On Monday 21st December it was announcement that the school holidays would be extended to the 11th January followed by online learning from home for all children. except those of key workers.
We returned to the centre to provide care and learning for one child initially and connected with all our families via our WhatsApp group. Providing online learning and connections builds on the foundations of the Curriculum for Excellence in continuing to help children to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors. We created a floor book to record the activities we shared, parents interactions, photos and comments from families. Through the use of photos and comments we were aware of children progress and achievements.
Our aim during this lockdown was to say connected to our families through WhatsApp, weekly phone calls and video calls. We encouraged families to engage with our activities, share their learning with us, and to stay active in line with our active play training. We offered advice to help tailor activities for children’s different ages and stages as required.
Through supporting our families we built on our relationships, supported their mental health and helped them feel included in their children’s learning.
We planned activities that could be done at home and took our lead from some activities that parents shared about their child, therefore continuing with child led learning limited by Covid-19 restrictions. Sharing activities and ideas for both indoors and outdoors helped to provide parents with opportunities to embrace and develop high quality play and skills for life in partnership with practitioners.
Continued connections and learning helped children to navigate their way through the transition of coming to the centre, to staying at home, to then coming back to the centre again, and for the children of key workers to adapt to a very different centre with fewer friends to play with.
We also added observations and photos to the children’s learning profiles and since returning to the centre they have been really interesting in looking at these reminders of what they learned at home.
