15 replies to this topic

[olly500]

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I'd be really interested to hear how people are using birth to three matters to plan for babies. I work with babies aged 3 - 12 months and although we follow the birth to three matters publication my planning isn't linked directly to the headings given in it eg a healthy child etc. Currently we work on a 4 week toy rotation so that the toys are varied each day, a 6 week theme such as "myself" and we incorporate any holidays/festivals into this eg. Chinese New Year etc. The theme invoves planned activities linked to the topic - art, craft, songs, stories and displays both as a group and with key workers.

A big part of the day is spent nappy changing and feeding but in the mornings we run key worker activities, circle time with singing/story and then in the afternoon (after sleeps) we have a group messy play activity such as pasta play. We have an Ofsted inspection coming up and although people keep telling me they will be more interested in cleaning rota's/fridge temperatures etc I want to make sure the planning side is ok. We are getting some training from EY's on birth to three matters later in the year but I'd be really interested to hear how other people are planning for babies.

Gill

[Susan]

Hi Olly,
Welcome in!
I can't help you I'm afraid as this is not part of my experience, but your post title intrigued me so perhaps someone else will look in.
Its unusually quiet at the moment, think people must have other things to do, but don't give up on a response.

Susan

[Susan]

Just pushing this one onto the front page as I want to know the answer too and the title is so intriguing!!

Susan

[olly500]

You and me both Susan - It's always interesting to hear how other people do things as well. I have the early years department coming in on Wednesday to discuss it with me so I'll let you know what they say about my current planning and any ideas they suggest. We have the O people in soon so I want to make sure everything is ok!!!

Gill

[Linda McDowell]

It's quite strange really Gill but there seem to be very few people from private day nurseries who post on the site or anybody who works with babies. Most people seem to be from nurseries, schools and pre-schools-which is a shame when you consider how many settings there are out there that work with under 3's. I personally don't really work with very young children as we take them from 2 years 9 months and so adapt what we do for the older children to suit or plan something slightly different.
Perhaps you might get somebody on here soon now that the Christmas madness is over. I hope so!
Linda

[Steve]

Hi Gill -
Welcome in - thanks for bumping the post Susan, I missed it in all the new year cerfuffle!

And I can't really help anyway, except by giving Sue Zubair a nudge.

Let's see if we can drag her away from her studies...

[sue zubair]

Hi Olly
BTTM still seems to be a bit of an enigma with regards to planning.
The EYDCP in Birmingham presented some training recently around the 4 components, and basically advised there there was no planning structure needed, but to 'go with the flow'.
This was questioned with regards to expectations of Ofsted and the advice given was that evidence should be gathered via photos etc (which we already do) to show the range of learning activities provided.
However I am still a little nervous about the lack of planning and so are the two staff working within the baby room and therefore they are devising a simple planning format allay our Ofsted fears.
I'd be happy to share this with you when I return to work next week.
Are you based in a private setting or local authority?
I'd be really interested to read what your Eydcp come up with - so keep posting!

[olly500]

Hi Sue,
I'd be really interested to see your planning if you get a chance once your back at work - it's always good to see how other people do things and perhaps spot something you've missed. I work in a Private day nursery and at the moment I have 24 babies in on our busiest day (we have 4 seperate rooms for the different age groups.) Anyway I'll let you know what Eydcp say etc.

[olly500]

Well I've had EYDCP in this week and it all went well and they said my planning was fine. I should just continue to dip in and out of birth to three matters with planning rather than use it as a bible. They said to continue promoting the partnerships with parents the way we do as O are very keen on that and we'll be fine. One thing that they suggested was a wall display for parents to highlight the way we use BT3M's and include photo's etc. If anyone has ever done this before I'd be interested to know how they went about it and would welcome any ideas!

Gill

[Susan]

glad all was well.

Susan

[Alison]

Hi Gill

my preschool takes children from 2 years up and I have asked my teacher mentor and the college tutors about the lack of planning for under threes, everything I pick up seems to be foundation stage onwards I have a copy of BT3M's and although there are lots of interesting points it still seems a little vague as to what is expected from the practitioners in comparision to specific goals set out in the foundation stage document.

we keep a record for each child from the age of three as part of the NEG working towards the ELG's, but theres nothing for the younger children, I really would like something other than a diary for the younger children so that from the day they start to the day they leave they have a record of achievements

I dont want to appear to be pushing them to learn and achieve goals but at the same time it feels like until the child is three they dont achieve anything worth recording which is far from true.

Linda mentioned that it is strange that the majority of people who contribute on this site are preschools and nursery staff I think that is mainly because the site is titled "Foundation-stage" which automatically some people will think this site is aimed at people who work in the foundation stage and they dont think it applies to any person working with children or parents maybe something needs to be said on the front page???

I feel like we have a two tier group the NEG children and the under 3's and id like the planing and assessment to start earlier without pushing the 2 year olds toward the ELG's they need their own goals

[Linda McDowell]

You have a good point there Alison about the title of the forum-I had not thought of it that way. I assumed that, as private day nurseries provide the foundation stage as well that more people would log in and post-obviously not! The same is applying to childminders as there has not been a post in there since October. Perhaps the title when found on a search engine is off putting so they don't even visit. I don't think it should be changed necessarily but perhaps Steve could put something on the front page as you mentioned to encourage more people looking after babies and toddlers to contribute.
Linda

[Steve]

Hi all -
Well done Gill - you're obviously doing things along the right lines - out of instinct probably since it can't be through available guidance material! :D

Alison you've got a good point (thanks for bringing it to my attention Linda!), we certainly do concentrate on the Foundation Stage at the expense of the 'pre-3s'. This is for at least one very good reason: when Helen and I started the forum up we didn't know very much about the Birth to Three Matters stage, and since there weren't any other members to call on for advice we didn't have very much to say on the subject. (Plus, as you've all observed, there really is very little formal structure to the Birth to Three Matters 'curriculum').

But I'm very happy to encourage more emphasis here now that there are enough members who have an involvement and expertise in the subject. Sue Zubair asked me to set up the BTTM forum area to kick that off - what would be very good is for someone to write a little piece to encourage debate. Any takers? :D

One final point - we do have quite a large number of Registered Childminders as members - probably well in excess of fifty. They don't tend to post very much however. So let's see if we can encourage RCMs to participate more actively - they must have a lot to say on this subject...

[mandyareeves]

hi all,
Well i'm a Registered Childminder and i'm busy posting and making myself known to you all.
I am hoping to find lots of info on the planning side of things so i'm really pleased that i found this site and i've posted a link for all the other members of ukchildminders so you'll probab;y be inundated with us now. Still we are a very friendly bunch.
Look forward to chatting and getting to know you all.

[Puddleducks]

ANother childminder here........

See we are here, but many of the situations on the net are not relevant to our distnact groups - we work with small groups of children in a wide age range.... we may only have 2 under 1's a max of 3 under 5's and then 3 more between 5 and 8 years and then the over 8's all here at the same time......

And quite often planning depends on setting up toys ad situations, we work from a home enviroment and use the wider community a great deal - local groups, play facilities etc... and which children are present.

Like Mandy, I would say many of us are active on the net, when we can but often in childminder specific groups such as ukchildminders. accredited childminders etc on yahoo where we can share ideas with people who understand our unique situation........

Our planning for under 1's involve socialiseing them with other children, and more......... in mixed age settings, and a family enviroment!