3
Dan MilliganMilestone at The Old
Lady of Leven Street
Going back to school
Nursery owner Alison knows all about the need to keep on learning
The topping out of the new steel Flytower marked an important milestone in the £35.6m
King’s Theatre refurbishment when Council Leader Cammy Day and other partners (above)
signed a special plaque to mark the occasion. Representatives from Capital Theatres and
Robertson Construction Central East were invited to leave their mark on the structural steel.By PHYLLIS STEPHENALISON HAWKINS who owns and runs Wester
Coates Nursery School which she set up 34 years
ago, has achieved a Masters degree from the
University of Edinburgh.
This is the second graduation for the early
years education expert who first gained a degree
in 1971 from Moray House Teacher Training
College as it was then known. Better than
anyone, Alison understands the need for
learning at all stages of life, and has always
undertaken continuing professional
development learning during her career.
The need for learning led her to “Froebelian
practice” which she first studied in 2010,
meeting a group of like-minded educators
who have since learned together and
supported each other. In 2019 the first
cohort signed up for the MSc in Education,
Early Childhood and Froebel course from
which Alison has just graduated.
Scotland’s national Froebelian hub is the
council run nursery at Cowgate Under 5s which
is an indoor/outdoor space in the heart of the
city just off the Royal Mile. Friedrich Froebel
was the pioneer of the kindergarten movement
where learning is not predefined into any
compartmentalised goals or narrow boundaries.
The key principle which he embraced was
“freedom with guidance”, believing that
everything in the universe is connected and that
this is to be fostered in children to deepen their
understanding of themselves and others as well
as the wider world.
Alison said: "The catalyst was firstly to
support the course, and get its name 'out there';
secondly to challenge myself and pull together alot of threads - and thirdly to use the learning
and experience to further spread knowledge of
child development and appropriate early
learning techniques.
"Through our studies we have had positive
impacts on children through our collective and
individual work. I owe a huge debt of gratitude
to my tutor Dr Lynn McNair - herself a
knowledgeable and committed Froebelian
whose interest in all her students is vast."
On both occasions Alison has outshone her
classmates winning first the Dickson Prize for
best outgoing student and most recently
achieving her MSc with merit.
Throughout the decades of running her
own nursery Mrs Hawkins has continually
campaigned for kindergarten education.
She lobbied Edinburgh Council until they
voted to fund all children who were eligible
for a further year at nursery stage, somethingwhich has since become law in Scotland.
At Wester Coates Nursery School the ethos is
to nurture, care for, challenge and support little
ones on their first steps away from home.
With a staff to pupil ratio of one adult
for every five or six children the aim is to
"ensure a happy and confident transfer from
home to nursery".
Alison said: "This is achieved by a strong belief
in the principles of Friedrich Froebel, regarding
children as being competent, unique, curious
and active...hence our focus on starting where
the child is and taking their lead mostly through
play, and often outside. Believing in the many
benefits of fresh air, exercise and ‘space to be’ we
spend most of our time outdoors where excellent
facilities and equipment complement our indoor
spaces, and provide motivating and challenging
opportunities to develop skills, to explore and
wonder, to grow in confidence and to socialise.”By KIRSTY LEWINWHAT BRINGS A hundred people out on
bikes on one of the coldest nights of the
year in Edinburgh? Pedestrians and drivers
were asking this very question on a
freezing Friday night at the end of last year
when they encountered the InfraSisters
leading their fifth cheerful Our Streets Our
Nights mass campaign ride through
Edinburgh’s Old Town.
With bikes decked in twinkling fairy
lights, and dance music pumping out these
women and their male allies had a simple
but serious message for Edinburgh’s
councillors. Women and girls face a horrible
dilemma in Edinburgh when they want to
cycle at night. Do they choose on-road
routes where they are generally
unprotected from dangerous drivers? Or
do they choose the off-road paths, that,
while usually pleasant during the day, are
isolated at night with no escape routes and
have had numerous reports of anti-social
behaviour, abuse, and even assault.
Edinburgh does not have safe and
comfortable night-time cycling
infrastructure for women and girls, and,
until it does, many women will continue to
feel unsafe to cycle in the dark. Many
women are excluded from using a cheap,
fast, and healthy form of transport to get
around. The InfraSisters are calling for an
end to this dilemma and inequity by asking
all councillors to support the rapid
development of on-road well-lit direct
cycling routes that are protected from
drivers, particularly at major junctions.The next ride will be on 8 March,
International Women’s Day. Everyone is
welcome to join in. Sign up to the mailing
list for updates http://www.infrasisters.org.ukTHE COUNCIL has written to residents in
certain streets in the city where pavement
parking is a problem, warning drivers that
recent legislation banning the practice will
be enforced in Edinburgh in January.
Cllr Scott Arthur, Transport and
Environment Convener, said: “Implementing
these new restrictions will help to make
Edinburgh’s roads and pavements accessible
for all. By making sure our footways are kept
clear and safe we can support those who are
disproportionately affected get around the
city, this includes parents with pushchairs,
older people, those with visual impairments
and wheelchair users.”InfraSisters doing
it for themselves
Pavement parking
Neil Hanna