48 replies to this topic

[Tinkalink]

Hi,

I am new to the forum this week and have been reading loads of your wonderful comments and ideas and figured who better to take a look at what i am doing to see if i am doing it right!

I am an NQT and new to Nursery and i havent had any formal EYFS training so i am kind of planning with a blind fold on for i have no idea how i am supposed to be laying it out!

Would someone please have a look at it for me and tell me what they think?

We are attached to a school and are 26 place. We are doing the flexible entitlement so have the children for 3 hours each session. We do not have free flow access to the outdoor area. We have to do 3 a day texts and i try to get circle time. singing and snack in every day as well as letters and sounds...

I do a whole class input of Letters and Sounds every day and then one group of about 3 children per day gets to have a 5 min small input with a named adult

(The colour codes on the plan are for my TAs so each one knows where they should be and what they should be doing!)

Here goes!

Thank you!

Attached Files

•  Provision_example.doc   45.5K   592 downloads
•  Objectives_example.doc   58K   414 downloads
•  Weekly_Plan.doc   146K   546 downloads

[Scarlettangel]

Golly.

I work in a nursery and would not want to knock anyones way of doing anything.....

I think you have to do what ultimately suits your setting and your children.

However, from the weekly plan I just peeked at it sounds RIGID and in my opinion WAY too structured.

I think there has to be routines but not that regimented.

I don't think I want to say anymore as I really don't want to come on here and knock anyones confidence.

Sorry.

[Susan]

Hi Tinkalink and welcome. Thank you for making your first post.

You look as if you are doing a lot of planning and are well organised. Do you find it useful?

Your planning should be flexible and personal. I cant advise on EYFS planning as I have had no training either and have now moved to year 1.

I think you are probably showing what you need to, as a school nursery you probably have different demands made on you to the PVI settings.

Hopefully someone else will be along soon.

[HappyMaz]

It is very well structured - but then I guess if you have 26 children and a teacher plus a TA then you do need to structure your day.

I am in pre-school so I can't really comment on the way you organise your day - but I'm guessing it is working for you? As Scarlettangel says, that's the most important thing. There are a lot of different short activities - but then you have an hour for provision activities (is this free play?) and then 45 minutes outdoors. I get the feeling that your personal style is to make detailed plans so that you know exactly who is where at any given time and that can be a great confidence boost.

The question I would ask do you generally stick closely to the plans, or are you able to go with the flow sometimes and deviate from your planned session? So long as your timetabling doesn't hamper children's (and adults') creativity and prevent them following their own interests then the planning will support the learning

You have some great activities in your area plan - might have to steal a few of those! . If it were me I would find a way of linking the provision planning to the objectives so that it would be very clear to everyone which objectives relate to which area - that would help with observations too, I think.

I have to say that if you have had no EYFS training at all you should probably ask when you're going to get some! Although it seems to me you have all the bases covered!

Welcome to the Forum, Tinkalink. I hope I haven't been overly critical - these are just the ramblings of a pre-schooler. I'm sure the feedback from nursery teachers will be more useful.

Maz

PS I like the fact that your provision areas are the same for the whole week: I think it gives children time to develop their thinking and learning and grapple with concepts and ideas which is not always possible when activities change every day. But as I say I'm just a pre-schooler - perhaps I'd think differently if I was in 'big school'!

[Wolfie]

Welcome to the forum Tinkalink!

[hali]

hello and welcome

[apple]

Tinkalink- just be careful about posting children's names on the the forum or anywhere else

[shirel]

Just wanted to welcome you and echo that it looks great as long as it is all flexible and allows for spontaneous planning you will probably keep tweaking with the reflection and evaluation.

[lesleypimperne]

Hi Tinkalink

As others have said, you have obviously worked very hard on the plans for your children, although I would agree it seems quite rigid to me. I work in a PVI full daycare setting, with mostly 2 - 5 year olds. I love the choices of books you have and the clapping rhymes. You have also taken care to make sure the support staff are with you and that you are making the most of letters and sounds. However,..... the beauty of EYFS is the requirement to follow children's individual leads and I wonder how you would feel if a child were to bring into the setting.... a bird's nest, or a certificate to show that they had completed a walk for charity, or told you the whole family was moving to South America. Would you be prepared to ditch the plans and go with the children? These are all wonderful startpoints for child initiated learning, which, judging by the very precise timings on your plans, might not be able to be accommodated, and you would therefore miss the children's lead. There would still be opportunities to incorporate the counting, or the literature you had planned, but would make it more appropriate to their situations.

Also, we are not free flow at my setting, but there is no reason not to take books into the garden/playground and look at them there. Books like Peepo would lend themselves to being read outdoors, in fact any of the things you have planned could be transferred outdoors. EYFS requires that we give equal balance to outdoor provision, which is a challenge if you do not have free flow like many purpose built settings, but it is not insurmountable.

Good luck!

Lesley

[Shiny]

Welcome to the forum Tinkalink!!

Tinkalink, on Oct 8 2008, 17:04, said:

I am an NQT and new to Nursery and i havent had any formal EYFS training so i am kind of planning with a blind fold on for i have no idea how i am supposed to be laying it out!

I know just how you feel, but I have had training and have worked with preschool for 9 years!! It is all as clear as mud!!

[biccy]

Have you asked your support staff what they thnk about the planning?They have to help you deliver it.

[Tinkalink]

It's not the actual content as much as the way i am setting it out and organising my day that i am wondering about. My support staff are fab and they are fine with the content.

I just want to know if i am trying to fit too much in / am i supposed to do more detailed planning, less detailed planning.... just feel a bit lost

[Susan]

You're planning is for you and should be manageable, flexible and usable. It is also a working document and should/ could be amended to reflect what you do.
Can you show how you respond to the children's interests?

You may need to ask for guidance from your school as your head may need to see specific elements. You should also have an advisor you can call upon.

[Tinkalink]

Well i've been at the school for 6 weeks now and our planning goes on our intranet and no one has commented badly or otherwise about it so i don't even know if anyone else has looked at it! I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing - probably a bad thing cos it means i'm not getting feedback as and NQT...

Funnily enough i am getting observed by our adviser soon - i will maybe ask her about it all. I feel like my planning is m ore of a timetable for my support staff really i guess... I need to put the actual content in a more manageable format dont i so that i can amend it daily...

I'm so confused!

Thanks for your time by the way!

[Scarlettangel]

Hey I was feeling bad about my earlier post.

I think the planning looks to me more like that of a reception class.
Very precise, prescriptive and obviously well thought out.

It seemed every moment was planned.........

It seemed to lack the spontaneity that I would expect of a nursery plan

In our nursery, also 26 place we have one focused activity every day, but sometimes we don't get to it!

We do have access to outdoors constantly so no set times for heading out.

We have a simple routine..........

All together on our carpeted area with a book whilst everyone arrives,
and then a little time together maybe on a story or a chat about news.......
or what we might do that day etc

"Free" play until tidy time

Then back together to see how the session has gone, give out stuff to take home, ryhmes, story etc.

Tuck is free flow.

We have simple planning which shows continuous provision (found on this site somewhere!!) and then a daily focus sheet and a weekly sheet with an over view of what we are doing on top of the continuous stuff.

We like the children to take the lead, and more often than not the day goes way off in a direction different to the one we had in mind!!!!!

I know different LA's have different views about planning and no one type is right, but maybe in a partnership group you could look at some other planning from nurseries?

Again though if it is working for the children does it matter exactly what the planning looks like?