Child-led Planning

[emmajess]

Hi, I wondered if anyone could help me. There's been a lot of stuff on here recently about ditching topics and going totally with the children's interest when planning, or doing a TASCy kind of thing where you start the topic but you totally take it where the children lead. I do this at the moment to some extent, but next year I'm going from being a jobshare to being full time again and would like to properly do all my planning this way.

 

My question really is, how exactly does it work in practice? Do you get ideas from the children on a monday, plan for the week monday night and set it all up on monday night? Or do you get ideas on a friday and plan and set up over the weekend? And do you have a 'finished' plan to hand in to your headteacher each week?

 

At the moment we plan Wednesdays and my jobshare partner starts setting up for the next week on Friday after school and I go in on Sunday afternoon while my children are having a nap to finish it off. But one of the things I'd hoped for next year, going full time and leaving my children all week (they'll be 2 and 4 by then) was that I could have completely school-free weekend daytimes, which I don't have now.

 

Thanks

 

Emma

[Guest]

Hi

 

I work in a pre-school setting, which is based out of a village hall and spend my whole life preparing at home, getting in two hours before we open to set up et ect. From my research to the new EYFS I feel that we need to have the resources easily to hand to set up role plays that may change due to childrens interest. I am planning around the childrens interests for the week, though the planning may well change whilst we observe the children in that week. There is no way you should have to go into work on a Sunday afternoon - we all need to adapt any new criteria so it fits in with us as well.

 

Have a good weekend - "don't work too hard" Dot

[Guest]

Hi, I wondered if anyone could help me. There's been a lot of stuff on here recently about ditching topics and going totally with the children's interest when planning, or doing a TASCy kind of thing where you start the topic but you totally take it where the children lead. I do this at the moment to some extent, but next year I'm going from being a jobshare to being full time again and would like to properly do all my planning this way.

 

My question really is, how exactly does it work in practice? Do you get ideas from the children on a monday, plan for the week monday night and set it all up on monday night? Or do you get ideas on a friday and plan and set up over the weekend? And do you have a 'finished' plan to hand in to your headteacher each week?

 

At the moment we plan Wednesdays and my jobshare partner starts setting up for the next week on Friday after school and I go in on Sunday afternoon while my children are having a nap to finish it off. But one of the things I'd hoped for next year, going full time and leaving my children all week (they'll be 2 and 4 by then) was that I could have completely school-free weekend daytimes, which I don't have now.

 

Thanks

 

Emma

[Guest]

Hi

We are a nursery and have just started to do our planning in this way. We have plans on a Monday to give to the head which will include activities that the children have been interested in on the friday. We also include a variety of resources that they may become interested in during the new week. Then our planning changes as the days go on. These changes are written on a paper copy of the plans. The head does not see these unless he wishes to. I find their interests change over the course of the week so I do my planning at home on a saturday for a couple of hours ready for the following monday. Example: I set up an ice cream shop outside last week the children found resources to add to it and it will now be a toy shop on monday. What it will be next week will depend on what they do with resources this week. If the children show no interest in an area during the day then this will be changed for something they are showing an interest in. Sounds complicated but it is working ok at the moment. It also makes you more observant about what the children are doing.

[Guest Rouse1]

Hi, I wondered if anyone could help me. There's been a lot of stuff on here recently about ditching topics and going totally with the children's interest when planning, or doing a TASCy kind of thing where you start the topic but you totally take it where the children lead. I do this at the moment to some extent, but next year I'm going from being a jobshare to being full time again and would like to properly do all my planning this way.

 

My question really is, how exactly does it work in practice? Do you get ideas from the children on a monday, plan for the week monday night and set it all up on monday night? Or do you get ideas on a friday and plan and set up over the weekend? And do you have a 'finished' plan to hand in to your headteacher each week?

 

At the moment we plan Wednesdays and my jobshare partner starts setting up for the next week on Friday after school and I go in on Sunday afternoon while my children are having a nap to finish it off. But one of the things I'd hoped for next year, going full time and leaving my children all week (they'll be 2 and 4 by then) was that I could have completely school-free weekend daytimes, which I don't have now.

