Its Here

[Guest]

Hi Hali and congatulations Deb W,

 

I wouldn't like to comment specifically on what the assessor said as well you know interpretation of what is required for planning in this instance can only be relevant to the conversation you had with her in the context of your particular setting.

( diplomatic aren't I ??)

 

However, it does appear that the conclusion of the conversation was not exactly clear as doubts have been raised.

You say that when you said "surely if we were covering stepping stones out of that area in a term that was covering it" she replied YES, but where is your EVIDENCE.

 

I agree with susans interpretation of what the ELG's are and the routes to achieve them (at the end of reception) can be informed by the stepping stones and other similar assessment language pertaining to the stepping stones.

 

I think maybe your area to develop is EVIDENCEing how the children are working towards meeting the ELG's by the end of reception.

 

I personaly have found that lists (such as stepping stones) can be useful but also limiting and possibly restrict the way we look at how children learn and how they show their learning.

 

Lists tend to create a testing environment, hence when Ofsted first started inspecting "planning and teaching" many settings started useing formal testing methods such as worksheets etc to show learning.

 

I would consider using lists only as a guide.

 

Think about ;

 

 

HOW DO YOU EVIDENCE YOUR OVERALL PLANNING TOWARD ELG's

What learning you plan to cover, long & medium term. (knowledge, skills and attitudes- in all areas of the curriculum) I look at the ELG's but realise that at age 4yrs when most of my children go to school they would reach the blue to green bands of the FSC) My Ofted inspector said we should only Plan to cover blue to green. I AGREE BUT STILL CONSIDER THE ULTIMATE GOAL - GREY BAND.

 

HOW DO YOU EVIDENCE THE CHILDRENS POSITION WITHIN THE PLANNING CYCLE

What the children already know & can do.

Childrens attitude towards learning, learning styles etc, ie: confident, active, passive, visual, good language etc

 

HOW DO YOU EVIDENCE YOUR EVALUATIONS OF CURRENT PLANNING

How the children have accessed the planned learning. Activity evaluation. Which children came to the activity, did they watch, participate or leave.

 

What the children actually learnt. - specific evaluation of learning outcomes. ie: by the end of this activity the children will be able to or will have..................

I know they learnt...........because................

 

(learning may require access to more than one or a repetition of an activity)

 

HOW DO YOU EVIDENCE YOUR SHORT TERM PLANNING

How your planning has changed to meet the outcome of the above evaluation.

 

HOW DO YOU EVIDENCE YOUR HIDDEN CURRICULUM

Evidence what children learn through non planned activities and routines.

 

HOW DO YOU EVIDENCE YOUR CHILDRENS RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT

Record learning of individual children through observation, activity evaluations, parent / child comments etc.

 

 

I hope this isn't how to suck eggs, but puts into context that children will be at different levels, but should all be working towards achieving the early learning goals. To reach a goal, one must know the goal..but must more importantly know the achieveable routes towards that goal.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Thank you for giving such a full reply Peggy. If and when you have time, could you possibly give an example of an anonymous child's record and an activity plan/evaluation so we could see how all this looks in practice? Unfortunately accreditation doesn't give me the means to pay my staff a teacher's wage and I need a manageable recording system.

[Guest]

Deb W,

I will be glad to share my system, give me a few days to get it sorted to post attachments ( still a novice at that).

 

My staff are all on minimum wage and I earn even less

I'm definately not in the job for the money

 

My system is still evolving,

I include all staff in planning and evaluation. I have 5 staff who work part-time sessions.

 

They have a play area each to plan for each week which covers the medium term plan ( theme)

 

Play Area 1 is Physical ( gross and fine motor), sensory table, display / theme table (resourced for PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT)

Play Area 2 is Sand, Water, malleable materials (ie dough / clay / cornflour etc) (resourced for KUW)

Play Area 3 is Art table /easel, Cooking, Music, songs and Dance ( resourced for CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT)

Play Area 4 is Table top games, cognitive, memory, problem solving and construction (resourced for MATHS DEVELOPMENT)

Play Area 5 is Role Play, small world play, writing for a purpose, books and poems ( resourced for CLL DEVELOPMENT)

 

Their plans show , for each day of the week, the activity, learning objective, method (adult role) and resources required for their area. Not all the activities have to be adult led.

 

Each play area has one adult led activity per week (so one adult led per day) this planning is more detailed

 

I then transfer each member of staffs planning onto a master sheet just showing the activity and objective for each area of play ( we have 5 areas of play). I highlight which activity is the adult led one.

 

On the reverse of this sheet I list at the top the objectives planned for the week,

the staff then write comments on a daily basis, how individual children have met these objectives, what worked what didn't etc. I also stick small photo's on this page ( printed on sticky label paper) to evidence particular activities.

 

The adult led activities have a more detailed evaluation.

 

This all may seem quite a lot to do but one of my areas of weakness from my ofsted last year was "lack of evidence".

 

Because the work is shared each member of staff only has to

Plan one activity per day, (one being adult led within the week), with consideration for childrens next steps.

Write comments each day on evaluation page

note achievements / next steps on poster, when seen.

write comments straight into childrens files.

 

Each member of staff has a diary where they plan time to do these tasks and plan time for more specific observations such as event sample or tracking.

 

The result is that each day we have planned activities and resources etc for each of the 5 areas of play within the setting. ( linked to the medium term theme)

Lots of evaluative comments, identified next steps used to inform future planning, records of achievement that are kept up to date with staff and parent comments.

 

One of the major changes we made was to produce a book called "Record of achievement " for each child and instead of the staff writing observations / comments of what learning they have seen a particular child show during free play /routine times onto a post-it or pieces of paper (which inevitably got lost, or not transferred into the achievement file) the staff write directly into the book which is available on a table each session, also parents have access to their childs file every session and are encouraged to write comments in their childs book of learning they have seen at home. I considered the issue of confidentiality so ask all parents if they are happy for their childs book to be available ( they don't look in other childrens records anyway) all parents are happy with the system and take a keen interest in what has been written ( all positive of course).

 

On the wall we have a lamanated A3 poster with each childs 1st name and then two columns one headed Achievements the other Next Steps, the staff will write a comment on an achievement they have seen and then a next step. Every two weeks ( sometimes longer) I type up all the comments and each member of staff has a copy. They use this information when planning for the next few weeks, thus including childrens next steps ( assessed through informal observation) in the short term planning.

 

I will post some examples soon.

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Thank you so much Peggy, that's really helpful. I look forward to the attachments!

[Guest doohanok5]

Thanks Peggy. Our evidence gathering is in need of a revamp. What you've said has been most helpful.