Tag Archives: #TalkELCC

New Education Officer for Forestry Commission Scotland⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

lichen

Forestry Commission Scotland has appointed Sarah Archer as the new Education Officer for the Central Scotland area.

Sarah is responsible for delivering the Commission’s Woods for Learning Strategy, which encourages the use of woodlands for learning outdoors in early learning and childcare, primary and secondary education. Her role will have a focus on young children and involves working with educational establishments to support outdoor learning projects, such as Forest Kindergartens, and to co-ordinate Forest Kindergarten training for early learning and childcare practitioners.

Sarah said: “I know from my own teaching days what a difference being outdoors can make to learning, so I am really looking forward to working with nurseries and schools across central Scotland to develop Forest Kindergartens and other outdoor learning projects.

“There is lots of evidence to demonstrate the education, health and well-being benefits of outdoor learning and the Commission’s involvement in this area is continuing to grow. A key part of my work will be to build on this and encourage greater use of forests, woodlands and green spaces for education.”

Forest Kindergartens provide opportunities for young children to explore their local woodland or natural outdoor setting for active learning and play on a regular basis.

Sarah is a qualified primary school teacher and also brings a wealth of knowledge from working in the environment sector.

To discuss outdoor learning opportunities, please contact Sarah on 01698 368 553 or email sarah.archer@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

Look out for our autumn edition of Early Years Matters, which features an article on the Forest Kindergarten approach.

Education Scotland Website links to Care Inspectorate ‘Hub’⤴

from @ Education Scotland's Learning Blog

Care Inspectorate

The Care Inspectorate’s ‘Hub’ offers a ‘one-stop-shop’ to help those working in the care sector, including those in childcare, keep up-to-date with good practice and policy, provides tools and guidance to help you carry out your own research and shares innovative practice, all designed to help improve professional practice, and, most importantly, benefit services.

Find below some of the key features of The Hub that can help you keep up-to-date with all the latest policy developments and resources available to support your everyday practice and ongoing knowledge of the care sector in Scotland.

Knowledge – a central library, wherever you are

Also available as a mobile version on mobile phones and tablets, The Hub’s Knowledge section is a portable online library for when you are out and about.

It provides a visual library of good practice and policy documents, with a user-friendly search function and detailed tagging options that allow you to search the library for the publications most relevant to your work.

A series of policy portals encourage you to browse the major developments in policy areas related to the services the Care Inspectorate regulates and inspects.

The Knowledge section also features the weekly Adult and Health or Children and Young People Bulletins to keep you up-to-date on the latest news in the sector, and has a built-in newsfeed from the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS).

This complements a range of research tools to help you carry out your own research, including an embedded Social Services Knowledge Scotland (SSKS) search portal and a series of IRISS resources to support evidence-based work practice.

There is also a new section on the National Care Standards, which the Care Inspectorate uses to check the quality of care services and contain lots of information on what a service must do or provide to make sure that you or someone you know experiences a good quality service.

Innovation – hear the voice of people using services

The Hub’s Innovation section features a collection of video case studies that showcase innovation and good practice taking place in care services across Scotland, highlighting the positive experiences of people using these services. These videos will be regularly updated over the coming months.

Anyone who has experienced excellent care or services that believe they’re delivering something innovative can submit their story to The Hub for consideration.

Improvement – supporting continuous improvement

Aimed at supporting continuous improvement in the delivery of care services, The Hub’s Improvement section features information on Centres for Excellence courses and training.

It also has toolkits and resources produced by the Care Inspectorate, the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS), Education Scotland and NHS Education for Scotland (NES).

My Account

New to The Hub, My Account is a password protected area of the site that allows users to save documents and create their own personalised library of resources.

You can access The Hub via Education Scotland’s ELCC page of the website.