was lovely to meet new people and also to see so many of our children from previous years all looking so grown up! There were a few of our current cohort in attendance too although they were pretty hard to recognise 🤣

Preliminary Ecological Appraisal

Echoes Ecology have now completed their PEA of our proposed site in Gillies Hill Community Woodland. Their executive summary records “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. If proposed works are to be undertaken during the breeding bird season (March to September inclusive), then any areas of the Site that need to be cleared of vegetation must be shown to be free of nesting birds prior to works commencing. There are no other recommended surveys.”

Echoes Ecology report lists several species from the Scottish Biodiversity List which may be present in the woodland – these include bats, toads, hedgehogs, red squirrels and native bluebells. We have seen lots of bluebells this spring, we regularly see toads and have once spotted a red squirrel. We need to keep our eyes peeled for the rest!

Be Tick Aware

During woodland play sessions children may be exposed to ticks as they are commonly found in woodland, moorland, grassland and parks. Ticks can sometimes pass on diseases such as Lyme disease and Tick-borne encephalitis to humans. Not all ticks are infected and, if they are removed quickly and safely, the chance of illness is greatly reduced.

We strongly recommend that children wear long sleeved tops and trousers as they not only reduce the risk of tick bite they also protect against nettle stings, scrapes and scratches.

We also recommend that parents check for ticks routinely and, if found, remove as soon as possible. The safest way to do this is to use a tick removal tool commonly available in most outdoor shops and chemists.

The following information and guidance may also be useful :

NHS Scotland : Tick Bites

Forestry and Land Scotland : Checking for ticks is easy

NHS Scotland guidelines : Current NHS Scotland Guidelines on Lyme Disease

Forestry Commission: Forestry Commission Identifying Ticks

The following YouTube video by a NHS Highland GP shows how to remove ticks safely :