sharonash Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 We like the majority of you are trying to find workable systems of planning. Keyworker have approx 10 children each and are currently trying to plan for them all over a two week period, Do you split your children and focus on a certain amount each week? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 Hi - we are a pre-shchool with 40 kids coming on different days etc etc - just like everyone else - we are finding it hard to manage - so we split them so one week we observe and set next steps for the following week and then with other group as well - we are in the early stages and I do feel that it is getting better, however, we do still add activities due to other children we are not our target group that week as you would normally ie - Fred enjoyed rolling with paint on the shed - we would still repeat for him next week although we would not necessarily have his activity linked to a particular next step and area of learning on our enhanced weekly plan - am I making any sense ?????? Dot................................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 We are a pre-school with 5 keyworker groups. We observe 10 children each week and then plan next steps activities for them for the following week. We also have a loose theme and plan adult-led activities which are available to all the children. We aim to observe all the children over a 6-8 week period. Anita Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tess Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 OK - now for tired brain question. We observe a few number of children each week and plan for them the following week - that is fine. What do you do with all the small "catch as you can observations" of incidental moments - when do you react to them in planning? Do you save them up for their week or react immediatley. and if you react immediatley how do you manage this and we have 4 different Ob's today - making enclosures; cinderella's ball - writing party invites (fancy paper needed); counting and colour mixing. all with planned next steps - but how / when do you do them. sorry hope that makes sense Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 For any incidental obs, we may add an enhancement or next stepactivity for the following day. This would be written on our daily plan which is on display each day. For example, last week the children were looking through catalogues and cuttind out furniure, but we noticed that many of the children had poor scissor skills. We wrote on our plan that we would provide thin strips of paper for practising cutting skills. However, we are still working on our planning and finding it difficult to fit it all in as well as complete Learning Journals. Anita Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dottyp Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 Hi Tess We are pre-school with total of 32 children a day ages 2-4yrs in a village hall setting. Our Keyworkers have between 2 - 6 children each. staff observe their keychildren as they play, making note of their interests on post it notes. These are then transfered onto a weekly planning sheet with links to the EYFS and next steps for learning. Each wednesday we have a half hour planning meeting and all 'next steps' are plotted on a large sheet of paper divided into the 6 areas of learning. We also have a loose theme per half term but often have plenty to do by just following the children's interests. I find by the end of the week each keyworker has made at least 2 or 3 obs on each child, giving them plenty of ideas to plan for the next week. We also include crafts and celebrations on our half termly planning sheet with links to the EYFS. Observations are fed into the learning journeys as and when time allows during a session but our committee pay staff to update their folders every half term outside their normal working hours. We only started this way of planning in Sept 08 after taking advise from Early Years and already the staff are becoming very aware of their key children, their styles of learning and how to keep them moving forward in their learning... dottyp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tess Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Thanks - I totally agree it's trying to fit it all in and tie it together that is the problem. We have all the basic's in place - it is just the final piece of the incidental ob's. I think we may have too many as trying to next step them all is impossible. It's getting the balance right. My staff are still trying to play the tick list game we played last year (2 ob's needed on every stepping stone). Will get there - if I don' drown under paper work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dottyp Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Hi Tess I constantly remind my staff that the children are just 2 and 3 years old so when we say 'moving them on' it's not rocket science, it's just very small steps of achievement. Sometimes we think too hard and too long about 'outcomes' 'tying up obs' etc etc and find it overwhelming! Just keep it simple and it starts to become fun (honest!!!) dottyp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tess Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 I totally agree..... it's my words of week at the moment. All I seem to be saying is keep it simple - someone wants to plan cinderella's ball this week - complete with food, outfits and scenery (kids writing invites), someone else wants to make kites (capes in breeze) and lots of formal teaching . Trouble is I'm beginning to doubt myself - when you say keep it simple and managable so often, you do begin to think it's you. My key words are simple next steps, and quality not quantity on the number of observations. Lets see what happens today - please no more balls (funny I can't manage that overnight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 (edited) Hi, we have our own key children but we short obs every child in the setting. This gives different views of every child. When comes to planning we plan for chldren that are leading us into certain areas i.e CLL, PSED. We use the postit