Guest Posted July 18, 2004 Posted July 18, 2004 Hello all, We are a 2 form entry school and have I think made great progress in the way that we work in Reception over the last two years, with regard to child-initiated learning and the use of the outside area. At the moment, we have two child-initiated sessions a day with free-flow between the classrooms and shared outdoor area. We are thinking of giving the children completely free access to either classroom or outside, providing different activities in each room during these sessions, rather than offering the same activities and restricting children to their own room (or outside), as we do at present. I will be working with someone new to the FS who is very keen, but I don't want to panic her. Wondered if anyone else already works like this and how have you found it? Sorry if this seems wordy and confused, but it's very nearly the end of term and I'm getting over a nasty bug.
hali Posted July 18, 2004 Posted July 18, 2004 Wow that sounds very interesting .... how do you cope with ratios doing that?????
Guest Posted July 18, 2004 Posted July 18, 2004 We did that last year in my old school and after a settling in period it worked really well. In receptio the ratio is 1:30 so it's not much of a problem. We had 1 adult in 1 room, 1 in another and the other outside. We had set times for carpet work and times where outside was not available (due to size we couldn't share with the nursery like we wanted to) The kids loved it and meant they got to mix and work with their friends from both classes. I'm trying to push for that at my current place for the reception class and my reception kids.
Guest Posted July 18, 2004 Posted July 18, 2004 Thank you Nichola. That sounds like what I had in mind. Ratios are not a problem as we are a team of 5 adults working with 60 children - 2 reception classes. We have no nursery on site (unfortunately!). I envisage 1 adult based in each room, 1 outside and the other 2 going wherever necessary to carry out observations on target children. I just think it would be more exciting for the children to have greater choice.
Susan Posted July 18, 2004 Posted July 18, 2004 HI Nicky & welcome. I think this is a very exciting way to move and if you have already established a free flow system, you should if you are both on board be able to implement it successfully. Shared planning and vision and flexibilty are the key, I think. I tried to implement a similar idea in my school but the others in my team found it difficult to let go of their classes and in the end we had to abandon the idea but I believe it is the way to go! We had a discussion some time ago that you might find useful and you can find ithere. Good luck and keep us posted about how you get on.
catma Posted July 18, 2004 Posted July 18, 2004 our reception do pretty much that, they have separate group times for Literacy/numeracy, PE and focused lesson sessions which are done at parallel times but then children can work in either room or outside at the other activities which are spread over two rooms. It seems to work well for them, and they have 4 staff, two TA's and 2 class teachers.
Lorna Posted July 21, 2004 Posted July 21, 2004 This sounds interesting... I am hoping to set up free flow between two reception classes in september and would appreciate any info on how to organise it. At current we have had two very seperate classes that share an outdoor area that has only really been used this year. I have an NQT working with me next year and she is keen to try new ideas. Do you do literacy and numeracy at the same times or opposite... and what activities do you offer the children in the other classrooms? Have you split each room by curriculum area or have a mix. Hope you all have a well deserved rest Lorna
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