Guest Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Hello, Has anyone got any examples of daily reports they could share with me please. We are trying to cheer up our reports and incorporate/recognise the EYFS in them. We don't have time in the day to write individual diaries due to being a large nursery but are current forms are rather outdated!!! Have sat for hours trying to work something out but the brain is on strike!! (oh and its only wed lol) Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 I don't understand why a daily report would take less time than a diary. What sort of thing are you doing currently? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 The bulk of the report is pre-printed. E.g. the menu is printed on so staff just fill in how much the babies/children ate. We currently fill in activities or anything else that is significant to try and keep it managable. There is an area for sleep times, changes/toileting etc. We have been down the diary route before and it just hasn't worked for us. Our 0-1 room has up to 20/25 babies a day. 1-2 year room has up 30 , our toddlers 25 and the same for pre-school. The time spent writing the diaries took the staff away from the job they should be doing. There just wasn't time in the diaries and we made it an action in our operational plan to find an alternative - hence the daily reports. Ofsted were pleased when they saw what we had done and noted in our report that the practitioners had reflected on their practice when working in partnership with parents etc. I am just trying to find something that may be based around the EYFS more. Will keep thinking. Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 I don't understand why a daily report would take less time than a diary. What sort of thing are you doing currently? both are as time consuming, we use diaries for under threes and a daily report for pre school children, we used diaries for all but pre school parent prefered a daily sheet for some reason, we state meals/drinks , nappy changes. sleep times, what activities the children have enjoyed, skills developed and any additional information, diaries go home with parentsd and they have a parent/carer comment box, i know it takes time out of the session to complete but it got us marks with the bigO! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 I agree the diaries are lovely but O didnt like them in our 2004 inspection mainly because they were too time consuming as we are quite a big setting. Mind you the next Mrs Of might think the opposite lol! Will work something out... right now the parents and staff are happy so I am just going to try and tweak what we have to link more to the EYFS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 I hate our daily diaries because they take so much time away from the children. Jaycooks are your diaries little notebooks that go home every day? Are they preprinted or do you just write in everthing in each day? I would be interested in what things you include on your sheets for ages 3+. At the moment we have a daily diary sheet for children of all ages in which you are supposed to tick every type of thing the child has played with indoors and outdoors, as well as nappy details, what time they went to the toilet and exactly what they ate and drank, the craft activity and whether the child did it or not, and details of songs and stories. This takes up so much time sometimes I feel the session detiorates because they is not enough time for us to pay proper attention to the children because we are so busy filling them in, and staff are busy asking each other questions to get the exact information for each child. It feels like the whole session is dedicated to the forms sometimes. Also because the sheets are tick lists there is no room to write anything really important like what they child really enjoyed or any new skills. Sorry nursery3 that hasn't helped, but I think it is an important thing to get right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Thanks for your feedback starburst. Your daily sheets sound very like ours and I know how you feel about taking up time. Your right they are an important thing and have to be right so I will continue at the drawing board. If I get anywhere I will upload one!! Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 We don't have that much bother with diaries, but then each key person has a maximum of 7 at any one session, so perhaps that's the difference. We involve children in what we write and they love it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 Cait, which age group are you doing them with? Do you have sheets that you complete or just a book that you write in certain things that the parents can also write in? I would be very interested to know as I just feel we are going somewhere wrong with ours with the tick list approach and you obviously feel that your approach is working? We have been told we can't have diaries as such because parents would them, which is why we have the tick list sheets- although I personally feel that diaries would be more personal and obviouysly allow two way communication. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 4, 2009 Share Posted March 4, 2009 I hate our daily diaries because they take so much time away from the children. Jaycooks are your diaries little notebooks that go home every day? Are they preprinted or do you just write in everthing in each day? I would be interested in what things you include on your sheets for ages 3+. At the moment we have a daily diary sheet for children of all ages in which you are supposed to tick every type of thing the child has played with indoors and outdoors, as well as nappy details, what time they went to the toilet and exactly what they ate and drank, the craft activity and whether the child did it or not, and details of songs and stories. This takes up so much time sometimes I feel the session detiorates because they is not enough time for us to pay proper attention to the children because we are so busy filling them in, and staff are busy asking each other questions to get the exact information for each child. It feels like the whole session is dedicated to the forms sometimes. Also because the sheets are tick lists there is no