Guest Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Hi everyone, Just feeling very stressed about the last week and a half at school. Two weeks ago I met with my head teacher and she looked at work and at my early Years REcords and we then arranged for her to come to the Reception class and moderate my reading ( hear 4 children read) and moderate the calculating ( work with 3 children) before my end of year scores were submitted to my county. However she did not visit and the scores were delayed but were then submitted on Friday. At lunch time on Friday she asked to speak to me and gave me a list of 5 writing activities that she wants completed by 17 out of 30 children in my class in the next week. I explained that there was evidence of all these activities in my whole class books etc but was told that as this was more than 3 weeks old it needed to be done again so that the evidence was up to date for the SIP visit in the autumn term. I am now faced with the prospect of getting 17 children to produce 5 pieces of writing in 5 days in the last full week of term as well as a whole afternoon where the 30 new intake visit prior to September start. ANy help or ideas or support would be welcomed!!!! Nicky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorna Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 poor you I really feel for you. I would focus on one or maybe 2 pieces of writing a week max. Can you not get different children to do the different styles of writing that are being demanded.... I can't see how you can do it. Its unreasonable for your head to make such demands. I also can't see how getting the children to do it again can be of use to the SIP, it won't be in context and won't be the children's best work. Good Luck. Hope you get it sorted. L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Can you photocopy the work you already have and change the dates? Naughty really, I know! What exactly do you need to do, is there anyway you can provide 17 pieces of work across the 5 topics, that would seem more managable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Can you photocopy the work you already have and change the dates? Naughty really, I know! What exactly do you need to do, is there anyway you can provide 17 pieces of work across the 5 topics, that would seem more managable? No that won't work sadly. She wants each of the 17 children to write a letter or a postcard, write a story, produce a poster about Noah's Ark, produce a leaflet and another piece of writing. It's virtually impossible but She doesn't understand early years and knows exactly how to apply the pressure on to all of us!!!!! I think it will be a lot of supported writing using our whiteboards as a starting point and then writing it from them onto a pre printed format of a letter etc. I also only have a TA part of the time so might well be completely grey by this time next week. Oh the joys of Teaching!!!! Nicky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Would it be possible to ask your EY advisory team for support? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Oh dear, thats a very large task and inappropriate. What happens if you cant complete it and how will it affect the SIP visit? I think Marion may have a good solution. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted July 13, 2008 Share Posted July 13, 2008 Hi Nicky All I can say is that I am so glad my children didn't have your head teacher when they were in reception! I have no technical expertise to offer you any support but I feel so sorry for the pressure you're under. I hope you get it all sorted. Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmajess Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 You poor thing! I'm having enough trouble getting my class of 30 to do one piece of writing this week that's anything like their best work - they're all shattered! How does your head physically expect you to do this? If you had all 17 children writing independently at the same time on one task each day for 5 days, you could get the right number of pieces of paper, but does your head realise that as you wouldn't be working with them or even close by neither you nor she would know what many of them said? (Let's not even begin talking about whether this is the appropriate way for your children to spend their final week in reception - or any week for that matter!) If she's happy to get 85 pieces of paper that don't mean very much, then get them to her, as annoying as it is to do, and don't stress over getting the children to produce their best work. Have you explained to her the logistics of writing with reception children and the probable outcomes if you do undertake this? (ie not quality work that people, including the SIP are able to read!) Perhaps she has some brilliant idea? (Perhaps she could sort it out?) I'd try to talk it through with her as maybe if you explain the situation clearly to her she might back off a bit - perhaps she really doesn't understand what she's asking? Good luck - let us know what results! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 No that won't work sadly. She wants each of the 17 children to write a letter or a postcard, write a story, produce a poster about Noah's Ark, produce a leaflet and another piece of writing. It's virtually impossible but She doesn't understand early years and knows exactly how to apply the pressure on to all of us!!!!! I think it will be a lot of supported writing using our whiteboards as a starting point and then writing it from them onto a pre printed format of a letter etc. I also only have a TA part of the time so might well be completely grey by this time next week. Oh the joys of Teaching!!!! Nicky My children wouldn't have done that much writing in 5 weeks let alone 5 days. To be honest, I'd be hard pushed to do 1 in the last week of term. If it was me, I'd just do one and then tell her that's all I had time to do. I'd also be quite naughty and give it to her on the last day of term when she had no option but to take what I had given her!!! Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 I'd also be quite naughty and give it to her on the last day of term when she had no option but to take what I had given her!!! Good luck. I'm beginning to believe you teachers can be a devious lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 Its called survival, maz! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 Its called survival, maz! Certainly tales like these make my hair curl, Susan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Certainly tales like these make my hair curl, Susan! Hi, Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement. She won't take no for an answer and life at school would become considerably more difficult if I said NO!!! So have got 17 children to write a short letter to Noah, a farmer or someone else and 17 children have drawn the front cover of their animal leaflet. Added stress today of TA's being pulled out of class to help elsewhere in school plus 30 new chidlren in all afternoon so mine joined with year6 for an activity time outside. Will let you all know later in the week how grey I have gone. Nicky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Oh my! That is terrible! I don't know how you can do that...............really not appropriate either! Good luck, i feel so sorry for you. At least the summer hols are now in sight x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LOSINGTHEWILLTOLIVE Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 (edited) I did an observation with Noah's ark - I had a phone call from Noah who had lost his glasses as Mrs Noah had cleared them away so when he calls all the animals into the ark at night he did not know which was which! He asked the children to help him out by writing some describing words and drawing him a picture so he would know what to look out for and make sure he would get every animal into the ark safely! I used a mobile phone with a speaker and my TA acted out the voice of Noah, ringing me from another room. The children were very happy to help and I used the attached powerpoint to introduce the idea of descriptive lanauge - we started with a cat and I also printed off some of the pictures so the children could pick one animal and describe it. We had read the six blind men and the elephant the week before so they knew what kind of problems Noah was having with his sight. We also played a game of 'What am I?' so the lower abilities could try to guess the animal from its description. My observation went well and the children came up with some wonderful descriptive writing. It sounds pretty harsh what you are expected to do - not long until the end of term ! best_animals_photos.ppt Lesson_Plan___Noahs_ark_CLL.doc Edited July 15, 2008 by LOSINGTHEWILLTOLIVE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Lovely ideas, losing the will, and thanks for sharing those resources. Would you like to put them in the resource library, please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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