Glasgow City Council Education Services

Improvement Planning

Establishment Sinclair Nursery

Session 2015-2016

CONTENTS

1. Vision, Values and Aims

2. Summary of Self Evaluation Process

3 Priorities for Improvement in the current year

4 Action planning

5 Appendices:

a. Action Plan Summary for Stakeholders

Signatures:

Head of Establishment Vicky McPhail Date June 2015

Glasgow City Council Education Services: Improvement Planning 1a Our vision, values and aims

We aim to provide a safe and friendly environment for all children and prepare each child to be confident individuals; successful learners that have respect for others and can make informed choices and decisions therefore empowering our young people. Children will be encouraged to achieve their full potential at their own pace. We aim to do this by providing quality experiences and education for all, promoting health and wellbeing, literacy and numeracy throughout the whole nursery. We strive to provide equal opportunities for each child ensuring the curriculum offered is inclusive of children with learning difficulties and or disabilities and children from different backgrounds, Child protection is paramount within the nursery and we follow the guidelines of “Safe and Well” and Management Circular 57. We maintain at all times an open door policy and positively encourage parental participation. We work closely with outside agencies and our local community to facilitate the provision of our quality service. As a nursery we incorporate all guidelines as set by the Scottish Executive and Glasgow City Council.

1b How our vision, values and aims were developed and how our stakeholders were consulted

Our vision values and aims were developed through self-evaluation, monitoring and guidelines from local and national authorities. Evidence was gathered through regular staff meetings, planning meetings, individual performance plans, staff, parent, stakeholders and children’s questionnaires as well as monitoring, mind mapping and floor books.

Glasgow City Council Education Services: Improvement Planning 2. Summary of self evaluation process

How we carried out our self-evaluation and involved our stakeholders

We use child at the centre 2 to assist in our monitoring process as well as Glasgow’s early years support for evaluation.

Evidence was gathered through regular staff meetings, planning meetings, individual performance plans, staff, parent, stakeholders and children’s questionnaires as well as monitoring, observations, floor books and mind mapping.

We also host interactive parent’s evenings twice per year, this provides opportunity for the management team and staff to seek the views of parents with regards to various issues such as the menu, the types of activities and experiences we offer the children.

We have recently introduced a nursery Facebook page which is a closed group and has proved to be very successful in sharing improvements and gathering feedback from parents as well as keeping parents up to date on the day to day happenings within the nursery.

High level Our key strengths Our areas for improvement question How well do children learn Child at the Centre 1.1, 2.1 We plan to further develop numeracy throughout the and achieve Our children have been observed to be happy and confident nursery the children are planning a mud kitchen / café for within the nursery environment, they are keen to try new the nursery garden and have been talking about recipes, activities and develop their own ideas. They will confidently measurements and price lists for the café /Kitchen. The talk about their experiences both at nursery and at home. They children are very excited about this and we feel it is an especially enjoy looking through their own learning journals and ideal way to further develop numeracy both indoors and talking about their learning. out. We have also been working on promoting numeracy over the past year and the children have particularly enjoyed learning about time – making their own clocks to reflect particular times in the day such as snack time and lunch time. The children’s

Glasgow City Council Education Services: Improvement Planning High level Our key strengths Our areas for improvement question knowledge of different maths concepts is reflected within their learning journals, observations and area evaluation books. We have recently adapted our curriculum planning to better reflect the children’s voices and ideas; our 3-5 room layout has also been adapted to allow the children to be more independent in their learning and make their own choices.

Over the coming year we plan to introduce 2 of the nurture Child at the Centre 5.1, 5.3 principles Phonological awareness and Higher Order thinking skills were  Nurturing Principle 3 – Nurture is important for the How well do we priorities from last year’s plan. The staff are now confident development of self esteem support children to develop and using HOTS questioning skills to further challenge the children.  Nurturing Principle 4 – Language is understood as a vital learn means of communication A training evening will be arranged for staff at the beginning of the new term and the principles will be rolled out over the coming year.

Child at the Centre 5.9, 9.3 Further involvement from our parents is required with regards to our self-evaluation, we have introduced an Over the past year we have greatly improved our self- improvement wall for parents to share ideas and suggest How do we evaluation process and feel it is now more worthwhile and improvements however we feel this has not been as improve the useful. Our management team have a good understanding of the quality of our successful as we first anticipated. work improvements that need to be made and the children within our 3-5 room have also been involved especially in the evaluation of We plan to send out a termly letter to parents with details the curriculum and the experiences on offer within the of the quality indicators we will be looking at each term and playroom. asking for feedback and suggestions.