room to write anything really important like what they child really enjoyed or any new skills. Sorry nursery3 that hasn't helped, but I think it is an important thing to get right. our diaries are pre printed, with boxes to write in meals, bottles, how much etc, times of nappies, soiled/wet a box to write in about their day, activities enjoyed and a box for parent to comment, they go home and are returned next time. the 3+ sheet is also pre printed and states meals/snacks activities enjoyed/about their day and what skills they have learnt. parents discuss a lot of other issues with staff verbally and read planning so they dont need as much info as a babies parent may do----i was annoyed today because staff forgot to put my babys diary in his bag so i didnt know if he had poohed today!!! little details are important as i didnt know whether to put him to bed or wait to see if he had a pooh before!!!!!! staff record all meals/sleeptimes/nappy changes on seperate record form so its easy to transfer onto diaries at the end of the day before parents arrive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 I work in a sessional pack up pre-school and it had become apparant that we neeed some kind of sheet set up to record when nappies have been changed, activities enjoyed etc etc. I just wondered before i set to work doing it, if anyone else has one to share? samfrostie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 29, 2009 Share Posted April 29, 2009 Cait, which age group are you doing them with? Do you have sheets that you complete or just a book that you write in certain things that the parents can also write in? I would be very interested to know as I just feel we are going somewhere wrong with ours with the tick list approach and you obviously feel that your approach is working? We have been told we can't have diaries as such because parents would them, which is why we have the tick list sheets- although I personally feel that diaries would be more personal and obviouysly allow two way communication. All staff and children and parents (oh and the big O) love them. We don't write every day, but we ALWAYS respond to comments from parents. Parents know that the information could be used in their child's record so it's generally valuable, or funny or just something the child has asked to share with them - and that's what we do in return. This week the children are interested in cats and today and yesterday it's been big cats, so I wrote in the diaries what we've all learned so that the parents know. (Shocking that the lion just sleeps and lets the lioness do the killing and then he gets first go at it and she and the children get leftovers!) Children love to see us writing in their book, we stick photos in too to show a tower they've built or a nice moment. They love it when we joke about what we're writing (well my group do, they are the ones who leave for reception this year) They'll ask what I'm writing and I'll say something like 'Jolie's been swinging on the lights again and climbing on the windowsills' squeals of laughter - and you know it's incredibly difficult to pretend to write one thing when you're actually writing another! All the children have little notebooks of their own too that they write in that live in their trays, and special little pencils (ok from Ikea) and writing in our notebooks is great fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Hi all, are these essential then? Sorry to sound dumb but we don't have them at our (mornings only) pre-school. My little girl gets them at her day care nursery, but is this something my leader needs to instigate? The session time is only 2.5 hours so never enough time as it is!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 For our morning pre-school we have never had them as you said there is not that much time as it is however with our current parents we are thinking it might be necesary for some of them. samfrostie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Well our sessions are only 2.5 hours long too. Some children do stay all day, but 70% or so just take mornings or afternoons. I'm sure it's not essential YOU MUST DO, but I think it's a good way of keeping in contact Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Motherclanger Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Our sessions are three hours long but we only do mornings, we are just about to re-introduce home link books to help develop good communications with our parents. We did get some negative feedback from our parental questionnaire about parents being unable to communicate with their child's keyperson, so we thought it would be a good way of keeping them informed even if there hadn't been any direct communication. We will write in the books everyday to tell them what their child has been doing etc, sometimes it isn't easy trying to welcome and settle your keychildren and talk to eight different parents at the beginning or end of the session. Do you all talk to your keychildren's parents everyday ? If so enlighten me how you manage it, please ! Motherclangerx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 Well sometimes they don't want to chat! I have 9 key children and I'm the manager too, so often other parents need me as well for other things. Our children arrive from 8.45 to about 9.10 - depending on their own morning journeys - ours come from as far afield as 10+ miles so can't all arrive on the dot of nine - especially if they take other children to school first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynned55 Posted April 30, 2009 Share Posted April 30, 2009 We are a 3 hour sessional group. I feel that as it is only 3 hours and as staff are always available at the beginning and end of sessions, home link diaries/sheets would just be another paper excercise. We have 5 staff in every day for 25 parents, I try to make sure that 2 staff are available with no other duties each drop off and pick up.Even if it's just to smile at a parent and say, they had a good day today. Not all our children do 5 mornings so for some they wouldn't have all their keyworking children in each day,so that makes things easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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