Outdoor Play
There is significant and growing interest in how children and young people access the outdoors to play, learn, develop and have fun.
Over recent years, play has been increasingly recognised as a life-enhancing daily experience for all children and young people: in their homes; early learning and childcare settings; schools; and communities. This course will help childminders to review, develop and enhance the outdoor provision offered for the children in a childminding setting.
This course aims to give childminders the support needed to:
- Improve the quality and provision of outdoor play.
- Increase confidence in offering outdoor play in a childcare setting.
- Take a positive approach to risk in order to achieve the best outcomes for children.
Key learning during this course includes understanding and explaining:
- The importance and benefits of outdoor play for children, families and the wider community and strategies to use to join in on play.
- Some of the barriers to children playing outdoors and how to overcome these in a childminding practice.
- The process for how to decide whether it is appropriate to intervene in children’s play or not.
- Some challenging, risky or scary outdoor play opportunities to offer children and what they learn from taking part in these.
- How to carry out risk assessments in line with policies and procedures and to promote positive risk taking with parents.
- Explain how you promote wellbeing and safety to children in order to involve them in risk management procedures.
Course outcomes:
When you have completed this course, your core knowledge and understanding will include:
- Strategies and guidance for practitioners in Scotland that support play.
- How to provide an environment that is safe for the children or young people you work with and that meets their individual preferences and needs.
- How to carry out risk assessments that balance reasonable precautions and provides opportunities for development.
- What is meant by resilience and factors that may affect resilience in children.
- Methods to encourage and support children to test and stretch their skills and abilities.
- The type of indoor and outdoor activities that will encourage balance, co-ordination, gross and fine motor skills, manipulative skills and hand/eye co-ordination.
How to encourage children or young people to make choices, express individual preferences and be aware of how their actions affect
Training Provider Overview
We help childminders build on their Continuous Professional Learning. This includes interactive learning courses, e-Learning courses and access to webinars, network meetings, conferences and complimentary courses Taking part in these opportunities enables childminders to take responsibility for both their professional development and that of their childminding service – focusing on children, to help them achieve their full potential. We actively encourage childminders to take the opportunity to build on their knowledge, skills and professional growth throughout their career. SCMA is proud to be a SQA Approved Centre, which means that in addition to providing our own, bespoke learning opportunities, the Learn with SCMA team can also deliver SQA qualifications. The SQA qualification that we currently deliver is the Complete Childminding Learning Pathway - a Work Based Award, which is credit rated at Level 7 on the Scottish Credit Qualifications Framework (SCQF).
Training Provider Contact Details
Provider Name: Scottish Childminding Association
Contact Name: Learn with SCMA
Telephone: 01786 445377
Quality Assurance
SCMA are commited to ensuring that on-going quality improvement is an integral part of our organisation. The Learn with SCMA team aims for continuous improvement in the quality of all aspects of its work as part of its determination to help Learners achieve the highest possible standards.
Our Quality Assurance Policy is in place to ensure such continuous improvement through a process of self-evaluation and action planning. The Quality Assurance Policy and associated procedures involves all employees, Learners and collaborative partners such as the Care Inspectorate (CI), Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and Skills Development Scotland (SDS). The quality assurance policy is managed through the existing organisational structure. The quality assurance procedures are founded in a process of regular self-evaluation by teams and internal and external audits and observations, in addition to Learner feedback and local training needs.