Guest Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 Hello! I'm a Y1/YR teacher and am interested in how people from similar settings organise their day. Ta!
Guest Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 Hi Linski, Firstly a big 'hello' and welcome! This website has been a lifesaver to me (I am a year R teacher). Secondly my hat comes off to you - teaching yr R and yr 1 is such a challenge with two very different documents to contend with when planning. I would say however that this is a great opportunity to take some of the great practice that happens in the foundation stage and take it up into year 1 (if you have SMT backing!) - I know that there is a big debate at the moment about this issue. I have a friend who teaches a mixed yr R / yr 1 class. She says that she tends to have a more literacy and numeracy focus in the mornings and in the afternoon having a more KUW/CD which ties in with the subjects of the NC also having a topic which allows for all different subjects of learning. I know the DfES publish a booklet on how to structure the numeracy hour - with reception and yr1 being spit slightly. Hope this is a start
Susan Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 Hallo Linski & welcome aboard. Hope you will soon be as addicated as the rest of us, you've certainly come to the right place for help. Nichola has just had an Ofsted at her school and like you teaches a mixed class and there are several other people around who will no doubt help when they look in! I agree with Ladybug that this is an ideal situation for you to introduce more informal approaches into yr 1 and from that perspective only I would be prepared to give it a go!!! Can you tell us what you do at the moment and what you are contemplating? I know I found that I was not alone in my ideas when I first joined and that is a tremendous self confidence booster! good luck.
Lorna Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 I currently have 23 reception and 6 year 1s.... Later on this term or maybe the beginning of the spring term I will only have the year 1s in the afternoons... I have found that it has been really good for my 6 who still have alot of elements of the foundation stage day, but it is hard planning for them. I currently do a Year r Plan and a Year 1 overview plan- showing how The National curriculum areas are being covered and also buting in learning objectives for the year one children... it is time consuming but I feel that it focuses me in to the different expectations for the year 1s I have changed what I do for this half term and will put up a copy if people are interested. Lorna
Susan Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 Yes please, Lorna. My interest is purely academic but it would be interesting I think.
Sue R Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 Hi Linski and welcome!!! I'm a Nursery Nurse. I have opinions, but will not invade teachers' territory unless I feel the need !! Sue
Lorna Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 This might take a few posts... This is how I plan for the Year R children on a weekly bases... we have 2 parallel classes and I plan with the other teacher, but then have a weekly timetable as well... which will be easier now as all the children are fulltime as from Monday. I have adapted this template slightly for this half term as i felt only using the ELG was not specific enough. L Weekly_planning_18.10.04.doc
Lorna Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 Then I would also have my Year 1 Weekly Planner Year_1_Weekly_Planner18.10.doc
Lorna Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 And my weekly overview/timetable weekly_timetable_11.10.doc
Lorna Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 Although I have now modified them!!!! So my Year R weekly planning looks like this. Weekly_planning_1.11.04.doc
Lorna Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 And my Year 1 planning looks like this. I will also draw up a weekly timetable as above to ensure I know what I am doing when. I know it looks a lot... but at the moment I feel this is what I need, to ensure I cover everything for all the children. Although much of what I do with the Year 1 children is still very play based and in the intented way of the foundation stage curriculum... unlike some of the year 1s in the mixeed year 1/2 classes that are struggling with the transition as it is very year 2 oriented. Hope this is helpful to someone. L Year_1_weekly_Planning1.11.04.doc
Guest Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 Hi! Welcome to the site! Like someone said, I'm currently teaching R/1, but I have 10YR and 20Y1. We had ofsted the week before half term and they were not very happy with the mix of R/1 in the way it is and said that my YR children should either do EXACTLY the same activities as the solid YR class or they should go and join YR class permanantly except for register. How silly eh?! I disagree with both options. If I had full time support (I currently only have around 10 hours a week) I could totally provide for those children. I do my best at the moment, and when I get chance I will add my ofsted week plans and my timetable to show you what I do at the moment. I'm at my boyfriend's house and I'm not sure what plans I have here. I'll go have a look now and come back if I find anything here. If not I will have them by sunday or monday.
Guest Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 hi Lorna I have 15 Year R and 15 Year 1, and find things more and more difficult as time goes on. I used to plan for two separate groups, but that was wrong! Now I try to plan for whole class with different font showing two year groups. At the moment struggling with Child Initiated activities for Year 1. As for Literacy and Numeracy, try to do whole class input (differentiated) then group work. Year 1s love the activities but as yet I am not confident that I am covering curriculum. Oh for a pure Reception class!!!
Guest Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 Oh for a pure Reception class!!! I am with you there totally! Or a change in the curriculum to bring foundation into Y1 in a more obvious way.
Susan Posted October 29, 2004 Posted October 29, 2004 Lorna, that looks like very comprehensive planning! I have tried to plan in a similiar way and believe there is a blank template in the planning section that corresponds more or less to your format but how do you manange to get through so much!!! I was not attempting something for every aspect of K&U, in particular, every week. I also planned with a very similair timetable format when I was planning like that but we eventually abandoned it as being too time consuming and tried to use it a 3 week overview as I was leading a team of 3 Reception classes at that time! I would think that you could very easily add your NC yr1 objectives within that framework. Thanks for sharing, Lorna.
Lorna Posted October 30, 2004 Posted October 30, 2004 At the moment I am happier to have the year 1 planning and the year r planning seperate. We don't always cover all the areas that are planned for and some of them are set out as independent activities. I am hoping that soon my Year 1 children will be going out to all the other Year 1 children in the morning as we set for Literacy and Numeracy. I also don't put the year 1 stuff with the Year R as some people in my school would then be expecting all the Year R children to be working at that level... they don't have the best understanding of the Foundation Stage or what they should be able to do by the end of it. I think that it is important to share what we are doing... this is the first year I have had a mixed class.... and hopefully the last!! Roll on the time when the National Curriculum imbraces the principles and practices of the Foundation stage and then it will be easier for these very young children to make the transition. L
Susan Posted October 31, 2004 Posted October 31, 2004 I've just found a "leaflet" on the standards site, published in 2002, giving various possible options for organising the numeracy hour in a mixed reception/year1 classroom.
Guest Posted October 31, 2004 Posted October 31, 2004 Ok, so I'm home from my week dog and cat sitting with the boyfriend, sorry fiance! I promised an example of my weekly plans. The most recent ones are the ones I did for OFSTED week, as that was the week before half term. Hope they are of some use to you. There will be 2 more posts to fit all three plans in! literacy_week_7.doc
Guest Posted October 31, 2004 Posted October 31, 2004 And finally my everything else plan! Let me know what you think! ofsted_week_other_areas_plan.doc
Guest Posted November 3, 2004 Posted November 3, 2004 Can I say a big "Thank you!" to everyone who's replied! I'm not alone in this nightmare! The weekly plans have been really useful and they've reassured me that I'm on the right track!
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