Glasgow City Council Education Services: Improvement Planning 3. Priorities for improvement in the current year Year 2015-2016

Priority Stage of development Alignment to: Achieving & Nurtured

No. Exploring, Developing or Embedding QI Partnership Wellbeing Working Framework 1 1. Developing – Following on from last year’s We will work alongside a local improvement plan we will continue to develop nursery, sharing practice. numeracy throughout the nursery/ Q.I - 2.1 Regular home to nursery plans will be sent home to parents for input from home. We will also keep parents up to date via the nursery Facebook page and newsletters. 2 2. Exploring - Over the coming year we plan to We will continue to work introduce 2 of the nurture principles alongside a neighbouring QI – 5.3 nursery, sharing good  Nurturing Principle 3 – Nurture is important practice/ideas and training. for the development of self esteem We will also continue involving  Nurturing Principle 4 – Language is understood parents and our children as a vital means of communication through questionnaires, big floor books, parents evenings etc. 3 3. Developing – Work is needed to further develop We will work alongside a local our self-evaluation process to encourage more QI – 5.9 nursery, sharing practice. parental involvement. Regular home to nursery plans will be sent home to parents for input from home. We will also keep parents up to date via the nursery Facebook page and newsletters.

Glasgow City Council Education Services: Improvement Planning 4. Action Planning

Priority Expected outcomes for learners which are measurable or QI Priority No. observable 1 2.1 To further developing numeracy throughout the nursery both The children will be confident using new mathematical language and indoors and out. The children have suggested a mud kitchen /café skills. We will be able to track the children’s progress and learning in the garden through big books and their personal learning journals.

Those involved – Tasks to achieve priority Timescale Resources and staff development and checkpoints including partners August 2015 Children, parents & staff Floor books, staff to discuss and scribe the Meeting with the children to discuss/share idea – children’s ideas. mind map in big floor book. Letter to parents. Ongoing from October Children and staff Floor books, staff & children Monthly meetings with the children to discuss their 2015 learning journals and monitor progress Build/develop mud kitchen/café in the nursery August Nursery owner, parents, Budget allocated for resources, nursery owner garden /September2015 staff and children to build units in the garden

Evidence of Impact

The children will have a greater understanding of maths and numeracy, they will be able to use concepts such as measuring, estimating, graphing etc. They will be able to confidently share their learning with the other children, parents and staff.

Priority Expected outcomes for learners which are measurable or QI Priority No. observable To introduce 2 of the nurture principles The children will become more confident and resilient with 2 5.3  Nurturing Principle 3 – Nurture is important for the increased self-esteem, they will be happy to celebrate development of self esteem achievements from both at home and at nursery.  Nurturing Principle 4 – Language is understood as a vital means of communication.

Those involved – Tasks to achieve priority Timescale Resources and staff development and checkpoints including partners In-service evening to be arranged for the new term 10th August 2015 Vicky McPhail, Donna Management team to prepare training materials – feedback to staff on recent training re: nurture Murphy & Mangy Garden for in service. from Glasgow City Council

Staff to introduce principle 3 – Nurture is November 2015 All staff Support and guidance for staff important for the development of self-esteem to their daily practice

Letter sent home to parents introducing the August 2015 Vicky McPhail & Parents Gather information to be communicated to nurture principles we will be working on. parents

Evidence of Impact The children will be observed to be more confident in sharing their achievements their self-esteem will improve both at nursery and at home, this will hopefully be reflected throughout the nursery and within each child’s learning journal.

Priority Expected outcomes for learners which are measurable or QI Priority No. observable 3 5.9 Encourage further involvement from our parents with regards Through a more systematic approach to the self-evaluation process to our self-evaluation. with better involvement from our parents and the whole staff team we hope to see the children’s nursery experience enhanced and parents being more involved in the life of the nursery.

Those involved – Tasks to achieve priority Timescale Resources and staff development and checkpoints including partners Meeting to discuss ideas with staff on how they September 2015 Staff and parents Time allocated for staff meeting and parents could be more involved with the self- evaluation process.

Letter to parents discussing the self-evaluation September 2015 Staff and parents Letter to parents process and improvements happening over the coming term

Termly newsletters to discuss improvements each Ongoing throughout Staff and parents Letters to parents term the year Regular meetings/discussions with staff regarding Ongoing throughout Staff and parents Time allocated for regular meetings/ the self-evaluation. the year discussions

Evidence of Impact The staff will be more involved in the work and life of the nursery; they will be able to take ownership for improvements. The children will have an enhanced nursery experience.

5. Appendix a

Glasgow City Council Education Services: Improvement Planning Action Plan Summary for Stakeholders

Priority Expected outcomes for learners which are measurable or Lead Timescales No. observable responsibility

To further developing numeracy The children will be confident using new mathematical language and Audrey Ongoing – 1 throughout the nursery both skills. We will be able to track the children’s progress and learning Doherty/Vicky August indoors and out. The children have through big books and their personal learning journals. McPhail 2015-June- suggested a mud kitchen /café in 2016 the garden To introduce 2 of the nurture principles The children will become more confident and resilient with increased 2 self-esteem, they will be happy to celebrate achievements from both Vicky McPhail/ Ongoing –  Nurturing Principle 3 – at home and at nursery. Donna Murphy August Nurture is important for 2015-June- the development of self 2016 esteem  Nurturing Principle 4 – Language is understood as a vital means of communication.

Encourage further involvement from Through a more systematic approach to the self-evaluation process 3 our parents with regards to our with better involvement from our parents and whole staff team we Vicky McPhail/ Ongoing – self-evaluation. hope to see the children nursery experience enhanced. Donna Murphy August 2015-June- 2016

Glasgow City Council Education Services: Improvement Planning