Guest Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Hi all We initially get the parents to fill in all about me, interests etc form on starting the setting. Our LEA has given us a profile that is split into the same age bands as the practice guidance which we have to fill in with our obs and next steps etc. We also have our scrapbooks which we fill with photos, the postit obs and any examples of work we can. We then reference the scrapbook eg photo 1 or post it 10 or work 5 as evidence. But what about if we know a child is capable of doing something or more than likely the parent knows their child is capable are they allowed to highlight it in the learning journal without providing evidence? I think we should be able to do this using our own judgement and the knowledge of the parents..otherwise it may mean we are constantly following children around trying to get the proof for their learning journals... or they are bare! I dont like the learning journal stuff (too much tick listy for me) and woud just like to use it as a guide to possible next steps. I do like the scrapbooks as they tell it all! We have got some great photos that evidence nothing...just great big smiles! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 We have got some great photos that evidence nothing...just great big smiles! It is rare that photographs evidence nothing, marley - that great big smile can say a lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 we didnt evidence everything.... you would have an enormous folder to do that, not to mention time needed to evidence everything.. Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondie Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 we found it hard when we completed wthe record of acheivement seemed to be constantly trting to find two pieces of evidence when at times one would be enough - as at times if a child can do something once they can do it. our new unique child is easier - our eyp has said that we are professionals and as such our judgement should be treated as such - thats this week anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 At my oft-quoted talk given by Jan Dubiel who was then Principal Officer, Foundation Stage Profile, National Assessment Agency, he was talking about observation and assessment and said:- "Observations can take a split second or may be a longer, more concerted exercise of carefully watching children. Practitioners need only do what is necessary to be sure that the judgements they make are sound". He told an anecdote about a practitioner who complained that she was unable to make a judgement on whether the children could dress and undress independently “because all the videos of children doing up their buttons etc had been wiped from the hard drive of her computer”. When he asked her whether the children in her class could all dress independently, she replied that all but one child could. When he asked her how she knew that, she replied “because this child is always the only one still needing help to change after all the other children are ready”. In other words, she had already made her judgement so no formal observations were necessary. She just knew. Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Fantastic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 There are some things that just can't have evidence. Sometimes things are so far behind where a child 'is' that they have long since passed that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 When we had our LA provided record for passing on at transition I was told we were allowed to put "achieved on entry" for anything the child could already do when they started with us (start at age 2) and we didn't need to put in evidence for this. We are still awaiting the LA EYFS records being written (I don't think they knew it was being introduced !) so I don't know if it will stay the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Practitioners and EYFS profile moderators need to be aware that the definition of evidence is any material, knowledge of the child, anecdotal incident, result of observation or information from additional sources that support the overall picture of the child’s development. There is no requirement that it should always be formally recorded or documented. http://www.naa.org.uk/naa_19589.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 26, 2009 Share Posted February 26, 2009 Practitioners and EYFS profile moderators need to be aware that the definition of evidence is any material, knowledge of the child, anecdotal incident, result of observation or information from additional sources that support the overall picture of the child’s development. There is no requirement that it should always be formally recorded or documented. http://www.naa.org.uk/naa_19589.aspx Gets better and better! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 We advise staff that they can use professional judgement for around 10 - 15% of evidence and just write 'PJ' next to the appropriate statement. I think the real 'trick' in record keeping for the EYFS is to use only smart evidence i.e. evidence which can be used against as many statements as possible. For example if your mark making area is set up for making books with lots of exciting equipment then keeping a child's hand made book can give evidence against all six areasg, particularly if there can also be a quick annotation by staff to say how interested the child was or note anything which the child said which was of particular interest. An observation in the home corner is only going to be successful in terms of smart evidence if the children are interested and involved with the equipment and experiences on offer, if you can only find evidence for one or two statements in such an observation then you need to reflect on how the children are responding to this area of constant provision. Some of this sounds a bit obvious I know but it's very easy to get so worried about records of achievement that we start to keep more and more information which takes all our time and energy. Think quality rather than quantity. Also I have to agree with previous answers, you can't write down everything. As a qualified, experienced practitioner you need to value your own knowledge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted February 27, 2009 Share Posted February 27, 2009 What great advice, gilldyson! Welcome to the Forum and congratulations on making your first post. Keep them coming won't you - its good to hear the voice of reason! Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catma Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 It's all detailed in the updated early years foundation stage handbook 2008 so you really need to go through that! All the guidance on what is evidence, how to make the judgments, how to ensure your EAL/SEN children are accurately assessed etc etc is now in the one handbook. The official guidance is that no more than around 20% of your evidence base should be coming from adult directed work with a child. The predominate remaining 80% of your evidence base should be from observed independent outcomes of child initiated activity (NOT to be confused with the 50% adult directed /50% child initiated curriculum delivery model expected from EYFS). You do not have to have written evidence for every scale point - but you need to be able to tell your moderator/yourself HOW you know. Moderators have been told that a "single piece of "evidence" is not enough to agree a scale point - it is practitioners seeing this behavior over time and being able to describe it in different contexts that evidences a point. This is where the definition of evidence as described in a previous post comes in. Equally you need to be able to evidence each aspect of a scale point. ie if the point is demonstrate using your imagination in music, dance, imaginative play etc etc then you need to evidence each component. It is not a best fit model. This has been made very clear to us as moderators. Cx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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