Target Observations/next Steps

[sharonash]

By this I mean

 

We do adhoc obs and then link to learning- correct? also

We target observe a group of children on a week 1 observe and week 2 plan basis again link to learning- correct how is this then shown?

 

On both the above we havent chosen anything in particular to observe- some early yrs advisors are saying our target obs should be linked to our focus activities and some say they should adhic- im now confused (it doesnt take much at the mo!)

 

OK so weve observed and noticed billy doesnt play in the paint but loves cars - can you tell me how you show this on planning,? I would notmally put (copied a bit from our planning sheet)

 

Workshop area mon tues wed thur fri

creative area paint and cars

(billy)

 

is this sufficient I dont think so as it doesnt really tell us anything only what we might provide paint and cars for billy when hes in on wed or am i looking into this too deep. This is also repeated for all the target children from the previous week we land up with possibly 10 different activities going in? Thats without focus activities, group time etc

 

When does what we are planning for billy over the term under the 6 areas come into it do you record this on a plant?- how does this feed into planning?

 

Have i completely lost the plot?????? Wheres my wine!!!

[Guest]

Hi - need wine as well this evening - in the FS we were only taking our focused activities from particular aspects - now in the new eyfs that seems to have gone, and indeed should we be "ticking off" from development matters ?

 

I wonder if each child has a "learning journey" in each area of learning over the half term, that would show where the children are - "focused activities" I was led to believe is our learning concept which is above our continuous plan. At the moment, we are linking our "focused activity" to a particular theme of play for a particular group.

 

On the EYFS cd it states in one of their forms "has learning taken place for focus group and others" - if a new concept has been introduced how can you say the learning has taken place either - I am very confused - and I may well need a hot bath to go along with a glass of wine.

 

Just wish training had been available prior to end of June when mine kicks in, Dot

[Shiny]

Just wish training had been available prior to end of June when mine kicks in, Dot

We have had our training and I am still confused!!!!!!!!

[surfer]

If you look at the downloadable examples of planning form the EYFS disk/website you will see some examples of how some settings have recorded this.

 

http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/eyfs/reso...3-4yearolds.pdf

 

You can find this one and another example for 3-4 year olds and one for 2 year olds in the resources section.

[Guest]

Hi Surfer - thanks for the link, though I have looked at this so many times with 43 children over a week all attending for even just 1 session - still finding it hard to ensure all childrens next steps are being met.

 

Anyway, enjoyoed a couple of glasses of wine this evening, half term nexgt week - maybe my remaining brain cells which i feel have gone down to my little toes, may well come back to life in a a weeks times !!!!

[mundia]

Hi there Sharonash and dot. I think you need to remember that just like the children, we are all also on a learning journey. We are all at different points n that journey and what matters is how we walk along that path rather than stand still and ignore it.

Step back for a minute and reflect on where you are at (and the rest of your staff). If you have never done learning journeys before, this will be new to you and will take time to get used to. The same goes for if you don't really do or use observations, this will be a big change for you. Dont expect to get everything right straight away, focus on small steps, be prepared to try things out and come back and review them if they become unmanageable.

 

Its important to remember that with the EYFS good practice remains good practice. I see many practitioners quite naturally following children's interests without really realising they are doing it. How often do we say, this child and that child really like to..... and so we provide for that. Where we get into a muddle is recording that.

 

Unless you are lucky enough to have just a couple of children, you cant possibly plan for every child's interest in every session and record it. You'd never do anything else but write. So if you have noticed (through observation) that Billy loves the cars but doesn't really play with anyhting else, then you might incorporate some paint into the car play (eg making car tracks in the paint etc). You can then indicate this on your plan as you describe. You are then showing that you have taken into consideration his interests whilst trying to encourage him to widen his experiences. You cannot possibly say what Billy will learn from this because you don't know.. perhaps Billy wont even play there tomorrow, and because its a freely chosen activity, you cant put a leaning objective on that. But you can observe to see what Billy does with the paint which will tell you soemthing about him that you didn't know. Add to that the fact that other children will also benefit from that experience so that planning for child's interests if often more than one child, and you start to see that it doesn't mean a separate activity for every child every day.

 

In terms of the focus v incidental observations, I always do both. Planned observations can be from a focus activity but can also be because you really want to get to know a particular child and a good example here is the child that appears to wander around doing not a lot. A longer observation tells you what they are really up to.

 

I don't know if that helps at all?

[Guest]

Hi Mundia - thanks for your reply - yes it is really helpful. I agree with your comments about taking a step back and looking at what we are providing for the children and as I observe myself and staff I can see that at every point of the morning today, we are evaluating what we are doing, and we change what we do next in view of particular children and so forth. Our child records have always been on post it notes and observations, feel we all just need to get use to amending our plan when we change what we do.

 

Dot

[sharonash]

Thanks for the replies you have certainly restored faith in me x

 

When you do long/target obs would you say you do this over a week or a day?

 

Can I just ask about group planning- do you do it, if so what do you plan to do in group time and do you have a seperate planning sheet?

 

 

thanks again