Afternoon Session Nightmares!

[Guest]

I work in a FSU where we have a morning sesion then different children in the afternoon. Whilst the morning children are well behaved, we are finding that in the afternoon there are more children who ignore musical cues to come to the carpet and ignore the teachers. We have tried allsorts but even though we keep the same structure as the morning, we end up abandoning what we are doing to deal with behavioural/social issues. WE are all feeling disheartened and like we are policing the unit. Does anyone else have a similar problem or any tips??? Our nursery does take in children on their third birthday so we do have some very young children too

[womble]

We find that the children are definately more lively in the afternoon too. Many have done activities in the morning or are tired/overstimulated maybe by the afternoon. Do your children have freeflow accass to the outside area? Our more boisterous ones always want to go straight out and run around or go mad on the bikes. They seem to need this. By the end of the afternoon they have mostly all calmed down for group time.

[Guest]

We have the same problem and in many years of 2 session nursery it is the general rule I'm afraid.Children on the waiting list can express a choice of session and can be registered from birth.Parents prefer mornings.The mornings therefore fill up with stable families who have not moved about so have remained and risen up the waiting list.They have often had their children down since very young and have older siblings already in school. and got first picking of places.The afternoon tends to be children who have moved into the area or whose parents didn't put names down and got unfilled places.The afternoon parents are also less supportive, slower for paying snack money, more likely to be in rented accomodation and have other social and relationship problems. Attendance is poor and we have more late arrivers and left children.Mornings the majority of children have a book bag and return books every week for the library.Morning parents are more likely to complain, question what we are doing and have higher expectation of their childrens academic acheivement.It shows as early as the pre-admitance parents sessions and visits.I'm afraid this is reflected in the childrens behaviour.The parents expectations are different and therefore behaviour and attainment reflect this.

 

I know that all sounds very type casting and there are ALWAYS exceptions its just the general way it goes.I have had afternoon groups who have had other attributes that have compensated and made them the more agreeable session.

 

I think what I'm trying to say is it is not unusual to have difficult afternoon groups as there are loads of factors including the overstimulation tireness thing.Its not a reflection on your setting or what you are doing.The fact you realise this group need different approaches and that the PSHE imput is the priority need proves youe ARE doing things right.Keep going and if your try something (having first given it a decent attempt and time) and it doesn't work reassess and try something different.

 

Keep the Faith!!!

[Guest]

We have always had livelier afternoon sessions untill this year.we are also an early years unit When the new ones started at xmas we thought we were in for another livelier aft but they have settled in so great. They ARE SITTING AND PLAYING CALMER THAN THE AM CHILDREN.

The aft children are very young as well , a couple were only 3 at xmas and got a place as we are low on numbers.

Aer you very boy heavy as this can sometimes make things livlier.

We also use stamper pens for good sitting ,walking playing nicely etc we stamp there hands and they think its great.

iF YOUR FAST YOU CAN USUALLY CATCH EVERYONE THROUGH THE SESSION BEHAVING AND IT SEEMS TO HELP

[Guest]

Just wanted to say - You are not alone! We have been finding it very difficult too. I am totally drained after an afternoon session.

[Guest]

Us too. I would agree with alot of what Biccy has said. Our afternoon attendence is usually low but in turn that does help us to cope. We have had a very challenging child in the afternoon for 4 terms and that has had a big effect on the others. In September the afternoon group will again be very young so we will be making changes to the activities we provide, plus they will be in for 3 hours, but I'll not start on that

[Guest]

I know how you feel, our afternoon sessions are the sessions form hell... we spend all afternoon policing... we seem to have sooo many children with behaviour problems, in the one session we have 4 children who push and hit each other, we also have another child who gets upset every time she comes and throws up... once she has been sick a couple of times she is fine...by the time we go home we are shattered!!! we have tried everything changing the routine of the session, giving out rewards... certificates ... you name it we have tried it... roll on the summer when some of them will be going to school!!! I know it's an awful thing to say but i', soo tired.....

[Guest]

forgot to say one of the cildren with behaviour problems is very physical he is even hitting the staff, i have soo many bruises from the one child..... aahhhhh!!! we have contacted the behaviur team and we are doing a behaviour chart... but nothing is working...

[shazzam]

i thought that afternoon sessions would be lovely how mistaken was i!!

we only have 5 all going to school in sep

it was really hectic but starting to calm (i hope), because of the low numbers we are able to go off for walks etc also its a good time to get out some things that need lots of supervision, no sitting around for us i'm shattered by the end! i dont know how we would cope if we didn't have our outdoor space!

this week we had some planks/logs etc with hammers, nails, screws, screwdrivers,tapes, spirit level and paint they had a lovely time (only got a hammer across the knuckles once!) they ended up doing some lovely art work on the wood using some rollers think i might try selling it!

[Guest]

we're in the same boat too - we're a 99 place nursery/reception unit and our afternoons are manic too. the children need a lot of support with PSE, can't follow instructions etc etc - it's good to hear it's not just us! I'm thinking of altering my provision completely for the afternoon session ...

[Guest]

I'm thinking of altering my provision completely for the afternoon session ...

 

We have on occasions in the passed had to 2 sets of planning for morning/afternoon children because of the difference in behaviour or attainment.We have the problem this year with the cohort.What you get and the direction you go in has always been different betweeen the sessions under the same general framework but theres much less depth to what the afternoon children give back and the play is much less meaningful.I've played the same game with both sessions today and the difference was remarkable.Usually our sessions go up as classes into our 2 form entry school but this year it has been decided to shake up the 2 sessions to resolve some issues (hopefully)

[Guest Wolfie]

Yep, my experiences of morning vs afternoon children are the same as everyone else's.....

[Guest]

forgot to say one of the cildren with behaviour problems is very physical he is even hitting the staff, i have soo many bruises from the one child..... aahhhhh!!! we have contacted the behaviur team and we are doing a behaviour chart... but nothing is working...

hi, we have a child who was behaving this way and we ended up with help from early years and SENCO. we were unsure how we felt as it's quite a severe tactic but IT WORKS! if he goes to him you raise your voice and say HANDS DOWN, this normally shocks them. as soon as you see them doing something, anything good be yourself and praise the behaviour and why "I like it when you play gently with the dinosaurs" "good colouring" etc, if he does it again you say it again "HANDS DOWN< I DON'T LIKE IT WHEN YOU HURT ME" then again praise for good behaviour. You never remove them as it makes them feel isolated and they don't understand that they have behaved in an unacceptable way. you don't ask for a sorry as again it;s just words, you are looking for them to differentiate between the good/bad response to their actions. loads of praise when good, cuddles if that;s something you do (we do). I have to say it revolutionised a very troubled little boy. OOh and if you do use it it has to be consistant at home! good luck.

[Guest]

we changed all our afternoon sessions to 'preparing for school sessions' and take children from 3 1/2 they are easier than the morning sessions with the children having a greater input into what they want to explore and play with etc. the only problem in this way of working is that come september when we have lost nearly half of our children to school we find that we have more staff in some afternoons untill christmas than children! so it means each member of staff having a session a week cut for 4 months.

[Shiny]

As debatwrittle we loose a lot (40) to school this year. But we find it difficult to get staff for afternoons!!