End Of Year Info From Nurseries

[Guest]

I think this question has been asked before but I cant find the answer.

How much info do reception teachers collect from nurseries etc and in what format? I have been told that I should give the nurseries points 1-3 on the profile to assess their children against and that is all. Is this what everyone else is doing?

 

Thanks, as always, for your help.

 

R

[Guest Wolfie]

Hi Rosemary!

 

My advice would be to contact the reception teachers at the schools to which your children will be transferring and arrange a meeting to discuss what sort of information they require and in what format.....all schools have different views and ways of working. Our Centre is doing quite a lot of work on transitions at the moment and we have found it extremely useful to get everyone around the table and discuss issues, including transfer of information and paperwork. this is an area where lack of communciation between the two settings can lead to misunderstandings and a certain amount of ill-feeling - practitioners from the nursery often feel that their hard work and record keeping is ignored by reception teachers and this problem needs to be tackled. In our case, teachers have said that they feel one to one discussions with the nursery staff, rather than reams of paperwork, are far more effective - concentrating on the areas of PSE and CLL and also sharing information about any support the family is receiving and any special interests or needs that the child may have.

 

I think that building up a good relationship with the schools should be your first step, hopefully everything else should follow smoothly.

[Guest]

In my area. Kent, the local early years dept along with schools devised a record of transfer document, an example is in the resource library, HERE -4th document from bottom of page

 

All preschool settings re encouraged to use this format although it is not mandatory. However, for 2009, I would look at what the EYFS requires preschools to do regards transitions, as some of the EYFS is mandatory, just not sure if transition records are. ( haven't got fully familiar with EYFS yet).

 

Also why not have a word with other reception teachers in your area. I understand that reception teachers are required to have a type of 'baseline' assessment ( although not in any mandatory format), to enable evidence of progress for Inspections. I would think if your EY dept & schools could formulate an agreed format that everyone used this would make life more easier in terms of interpretating information, and training purposes for those accumulating the information for writing them.

 

Peggy

[Inge]

In our area the LEA produce a transfer document which is the first 3 profile points in each area and we then have training etc on how to complete the forms as well as given examples of what to look for to cover these points in a booklet form for all to keep and use each year.

 

Each year it is assessed with the reception teachers and feedback as to how it can be improved and what they find difficult or confusing or want more of is added or changed and then passed onto us in the settings.

 

In this way all schools get the same info on the same forms and all pre-schools or nurseries don't have the problem of finding own format , as children often fed into different schools it makes the whole process better and easier for all.

 

when completed we have to show it to parents and the form also has space for parents to add their comments and are actively encouraged to do so as well as getting them to sign to give the setting permission to pass on the information to the schools.

 

Inge

[Inge]

Forgot to say we have to do this form...they have set it as a condition of funding in our area.

 

Inge

[mundia]

Wolfie I am interested in what you are doing re transitions, do you find your children attend one or just few schools? WE have the problem that our children go onto at least 14 different schools and getting together with that many teachers would be nigh on impossible. On the other hand when I was a reception teacher I would often have children coming from as many as 12 different settings and there was no way in this world I could be given the release time to go and visit them all, much as I would have liked to.

 

I will be working on transition in the summer term but I have to say I don't yet have a manageable solution to this problem...from anyones point of view..

[Inge]

Our teachers are given time to visit every setting a child will be coming from, and can claim some of the cost of cover staff back, often have one visit with just one chilkd in the setting going to them..

 

That said our local school where majority go has NEVER visited despite being on the same church grounds!! and I know they are given the cover costs!!

 

And that is in addition to the link programme for children with additional needs which is done over 2 terms and regualr visits from teacher and us with child to school, and also in September for us to go into school - all hours are paid, including some for tyhe extra paperwork required.

 

Inge

[Guest Wolfie]

Mundia, we have two MAIN schools that the children move into and the pilot work we are doing is just with those two at the moment. There are four or five others that we need to work with but we've decided to start small and see what works there first! I agree, it's a huge task to get everyone to the meetings, even when it's only two schools - I have to do a lot of phoning, distributing minutes and chasing people! We've decided to put on some sessions for parents at the Centre during the summer term, in partnership with the two schools and so far the planning is going OK and we have got the staff from both schools on board and enthusiastic. I got the idea from an article in EYE - I think it was October or November 07 - about a Centre in Gateshead who did something similar; I ended up ringing the author of the article and she was really helpful.