13 replies to this topic

[Gizzy]

All you out there who have passed accreditation how did you do this unit? I have staff very reluctant to do observations on each other.

Please can you help me

Gizzy

[Peggy]

Hi Gizzy,

I went to a very motivational training day recently on peer observations, presented by a lady who trains Ofsted Inspectors, and who had a like minded approach to the early years as I have......anyway We had quite a comprehensive booklet with the criteria to observe fellow peers. If you pm me with your address I would be happy to send you a copy.

Change is difficult and maybe this is one reason why your staff are reluctant, ask them what their reservations are: maybe they feel that they don't want to "judge" their work colleagues, or maybe they think it is just an added piece of "paperwork" that takes them away from playing.

Remind them that they observe children every day to learn about their "achievements" not what they cannot do, it is the same with adults. They record the "facts" not assumptions. Maybe do some yourself but let the person you have observed "evaluate" the observation, less threatening then.
Again like the childrens observations each one should have an aim...To observe ....interaction at the sand tray........style of story telling......methods of praise to children during a time period......handling conflict between 2 children etc

Take the last example, if this was observed the outcome would be either ...congratulations on dealing with the situation you did...........and.......very well, or congratulations on dealing with the situation you did...and....very well
but how do you think you could of enable child A to begin to resolve problems him/herself ?

In other words its about praising skills and positively highlighting areas to develop.

As a manager I am often aware that I don't always give my staff enough feedback, peer observations are a very good tool for setting this important practice on the agenda and ensuring it happens on a regular basis.

If I'm really honest, and being quite vain, I like to see what people have written about me, to discuss my practice with others and to learn different methods to deal with situations. Also it is important to understand that if the evaluation shows that a situation could have been handled differently, for example, the way a member of staff interacts during storytime, doesn't mean THEY HAVE DONE IT WRONG, but just means there are other ways of trying it.

Hope this has helped

[Sue R]

Couldn't have put it better myself, Peggy!!

Our staff actually found the experience very positive, as they got praise and suggestions of areas to address in a very supportive way. It has also led to them commenting to colleagues when they see something being done well, or a good idea as a norm, and they are less worried about pointing out possible 'problems' - they take such 'criticism' better, as well - well, mostly!!

The actual feedback was done by the Manager, so only the observer and 'observee' (!) were privy to what was recorded.

Sue :D

[Gizzy]

Thanks Ladies, well I will have to sort something out.

Gizzy

[Lucy P]

Gizzy, the PLA are running a course on peer on peer observations in the next couple of weeks, i think its in Fareham, not sure where you are in the south but it may be helpful if thats near to you. :)

[Gizzy]

Hi Lucy,

Yes that one is near me but I am unable to go and can't get any other members of staff to go (usual story!)

Have asked if I can have a copy of the notes, are you going?

Gizzy

[Lucy P]

Hi Gizzy

Im in Fareham too :D

No i wont be going as we are undertaking Quality Counts with the NDNA.

I am sure they would be able to hand over notes from the course though.

[simcity]

Hi
I just wondered how you got on with your peer on peer observations. I have just been reading through this topic. I have a meeting with my staff tomorrow to discuss peer on peer observations. They have already informed me they don't want to do it. So i have found the information on here very helpful.

[Gizzy]

Hi simcity,

I haven't sorted it out. I no longer work in a pre-school environment and havent been since before Christmas, I am a lady of leisure ( can't work out how I ever managed to work still no spare time to myself but am enjoying it, much more relaxed and calm now

The pre-school apparently has got the local pre-school development worker to come in and do them.

Sorry I can't offer any adivce.

Gizzy

[Carolyn C]

We were very reluctant in our setting to do peer on peer observations, because with only 3 staff working at a time if one is being observed and another observing it only leaves the third to deal with everything else!! But we did do a few and kept them short.

We started "top-down" by myself and the other manager asking another member of staff to observe us, write down a narrative of our interaction with a child/children, analyse it and feed back to us. It was hilarious when I did mine as the first child to come to the activity was a child who is selectively mute (i.e. chooses not to speak when he is at preschool) so the narrative was a bit one-sided! Anyway that broke the ice a bit and then I asked that member of staff if I could observe her. I made sure that I said lots of positive things, and we discussed the things that she felt did not go quite as well as she had hoped (it was an observation at circle time), and actually it helped her to realise how good she is at her job (which she is!). I think it's just a question of taking the plunge.

We have not kept up with these observations, though, now we have completed stage 1 accreditation, partly because of the problem of only having 3 staff but also because we feel we do it informally anyway - we often say to another member of staff how well something went or talk about how we could do something better/differently next time. We just don't write it up.

Carolyn

[simcity]

Hi
I have spoken to the staff today, they are still not happy to do them, still objecting. I have also spoke to our early years advisor to see if there are any courses available but they don't know of any she told me to contact the PSLA but i have already done that and they have no courses.
I think i am just going to have to say that we do take the plunge, we have hopefully completed stage 1, just waiting for it to be collected and working on stage 2.
It must be lovely to be a lady of leisure Gizzy!!!!!!!!!

[Peggy]

Just to say, keep at it and good luck, the staff are most probably apprehensive because we all fear the unknown, will it affect my job?, will people judge me harshly? what if I'm having an off day? and maybe even a lack of confidence in others skills of observation, maybe. Just reasure them that observations are to be used to gain an insight on the positive, just like their observations on the children, and do they hear any children complaining about being observed - no, of course not, because the children benefit from observations, as will the staff. :D (phew, me and my long sentences)

Peggy

[simcity]

Peggy, on Mar 2 2006, 23:25, said:

Just to say, keep at it and good luck, the staff are most probably apprehensive because we all fear the unknown, will it affect my job?, will people judge me harshly? what if I'm having an off day? and maybe even a lack of confidence in others skills of observation, maybe. Just reasure them that observations are to be used to gain an insight on the positive, just like their observations on the children, and do they hear any children complaining about being observed - no, of course not, because the children benefit from observations, as will the staff. :D (phew, me and my long sentences)

Peggy

Thanks Peggy. It's great to be able to chat about these things and get positive feedback.

[pandamonium]

We do them and I have had a real struggle getting staff to do them!
We do not evaluate them ourselves, just record the facts seen then during staff review (each term) I go through them with the staff invovled and they evaluate themselves with me prompting if necessary - I think you did XYZ really well because.... or how could you have developed that.... etc

Another non-threatening thing to do is to use timesampling as you don't need to write anything that you might feel is judgemental. It might just be ticking where they are in the room every 10 mins and how many children.