Guest Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 A_new_planning.docHI all okay, new year! new planning!. Over the xmas period i spent time reviewing all the rooms planning (and i am glad i did!). i totally now see that the staff had lost the thread of what they were doing, and why they were doing it. staff were simply taking focus areas from thin air and the planning was not individulaised nor relevant. the children's learning journey folders are excellent. but it got me to thinking how to link the stuff in their learning journey to the stuff in their planning (a cycle, so to speak!). we have a well established key worker system in nursery and i would prefer for the key worker to be doing their key children's planning, do you believe this is feasable? i have attatched the planning we want to use (lifted from here and doctored a little, thank you). a box will be filled in each day that the child attends and the key worker will then set aside ten to fifteen minutes to spend 'focused' time with their key child in order to fulfil their interest. the key worker will then make a post it of the focused time, and take photograph if relevant, this will then be put in their learning journey folder along with their individual planning sheet (thus i hope a clear cycle can be seen). the planning has space for ongoing targets (such as use knife anf fork, dress etc etc) but in the main is solely based on the children's interests. my worry with this planning is it makes no direct links with EYFS although we do have clear continuous provision planning that does make links to the EYFS. I certanly think the planning will help some staff feel more motivated and involved, plus it asigns responsability to each of them which i think the staff would welcome. thanks in advance for your thoughts. Dawn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 This looks really good. How many children do you Key Persons have? I'm just wondering if 15 mins every day would be a bit much? That would take 2 hours for me - leaving no time for anything else? Would 15 minutes at least a couple of times a week, plus spontaneous notes be easier? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 (edited) Thanks for such prompt feedback. the amount of key children they have varies from day to day, in some rooms it will be 3 or less, in other rooms it could be 8. although i am thinking (or rather hoping) that some children's interests may be the same and therefore the key worker could work with them together. maybe 15 minutes is too long, and i guess even 5 minutes direct and focused contact is beneficial, which is probably more than they are getting now. ~ also forgot to say we are a day nursery so open all day, therefore have quite a while to spend with the children Dawn This looks really good. How many children do you Key Persons have? I'm just wondering if 15 mins every day would be a bit much? That would take 2 hours for me - leaving no time for anything else? Would 15 minutes at least a couple of times a week, plus spontaneous notes be easier? Edited January 6, 2009 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Hi Dawn! First reaction - looks good to me! I wouldn't get too tangled up with links to EYFS here - if your CP docs show this clearly that should be ok. After all, the 'Positive Relationships' your children and their Keypersons are developing with each other link in to a whole Principle!! And you're following children's interests, too! Do you truthfully need much more?? If you really feel the need to prove it, spell it out somewhere - play/keyperson policy, mission statement or such. It's similar to the way we plan, Keypersons planning focus activities for 'their' children, and I agree, it makes for better motivation and job satisfaction. Well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Oh, PS! Yes, frequently interests are parallel - particularly in DNs, where children spend a lot of time together and may also have grown up together. They all take their own 'thing' from the interest and activity. In PS it means that you don't have to struggle with sometimes inappropriate topics just because the LT plan says so! Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Thank you for such great feedback. i really feel more positive about the planning now... just going to plan my staff meeting now so that i can introduce the planning to all staff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 That may be the hardest part, some folk don't like change Do let us know how you get on!! If you want any help just shout Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 looks good Dawn - hope it works out ok for you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharonash Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 this may be a silly question.... When you say keyworkers plan their own activities do they get set times to do them during the week/session? as we are experiencing all the keyworkers trying to do all their activities at the same time, leaving hardly any staff playing assisting children with toileting , even snack time got forgotten the other week!!! Also Can you explain if k/workers are doing their own activities all week with their children -do you still do focus activities coming from themed ideas for example the children as a whole are interested in buildings, so we plan do walk to a building site as a focus activity then we will add to continious prov=boxes to junk modelling, den making outside etc but these then take up time during the session and theres not much time left for anything else once individual planning has been done! Does that make sense???????????? Basically do you still do themed work- around their interests and if so link to learning? or is the planning now purely based on individual focus activities? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharonash Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 this may be a silly question.... When you say keyworkers plan their own activities do they get set times to do them during the week/session? as we are experiencing all the keyworkers trying to do all their activities at the same time, leaving hardly any staff playing assisting children with toileting , even snack time got forgotten the other week!!! Also Can you explain if k/workers are doing their own activities all week with their children -do you still do focus activities coming from themed ideas for example the children as a whole are interested in buildings, so we plan do walk to a building site as a focus activity then we will add to continious prov=boxes to junk modelling, den making outside etc but these then take up time during the session and theres not much time left for anything else once individual planning has been done! Does that make sense???????????? Basically do you still do themed work- around their interests and if so link to learning? or is the planning now purely based on individual focus activities? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 we have a well established key worker system in nursery and i would prefer for the key worker to be doing their key children's planning, do you believe this is feasable? Most definitely! Your planning format looks great: easy to understand and fill in without being too onerous for the key person to use. I think this is likely to make it much more successful because every practitioner whatever their level of knowledge will be able to use it and benefit from it. As they get more and more used to planning this way their confidence and skills will grow and they will just get better and better. Well done you! We are just introducing a paired and shared key caring system and as part of this are introducing 'key group' time into the session (its a long held ambition of mine to do this so I'm keeping my fingers crossed). The idea of the key group time is both to enable the key person to plan activities in response to what they have observed and what they know about the child, but also to form good close relationships. As SueR says this is a great link to the principles of the EYFS - positive relationships - and the activities they plan will generate 'evidence' of children's learning which will obviously link into the EYFS. Would you consider enabling the keyperson to spend time with their key group as a whole rather than with an individual child? Otherwise as Cait says there won't be time for anything else! Your form will enable the key person to keep track of every child and ensure that no-one gets left out. Good luck - let us know how you get on! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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