Guest Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Well it's probably a year since our group discussed 'ditching topics', and it never happened. We couldn't let go of 'topic based security' (me included). Well, we're about to take the plunge - starting today!! We haven't let go entirely - but have decided to turn our planning completely on it's head. We are trialling child led planning this term, ready for the EYFS in Sept. We do like structure and I think that's what's holding us back - almost a sense of 'losing direction'. BUT . . . a huge positive - at our preparation meeting yesterday all staff are on board for a change, and we have all contributed to how we are going to implement it - infact we are having another meeting tonight (which all were keen for) to 'plan' by individual / group interests. It's almost 'planning on the hoof' - which we do in practice - but recording it will be a challenge for us. Will keep you posted - feel quite excited as this is the first time the 'pieces of the planning puzzle' all seem to fit to make the whole picture- hope the staff all feel the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Wow! Thanks for the replies guys. Makes me feel more confident to defend my decision. I teach recepion (4-5s) but am responsible for the pre -school also (they're delighted to bin the topics. they are keen to try to meet the needs of the children (2-4 years). Am lucky to have such willing people. God knows what my planning will look like (prob long term and short) Don't want to waste time! Not sure on that front yet... Anyway thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Remember that your planning should be a working document which is useful to you, rather than some perfect document to hand over to OFSTED as evidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted April 9, 2008 Share Posted April 9, 2008 Our planning is full of crossing outs and scribble but as Carol said OFSTED saw this as a sign of a working document and were "impressed". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarasMum Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Hi I would like to reply to ditching themes, this is my first post as a new member, so here goes I have been largely responsible for planning for some time now, and we have not had a main theme for a very long time. We plan activities loosely around holidays and festivals, and the rest of the time we just tend to go with the childrens interests. The weather and the time of the year probably being the major contributor. If the weather is good for example we want to spend as much time outside as possible and so move as many as our activities that we can outdoors. The childrens comments regularly spark good ideas, and we recently went on a providers meeting that took us back to basics and reminded us how good basic provision can be. We also find taking the children right out of the setting can change the children completely and you can see them becomming quite animated about interests, which we had not observed before. So to be perfectly honest I would say that themes in our experience can be a hindrance and not a help, being too restrictive. Our planning is also full of crossings out and scribble and as we have not been Ofsted'd for a couple of years I am really pleased to see that they are "impressed" by this :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Hi and welcome to the forum and thanks for your interesting first post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wolfie Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Welcome to the forum, Tarasmum and thank you for your first post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarasMum Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Thanks for your kind welcomes, I can see this is going to become addictive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Hi Tarasmum and welcome. Thank you for your first post, dont get too addicted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Welcome Tarasmum!! Agree with you completely with regards the planning only at the moment I am the only one who does the crossing out and evaluating and want to get all the staff involved in this part of the planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TarasMum Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 As for getting the staff involved, I hand the planning sheet to different members of staff at the end of the week and get them to reflect on somthing they did during the week, I ask them to comment on the activity, I dont mind what they write so long as it is honest. I have had some interesting comments and now find that they enjoy the chance to put their views across. Its good to get a cross section of views and find out how the individual staff feel. Welcome Tarasmum!! Agree with you completely with regards the planning only at the moment I am the only one who does the crossing out and evaluating and want to get all the staff involved in this part of the planning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shiny Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Hi Tarasmum and welcome from me too!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 We too are in 'limbo' between following our long term planning which is festival/season/topic based and responding to children's interests. My gut feeling is that we should be responding more to the children's interest/observed schemas, however I worry about the haphazard way our 'paperwork' appears. We create a weekly plan on Friday (quiet day) for the following week following a vague 'topic' and/or a child's observed interest. This means we have not prepared 'acivity plans' for the adult focused activities or had the opportunity to gather appropriate resources together. Activity plans are then 'written up' afterwards, which to me seems to make them just a paper exercise and a waste of time. Can someone please reassure me that it is good enough/appropriate (or not) to 1. plan at such a short notice. 2. write a brief outline of adult focussed activities on our weekly plan to show what is intended and which children particulary aimed at (i.e. ditch adult focussed plan writing?) 3. record how children responded to activity as an evaluation of the activity. 4. Plan next steps for individual children based on responses to activities observed interests. 5. ditch said weekly plan to respond to observed interests of children, and to record this just by writing over our weekly plan or adding or cross referencing to observations? We are spending a lot of time either worrying about writing lengthy lesson/activity plans after the event (owners even want them typed up on computer!). Does all this take us back to learning walls - which are spontaneous and written all over as it happens, as a worthwhile working document which parents can see and even add to which can later be photographed as evidence. I haven't used working walls (I'm in private day nursery) but love the concept and have read other posts with interest. Heeeellllp. Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreamay Posted April 11, 2008 Share Posted April 11, 2008 we too have started planning in this way. We had a week of observing, no topics, we sent a letter out to parents inviting them to share info about their child and then friday with all the info we have gathered we plan for the next week. I dont know how many children you are responsible for but we have 60 so each key worker chooses a child each week. we have a learning journey wall of which the children names are placed on a 'learning journey sheet' and staff and parents go to the wall to add to any info obs that week with post it notes. at the end of the week they are taken down and used to inform next weeks planning. The following week other children will go up, letters will go out, some time children will be revsited cos of absence or they may only attend 2 sessions. Meanwhile the activities we have planned for the children prev will give staff opp to do some good informative obs because children are engaged in what they want to do. so if fire fighters role play planned for a child who doesnt visit the writing table or craft area she will be able to involve writing for purpose and numbers, making a fire engine etc within that expereince cos the child will be more involved. for eg. we may follw a theme of a childs interest or we may have a child who is struggling with pencil control so we will have lots of physical movement games perhaps scarfs in the hall etc and lots of fine motor skills practice etc a parent may have told us a child is going into hosp so we will have lots of role play etc On the childs 'learning journey' sheet the post it notes will be written up the things we have put in place added and anything learnt thru obs and added to their dev profiles with phot evidence at the end of the term. only early days and lots to get used to but i have noticed all staff are having to get involved with their key children and not leaving it to a few of us. andrea (ps. hope it makes sense) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharonash Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 I have a staff meeting about planning today so you replies and examples would be so very helpful! I get the general idea that people arent using medium term plans and topics, but [how and where do you show/record what you are doing? At the moment we divide the children into weeks and observe 6 children each week (takes us ages to get back round to them- what happens with them til we get back around to them- silly question?) we then plan for the 6 children the following week we are struggling how to show this on paper. All staff observe these 6 children - should it be just their keyworker planning for their own children Each day I seem to get more muddled! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 hello and welcome Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 My first reply - so glad to of found "Foundation Stage Forum" - have spent the last few weeks looking for info re topics !! It has been really wonderful to see lots of different views and to realise that I am on the right track in "ditching" them. Dot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Welcome to the Forum, Dot! Good to have your own thoughts and beliefs confirmed isn't it - even if by strangers! Hopefully we won't be strangers for long (although some of us are stranger than others!) Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 Hi and welcome to the forum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wolfie Posted April 16, 2008 Share Posted April 16, 2008 A warm welcome from me too, dot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Can I just check that I am doing the right thing as regards to topics???? At the start of term my mtp planning reflects the learning and developmental objectives that I want to cover for the following weeks based on previous terms assessments and observations. We listen to children and follow their ideas and interests. For the first few weeks we plan lots of Personal social based activities and observe their interests, from which we then plan a mini topic. An example of this was after reading ' going on a bear hunt' at the end of session, the children became really keen to act the story outside, so we made bincoulars and hid real teddies outside ( fab for positional language). This then evolved and children made their own small world tray, making a clay forest and a paper mache cave etc etc. Obviously there was some adult direction as there were specific areas of learning and development I wanted to teach but it was done through a mini topic related to their interests. Last term several ch loved reading Owl Babies, one child absolutely loves this and still has probs seperating from mum, we have some new starters in jan so am thinking of starting with this text to help settle new children in. We also have some children who attend afternoon nursery who love babies and dolls and whose mums are expecting!!! I also want to do some work on weighing and measuring so it fits in nicely, but it will be loosely planned, in the sense that if they come back to school full of princesses and castles I will go with that instead!! In my mind my adult interests at the moment, ( because of all the snow!) is to do lots of work on antartica, snow, melting and freezing etc etc, but I am holding back as realise that these are my interests. Am guessing if still lots of snow when kids come back, thats where there interests will lie, but I guess you never know!! So my planning sheet have lots of ideas based on possible interests and more importantly learning and development matters, gaps in learning observed last term etc. I do think this type of planning responds really quickly to children's interests and children are responsible for their own learning. It also demands heavily on resources and the ability to respond to their interests at their pace. However, I strongly believe that when you are excited, you learn more! Anyway, can anyone give me feedback as to whether my planning is what ' ditching topics,' is referring to or whether I have totally missed the point?? cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Well that's what we're doing! It's great when their interests are fully engaged - they - and we!! learn so much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 (edited) CAn I also get some more advice regarding focused activities which i actually have renamed to adult directed learning. I do group time input at the beginning of nursery, we spilt into 2 carpet groups for register, meet and greet and teaching inputs. These are mixed ability, except for our maths groups which allows us to target specific learning. The children then go into free flow or child initiated learning with staff moving around the setting ( indoors and outdoors) There are 3 members of staff, one part time helper and 30 children am and pm. I enhance areas of my classroom which can change weekly, fortnightly, half termly, etc etc dependent on needs of children. Adults move freely around the areas of learning. occasionally adults are planned to be in an area, e.g. in the Tech area if teaching scissor and fastening skills, in the role-play area pretending to be a pirate etc etc. As it stands at the moment I do not have a tick list where I tick off that i have seen every child as i dont feel this is appropriate and like adults to move around all areas of the classroom. Staff are fully involved in the planning process and so understand the possible learning outcomes for each area- these are then displayed on A3 enhancement sheets - see attached file. These are a really supportive tool for writing observations. I have read lots of responses from people who do daily focused activities and would love some clarity as to 'best practice.' Should i be planning for smaller teaching groups throughout the session, should this be every day etc etc. At moment my teaching is at the start of nursery, stories, rhymes, phase 1 and 2 phonics groups is at the end of the session. I have specific learning and dev i want to teach ( on my mtp) based on previous term, assessments and obs made and use these to inform my planning this term and set up my classroom with enhanced provision. I guess the question is should I be planning for more adult directed learning during the session??? I know there isnt one answer to this question, as each setting seems to be doing it in a slightly different way. The one thing I dont want is lots of adults teaching specific groups and noone interacting, observing and teaching in areas of learning. But I do want to target specific needs e.g. colour recognition/ number recognition/counting/fastening coats and zips. So I am planning on having a target group for day/week where a member of staff targets a specific group of children. Can I have some suggestions for best practice please!!!!!!!!Argh!!!!!!! thanks sp1_small_construction__2_.doc Edited January 10, 2010 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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