 

Thanks

 

Emma

[Guest Rouse1]

hi

we are just in the process of doing intrest lead planning i found the eyfs - smaples so useful but i have just read a book-which i got from amazon and may have been recommended by someone form fsf. its called early years foundation stage its by helen someone sorry day off and at home book at work but if your intrested il send details....

in the book its says to take the days obs of each child the (ad hoc ones) and add to your planning just before your daily session ends........

 

were going to use this methord (calling it cvontinuous planning) and form the list we make of the children intrests (every 4-6 wks depending on age) info gathered from parents and our obs... we can also make a spider of activities and extentions from that as some of the children will have and do have similar intrests......we trialed it for a couple of weeks and it does seem to work so far,

 

not sure if thats any help or sounds a bit mixed up....the book is excellent i would recommend it.

soryy for spelling errors writing this on tea break form the ironing

paula

[Guest Wolfie]

I'd be very interested in the details of that book when you've got them Paula.

[Sue R]

Know exactly what you're saying lisa! Sounds like us, but without the plans to the head!! (DN)

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

I have just put a similar approach in my reception class. We do weekly large group time planning sessions and daily small group planning time. The children really enjoy it and feel that they are taking more ownership of their learning . My main area of concern is in relation to making sure I have covered all areas of the curriculum and all of the developmental matters objectives.

 

My head likes a weekly plan but to be honest does not really understand it any way. I would love the book detail too. I feel with some work and ironing out the small details this approach could really work for most learners.

[Guest]

Hi

Not sure if this thread is still running but it is something I am really interested in. We have been exploring child led planning and ave talked alot about it in our LA. The recent planning workshops talked about planning using talking and thinking books and mind mapping, the LA has been much influened by the work of Claire Warden from Mindstretchers, her websire is fab and you can buy the book on talking and thinking there. It is fascinating to see how experiences and resources can be adapted to support the children in the next step of their learning. This kind of approach really supports sustained shared thinking and you can really experience that development of the children's thinking by exploring things that are of interest to them. It really embraces the idea of starting with the child.

Hope this helps

[Guest Wolfie]

Thanks for that suggested reading - I'm going to have a look now! And welcome to the forum!

[Guest]

sounds really interesting

can you give the web address? I searched for it but sooooo

many different sites came up.

thank you x

[Guest]

http://www.mindstretchers.co.uk/

[Cait]

Hi, what we do is still have a basic topic in the background, a couple of activities a week, which we use for assesing areas which don't tend to get picked up on in general child-led activities - this is the stuff we plan for, with the differentiation and the aims we want to observe etc. The rest of the continuous provision and free play is child led. Children find their own activities and we use mosaic tools to quantify the learning we are observing. They lead their own learning and use the adults as resources in their play as 'more knowledgeable others' and sometimes simply as someone who can get something out for them! Occasionally the children suggest an activity which we can see can be utilised as a planned experience, and we do the usual planning for this, but more normally we are assessing experiential play.

Hope this helps

Cait

 

 

Hi, I wondered if anyone could help me. There's been a lot of stuff on here recently about ditching topics and going totally with the children's interest when planning, or doing a TASCy kind of thing where you start the topic but you totally take it where the children lead. I do this at the moment to some extent, but next year I'm going from being a jobshare to being full time again and would like to properly do all my planning this way.

 

My question really is, how exactly does it work in practice? Do you get ideas from the children on a monday, plan for the week monday night and set it all up on monday night? Or do you get ideas on a friday and plan and set up over the weekend? And do you have a 'finished' plan to hand in to your headteacher each week?

 

At the moment we plan Wednesdays and my jobshare partner starts setting up for the next week on Friday after school and I go in on Sunday afternoon while my children are having a nap to finish it off. But one of the things I'd hoped for next year, going full time and leaving my children all week (they'll be 2 and 4 by then) was that I could have completely school-free weekend daytimes, which I don't have now.

 

Thanks

 

Emma

[emmajess]

Children find their own activities and we use mosaic tools to quantify the learning we are observing.

 

What are mosaic tools?

[Guest]

i was just going to ask the same thing!

[Guest]

Hi

We have been recommended 2 books focus on planning -Lewisham and a place to learn also Lewisham. loads of people in our county using these. You can just lift them from the book.

Helen Cumbria