Fsu Organisation

[Guest]

Just wondering whether others who are working in FSU's alter their routine in summer term to 'prepare' R children for transition to Y1?

 

Or if not how do your routines work to ensure R are covering all the elements of Lit and num?

 

Have read previous posts - particularly Marion's info about their routine - Marion how do you ensure all the children complete a certain number of focus activities each day - do you call the children to the focus in set groups or are they able to flow to them when they choose? Am i right in understanding that in a morning, for example, all the children would complete the relevant lit or num activity so therefore a different activity would be planned the following day?

[Guest budgie1]

Just wondering whether others who are working in FSU's alter their routine in summer term to 'prepare' R children for transition to Y1?

 

Or if not how do your routines work to ensure R are covering all the elements of Lit and num?

 

Have read previous posts - particularly Marion's info about their routine - Marion how do you ensure all the children complete a certain number of focus activities each day - do you call the children to the focus in set groups or are they able to flow to them when they choose? Am i right in understanding that in a morning, for example, all the children would complete the relevant lit or num activity so therefore a different activity would be planned the following day?

Hi There, this is my first post so forgive me if Ive made any mistakes.

I work in a Reception class and last year we introduced a daily literacy session in the summer termand then added a daily numeracy session after May half term. It worked well last year and really prepared the children for their (rather formal) year 1. We split our class of 30 into 4 ability groups. I then planned 4 literacy activities that all children would access over the week (differenciated) As there are times in the day when we have 3 adults I used this time to work. Each of the 3 adults would teach the same activity over 4 days but with a different group. The activities would be differenciated so for example i might be identifying and naming letters and practising sounds on Monday with blue group, identifying sounds and putting them together to build simple cvc words with green group on Tuesday, Repeating the activity with yellow group on Wednesday and encouraging red group to put simple words into sentences and have a go at writing them with on Thursday.

Throughout the week i would try to make sure that one aduly focused on a writing activity ( this might include pre writing tasks for the less able group) one adult on a sound activity, and one on a reading/ speaking/role play activity.

As we have 4 groups and 3 adults one group would be "working independently" At first we put huge emphasis on this group encouraging them to sit at the table and complete a task without any adult help or supervision. At the end of the session much praise would be given to children in this group who have worked independently and one will be chosen to receive an "independent worker certificate". This gives the class a chance to learn how to get on without a teacher having to be with them and really helped them settle in year 1 ( where they only have 1 adult) Obviously , as they are working independently what you get them to do is very limited, but we believe the emphasis is on the independence rather than the activity. Sometimes they do a simple dot to dot or a colouring sheet etc.

The literacy and nemeracy activites are kept short ( about 15 minutes at the start) but we do increase throughout the term depending on the abilities of the children. Last year they ended up being about 30 minutes but I dont think we will get that far with this years class. Sorry if this is long and waffly and I hope it makes sense. (am recovering from bronchitus and a bit wooly headed at the moment!)

[Guest]

Thanks Budgie1. We are lucky to have a Y1 that has taken account of Foundation stage and transition issues but the move still needs careful thought.

[Marion]

We don't make any changes in reception routine in the summer term and don't have any problems with transition to year 1.

The way we work is all children will complete a literacy focused activity and one other focused activity in the morning and a numeracy and one other focused activity in the afternoon. If they are not working with an adult they are free to chose what they do either adult or child initiated. I do not have set groups except for guided reading. Children are called individually to work with an adult as there is a free space available. If a child is engrossed in meaningful activities they are allowed to continue until they are finished before being asked to work with an adult.

[Guest]

Thanks Marion. That is similar to how we work (in that I always maintain children shouldn't be disturbed from an activity they are involved in just to come to an adult's activity) and I have also worked hard to change approach to focus activities so that children can choose to stay as long as they want (or repeat the activity if they wish) not just come and they go again when told by adult. Think it is this that makes it more difficult to 'get through' all the children at an activity in one session - most of our focus run for more than one day to ensure all children complete it or a R lit/num activity would run all day.

Although we are well staffed the unit covers a large area so often have to 'hunt around' for the children who need to complete your activity.

All this has just made us question whether our R children are getting enough focus input each day.

[Marion]

I ask the child who has completed the activity to tell the next child to come and "help" me saves me hunting as we operate free flow access to the outdoors. It also helps develop the children's communication skills and ability to follow instructions.

[ChrisAR]

Well, IMO many Year 1 classes need to review how they set up their curriculum in the Autumn Term not R having to change their curriculum in the Summer Term.

 

Anybody with a half-decent grasp of child development will recognise that teaching children 'formally' at the age of 5, (and 6), is inappropriate and counter productive, especially for boys.

 

Do what is best for young children and remember that all areas of learning and development should have equal weight.

Edited May 2, 2009 by ChrisAR

[Guest]

We are not making any changes other than level of work is obviously higher than previously. We used to introduce Literacy/Numeracy hour but that stopped happening a few years back. What is actually going to happen this year is that the year 1 teachers are going to spend some time in year R to see how we organise/run things so that when the children start in year 1 things can continue in pretty much the same way and then gradually become more formal during the year. Basically our head is happy with things in year R and year 2 and we are looking at how to get them from one stage to the other so year 1 is going to be a major transition year but it will be gradual - when the children are ready. Some will be ready very early on, other not until the summer term but we shall see what happens.