National Strategies - Ey

[Guest]

Hello came across this thought would pass it on as it is very reassuring:-

 

 

Members of the National Strategies’ Early Years team have also recently been involved in several EYFS conferences. While these have been generally positive events, we have received some disturbing feedback about the quantity of paperwork that practitioners report is being expected of them by LAs in order to support the implementation of the learning and development requirements, and to provide evidence of young children’s achievement. It has been really encouraging to see the enthusiasm with which local authorities have embraced both the EYFS and the new duty to promote better outcomes for children. It is, of course, extremely important to have accurate measures of the progress being made by settings in improving children’s outcomes. However, there is a need to balance this with ensuring that the time and effort required to secure an accurate picture of children’s outcomes does not detract from the capacity of setting leaders and staff to do their day to day work with children and parents in order to secure those outcomes.

 

While it is important to encourage good practice in record keeping, and that practice in settings supports improved outcomes for children, it is also important to keep in mind that neither the EYFS nor the outcomes duty in the Childcare Act 2006 has added additional requirements in terms of paperwork for settings. The Enabling Environments, Observation, Assessment and Planning card and the associated material on the CD-Rom and website provide some useful starting points if you are revisiting planning and record-keeping formats. We would urge you to ensure that the approaches to planning and observational assessment you promote start with observation of children, clearly add value to the quality of the provision for the children and is not an end in itself. As you will be aware, the only formal requirement to capture information in writing within the EYFS is the requirement to complete and submit the EYFS Profile in the year in which the child turns five. The Foundation Stage Profile Handbook states clearly that the purpose of collecting evidence to support the profile is “to develop practitioners’ interpretation and understanding of the criteria in the scales, not the development of individual pupil portfolios. There is no need for extensive collections of evidence for individual children.”

 

The EYFS CD-Rom also allows practitioners to personalise learning and development using the information provided in the practice guidance. Practitioners using this approach from the CD-Rom inform us that their paperwork has in fact been reduced. For those practitioners who are requesting further information about planning then a good place to start is by demonstrating how they can use the interactive learning and development section accessed on the CD-Rom.

 

http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/eyfs/site...ables/index.htm

Edited August 4, 2008 by Guest

[Guest]

Thanks for that moonshine, can you link to the site you found it, or let us know who it's credited too (I know you say it is the Members of the National Strategies’ Early Years team, but wondered how to link to their site, has it been endorsed by higher government education officials?)

 

I'm just commenting on the section relevant to Nursery; It certainly makes a lot of sense and is reassuring to read in 'black & white'. I think it could be very useful to print off and include in a nursery's record keeping policy. I think practitioners concerns is how to evdence for Ofsted, how to show each individual childs progress, and it is this that procures lots of 'paperwork evidence'. Plus, in my experience anyway, I liked to produce development portfolio's for each child as a living momento of their time at preschool. Like the article says, this should be time manageable and ot detract from everyday work / interaction with children and parents.

 

Look forward to reading what others think.

 

Peggy

[louby loo]

I fully gree with Peggy........ it's such a useful, clear article but I'd like to hve some form ob 'backup' informtion as to it's origins.

 

Thnks for putting it on Moonct

 

xxx

[Guest]

Here is a link to the National Strategies EY website HERE

 

Peggy

[catma]

It's from a letter sent to LA EYs staff recently by Ruth Pimental and as I read it is in response to feedback taken back to the centre by the EYFS RAs from the consultant events. As the strategies draft record keeping system annoyingly fell by the wayside due to outside pressures it has been left to LAs to come up with something where practitioners need it. Of course no system is enforceable and you need to do what you need to do to keep your own records that are accessible for all users incluidng parents etc.

Cx

[HappyMaz]

I was at a conference at Pen Green a few weeks ago called something like "EYFS without ticksheets" and during the QA session after her opening speech, Ruth Pimental took a bit of flack about paperwork and planning. She was adamant that systems should be as user friendly as possible and that the question in the forefront of our minds when designing/changing systems should be "how does this benefit the children?".

 

She made it very clear that time spent filling in endless pieces of meaningless paper about children could more productively spent actively engaging with children instead.

 

I shall be quoting her when Mrs Ofsted comes to visit!

[Steve]

I have to say I've met Ruth Pimentel a couple of times (some of you may have read the article we published a while back which was based on an interview with her) and I've always found her to be someone passionate about young children and the EYFS professionals responsible for them. She's also a very engaging speaker so if any others get a chance to hear her talking, take it!

[Guest]

It's from a letter sent to LA EYs staff recently by Ruth Pimental and as I read it is in response to feedback taken back to the centre by the EYFS RAs from the consultant events. As the strategies draft record keeping system annoyingly fell by the wayside due to outside pressures it has been left to LAs to come up with something where practitioners need it. Of course no system is enforceable and you need to do what you need to do to keep your own records that are accessible for all users incluidng parents etc.

 

Hi there happy maz. I don't know if you will find this useful but here goes:

 

We operate using the HighScope approach to early learning. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, there is a part of each session when the children 'review' their play & learning. It's just the plenary but we have found it hard fitting it into our schedule. So...we have introduced their 'Learning Journey Books' into this slot of the day/session. I'm not sure if there's right or wrong way to do this stuff but we put photographs of the children at play, comments they make, pieces of their work etc into the book along with observations we have made & a brief explanation of what the child is doing etc. It only actually takes a few minutes if you can stay on top of it & seems to us to cover a multiude of 'sins'. The children are sharing their experiences, evidence is being collected, parents will be informed as to exactly what the point is, in what their child is doing/experiencing. It might seem a bit of a phaff but its worth getting into the routine & also a great way for the team/Family Group Leaders to stay in touch with the EYFS. Let me know what you think but it does seem to us to 'tick all the boxes' & its great fun xx

[HappyMaz]

Hi Jo

 

One of my jobs in the holidays is to sort through the crud (or rather high quality reading materials ) I've stashed away during the rest of the year. I came across a little book called "Getting Started" by Audrey Langdown about High/Scope (written in 1989). I have no idea where it came from, but I shall read it before I go back in September.

 

From the little I know about High/Scope (plan, do, review!) I would say that the children's learning journey books provide excellent opportunities for children and staff to review together what the children have been doing. How do you physically manage this process? Is one member of staff able to work with several children at once, or do you set aside time for individual children's books to be completed on certain days?

 

I really like the idea of including children in the process: we sit down with children when we put the new pages into their books (we do them at home on the computer) and talk about what is happening in the pictures etc. However I did buy a cheap photo printer so I can see lots of opportunities for printing photos at nursery and talking to children and deciding together what to write. Its just that I can't really see how to organise these times into our routine: a classic case of not being able to see the wood for the trees, I think.

 

So I'd be very interested to hear how you manage it!

 

Maz

[Guest]

I think the key is realising that actually it's not data and learning records about the child necessarily that we need to build through journals and profiles. As mentioned above 'the only formal written records expected is the EYFSP'.(Although I do think when these books / journals are made with the child's participation ; they are great to reflect on and share with families.)

Perhaps utilising the SEF to evidence how we evaluate what we offer and make changes accordingly, will show how the setting is contributing to a child's progress.