ELC – Our Vision

Our ambition is to reduce inequalities in our 3 priority community planning areas by providing excellent Family Learning together with Early Learning and Childcare.

We are delighted to be involved in this ground breaking opportunity to adopt the best possible practice that will enable us to improve the futures of our children’s lives here in Woodburn. I am in no doubt that the co-location of services will lead to a more holistic approach towards ensuring the wellbeing of our children. High quality early years childcare and educational settings are crucial in promoting children’s development and family engagement to support learning.
We are excited and proud to be a part of Midlothian’s first ever Family Learning Centre to help to build the ambition for Scotland to be the best place for children to grow up.
Laurinda Ramage Head Teacher Woodburn Primary School

WPS

Woodburn Family Learning Centre.

This will provide a wonderful opportunity for Woodburn families to access a ‘One Door’ service with children under five.

Our aim is to provide an interconnected range of services across 0-3 and 3-5?

We will build on current good practice, share learning, improved transitions and early identification of children and families.

Pen Green 

Pen Green Centre for Children and Families opened in 1983 it was set up as a multi-functional service for children and families and is staffed by a multidisciplinary team.

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A group of early years staff attended a study visit to Pen Green Family Learning Centre in Corby last week. The group included myself as School Group Manager and Strategic Lead for Early Years, Elspeth Reid the Depute and Audrey Leneghan the PT from Woodburn Primary School, Audrey Gemmell from Sure Start, Maurice McCann Project Manager, Steven Small PPP Services Manager, Liz Mark Health Visitor Manager, and Helen Finlayson Speech and Language Therapist. Pen Green is renowned for the quality multi disciplinary experience it provides for children and families, and is an outstanding centre with inspirational practice.

We learned about how staff work closely with families before children even start at the centre. This connection continues during the whole time the children attend. Multi-disciplinary staff work very closely with families to ensure that the best possible learning experiences are provided for the children, jointly by parents themselves and centre staff. The centre makes learning visible to families through their PICL project (Parents Involved in Children’s Learning project)
We hope that lessons learned from this visit will help inform practice in the development of our first Family Learning venture at Woodburn Primary School.
Julie Fox, Schools Group Manager

Staff Knowledge of children’s learning and development is based on the following theorists:

Laevers Involvement Scale (1997)

Laevers Well-being signs (1997)

Schemas (Athley 2007, Arnold 2013)

Adult Pedagogic Strategies Whalley & Arnold (1997)

These theoretical frameworks underpin the

observations at Pen Green. Some examples…

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Pen Green Outdoor space

Pen Green has a high quality outdoor provision, where the children have the freedom to explore and investigate their own interests through a range of natural resources and outdoor environments.

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