Guest Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 Hi friends On another topic, can you let me know, for those of you in day nurseries - when do you fit in your planning when you are all on different working shifts and you never get any non contact time?? At the moment we squeeze in half an hour wherever possible when the children are low key or staffing permits and we are not really getting, what I feel to be, satisfactory plans and idea. Then when it comes to me writing up the planning at the weekend (now - hence the post lol!) I find that I am seriously lacking in ideas/activities or continuous provision offering. So I end up spending alot of my sundays researching in books and on the net to find things to fill in. Deep down I know this is not the way it should be and also I feel under pressure to come up with ideas all the time. I am creative and have lots of fun ideas but I am used to bouncing ideas around as a team and getting really fire up about it, this just isn't happening. Struggling to come up with creative ideas every week is leaving me a bit flat. Is this normal? Thanks all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 Could you arrange a time when you can be together? an evening in a pub or someone's house? I know how you feel, cos it all comes down to me too, It's easy to say let the child lead the planning and it's great when it happens, but Ofsted (sorry) like PAPERWORK - they like EVIDENCE of prior planning. sigh. It's not meant to be our ideas any more, but, I don't know about you, this year the children don't seem to have any of their own, they don't even know how to play or socialise. We've spent the bulk of this half term with that, and the older ones have been helping us with that too! (They've been great, and I think have enjoyed being 'big buddies') But as to planning for it, well it's gone out of the window and there's been quite a bit of retrospective planning - just for Ofsted, it's not for us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 we have a member of staff who covers 2 days per week in rooms for a morning or afternoon so staff can plan and also we have days where rooms which usually have 2 staff omly require 1 which frees up a staff member. also i cover rooms for mornings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynned55 Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 (edited) Hi, we're in a similar position to you. I have 7 staff, only 2 of us work every day and unless they are prepared to stay for the afternoon & then some come in on a day off we are never all together. We have planning/staff meetings every half term- which we are paid for but there is no way we casn do the planning the way EYFS are saying we should be- in an ideal world when we finish on a Friday,we would all spend 30 mins to an hour briefly running through everything and do planning for following week & then I would spend the next hour typing/writing it all out as evidence but as we live in the real world what happens is everyone is so tired on a friday after putting away everything and clearing hall, nobody wants to disuss anything. 2 staff members dont work on a Friday- I'm not prepared tospend anymore of my weekends on this job, so I'm afraid this last half term was planned in one hit, with lots of changes made along the way and have planned for the next halfterm first 2 weeks and then we'll see how we go. The whole plannng thing is becoming ridiculous, I feel. The EYFS can state as much as they like about it's not all about extra paperwork but we all know OFSTED will want it. I know and trust my staff, they ae more then capable of telling anyone where the children are at and i refuse to let them spend anymore time writing up reams and reams of paperwork instead of spending time with children I'm now thinking we aren't doing this for the children we're doing it to suit Ofsted- so we can say look at us, aren't we clever, look how much planning and observations we can write.I'm not sure we need to, we did alright in our last inspection. Sorry rant over, we had our EYAT in this week and she totally agreed with me, said what we are doing is fine and she would be more then happy to tell an ofsted inspector so. If you can plan from week to week without it costing you a fortune in extra wages to cover staff then great, otherwise have Planning meetings every half term- Plan 2/3 weeks at a time and make changes as you go along, as long as you are crossing off & writng up any CL actitivites I dont see they can moan. To be honest I've now got to the point where I'm past caring. I know we're good, kids and parents are very happy, waiting list is still overflowing and I'm no longer prepared to do full time hours for a part time job and wage, just to please ofsted! Sorry haven't been much help to you have I Edited October 19, 2008 by lynned55 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 HEAR HEAR!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 Hi, we are not as fortunate as some membes on here we dont get cover either, why not do it on a morning but ask your staff to be thinking of ideas ongoing whilst working with the children for the following week. This works for us. GOOD LUCK Rememer we are always here to helps with ideas 0258 x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 Hi, we are not as fortunate as some membes on here we dont get cover either, why not do it on a morning but ask your staff to be thinking of ideas ongoing whilst working with the children for the following week. This works for us. GOOD LUCK Rememer we are always here to helps with ideas 0258 x x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 We have recently had a session with the advisory teacher who said where she is they concentrate on CLL AND PSED for this term until the children are more settled. This is how we have always worked you cannot teach assess the children until you are confident that they are settled and are communicating at some level. After Christmas we will have a clearer idea of the individual / groups needs and any interests which we can support. Here we have floor plan, in each of the playrooms, showing the various areas of activities, which is added too and reported on, but it is as relaxed as we can make it. I would love to know who has a foolproof plan, as the "planning " particularly for the under threes has to be fluid and they don't appear to know there are "rules" or at least they are not sharing the knowledge with us. At the same time they are already showing signs of being curious, happy, bright, chatty, having patience and aptitude when things or activities attract them. What more do we want? I really think that so many people who make the rules have had little real experience of how small children in groups / nurseries work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wolfie Posted October 20, 2008 Share Posted October 20, 2008 We have recently had a session with the advisory teacher who said where she is they concentrate on CLL AND PSED for this term until the children are more settled. I couldn't agree more with this emphasis - and feel strongly that these are the two areas that should ALWAYS be emphasised in our work with children. An increasing bank of evidence points to the importance of fostering those skills and attitudes in children, above all others, if they are to go on to be successful learners in,ater stages of schooling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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