Guest Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 am thinking about doing some research on organising focus activities within nursery settings and have been asking around some of my friends who go in as parent helpers at their children's settings as to how they do it. One friend has reported that at her son's setting the children are in classes and for the first hour, they will rotate doing a focus activity with the 3 key workers in the class so that by 10 a.m., everyone in the class will have done 3 focus activities. Free flow starts after that. I have not come across this way of organising focus activities before and just wondered what others thought about it? To me it seems a bit like doing your work and then being allowed to play afterwards? Thanks for any replies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valp59 Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Definitely agree with you! We currently have one small group adult focus session and I am currently observing that to see the type of play it interrupts as I am considering stopping it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Hi mozart, This sounds like a very old fashioned and formal way of working, which really has no place in any nursery nowadays. When my older children were in Reception this is how the teacher worked, but that is 18 years ago! It sounds like a very interesting research area though and will highlight how different every setting is in it's approach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 not really in spirit of EYFS.. and a Beau said it is how things used to be done many years ago, i took over a group which did this when my son was 4, it changed rather rapidly (that was 20 year ago) Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Hi, Thats seems very strange to me! We run a focus activity every session that goes on for the majority of the session, children are encouraged to part, but not pressurised to do so. This all goes on whilst free flow, a snack bar and other activities are taking place. We find that this works well and the staff member carrying out the focus activity makes notes all children so that the key people can write it up. hope thats of some help. claire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 we do the same as claire, focus activities run alongside free flow and snack, we do about 3 or 4 a week and they run throughout the week so children can return or so we can tweak them to better meet interests!! again children are encouraged but ultimately it is there choice if they take part- majority do!! the thought of the hour of the rotating apporach makes me cringe slightly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 thanks so much for your replies. I think I will definitely do research about this area and would welcome anymore suggestions for how focus activities are organised so that I get a broad spectrum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynned55 Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Do the same as Claire and northernbird except we have the same focus activiy running all week and do one focus in each area of learning per week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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