notes as evedance on the back of our weekly planning sheet. Highlighting the chidren we have planned for in same colour from postit note to form. We don't plan for every child. We use the unique children and expand their knowledge but being inclusive we expand their learning on to the rest of the children. We rearly get the same children each week! Hope this is ok for you have attached the weekly planning sheet i use. weekly_planning.doc Edited March 18, 2009 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 I thought I had my planning all sorted, well it works for us anyway! but this week one of my staff has covered planning at college as a part of her DPP and the way she has been told to plan goes against everything we do. At present our long term plans are our continuous provision sheets, medium term plan are our next step sheets which each member of staff completes for their key children on a monthly basis, and then we have a weekly plan which is completed following a hours meeting every friday to discuss next steps, observations and interests. We then choose activities which incorparate their interset and set the learning itention to match their next steps we also plan enhancements to continous As I've said this works for us all of our children are progressing really well and are always enagaged and having fun. My staff member has been told we should have a long term plan of all the topiucs we are to cover over the course of the year(we don't do any topics!), a medium term plan detailing all the activities WE would like to do as a part of that topic, and a short term plan connecting the activities to learning intentions. this doesn't seem very child led to me but am now questionning if I have got it all wrong and we are not doing enough I have attached my planning sheets would be interested in your comments weekly_plan_am.docx weekly_plan_pm.docx Planning_meeting_notes_week_3.docx Key_Activity_Plan1.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 My staff member has been told we should have a long term plan of all the topiucs we are to cover over the course of the year(we don't do any topics!), a medium term plan detailing all the activities WE would like to do as a part of that topic, and a short term plan connecting the activities to learning intentions. this doesn't seem very child led to me but am now questionning if I have got it all wrong and we are not doing enough Don't worry! What you are doing sounds great. We have another member who is also doing her DPP and has been told the same thing. They don't seem to have updated the course at all to take account the recent changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynned55 Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 I think it lookss fine s wel. We dont do topics (haven' done for last 2/3 years now) so only things that we put on our long term plans are themes like celebrations and festivals (xmas, easter, etc) mothers day/birthdays etc. I think as Carol says the course material hasn't been updated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Has anyone in your setting been on the Observation, assessment and planning course? If not I would highly recommend it, you will find some of your queries cleared up. Particularly the fact that if you have 26 children at a session you cannot possibly individually plan for each child on a daily basis and you would not be expected to. All the children will be interested in the different selection of activities on offer, and as long as you have good observational practices in place and record keeping you will meet the needs of the children eventually. Flexiblity is key so that you show that you are responding to the childrens interests and adapting to their needs. The course tutor suggested 2 x 3 minute observations per six weeks and 2 annectdotal per week is what you should aim for on each child. We actually do slightly more than that to get a broader picture of interests. We observe the children, then have a staff meeting and plan for the week but still allow for extension and revision of planning through the week. Hmmm not sure if that make sense or not but am running out of steam now......keep it simple and get lots of feedback from children and parents and record it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 it looked fine to me how can you have a long term plan for topics!!! we should follow childrens interests and they as we know do not go long term. Slightly puzzled at long term continious provision! How do you mean? my weekly plan is my continous provision, we plan weekly for interests with what KP have observed it works well for us Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharonash Posted March 21, 2009 Author Share Posted March 21, 2009 I have had a meeting with our local college as we are also finding that they are training in a completely different way. I was tld that the trainers hadnt been trained on the EYFS!!! LOL! and that they had to teach something so are saying to the students that this is a basis and each setting will train you according to their practice! Kind of cop out wouldnt you say! Apparently the tutors are being trained as we speak. I then spoke to our EYATS who suggest a long term plan as a basis of what you are intending to cover ie Easter, Christmas, Season etc. and continious provision sheets Medium term plan would include some of the above and main areas of learning identified from the children. Short term plan - focus activities to over above and individual planning for children based on their next steps. Our medium term plan is every 2 months ( we are a day nursery) Hope this has helped- but hey my planning is a mess and we still cant get it right, I'm confident of what to do in principle but do you think we can get a planning format that works NO! Have a good weekend all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 Hi Tess I constantly remind my staff that the children are just 2 and 3 years old so when we say 'moving them on' it's not rocket science, it's just very small steps of achievement. Sometimes we think too hard and too long about 'outcomes' 'tying up obs' etc etc and find it overwhelming! Just keep it simple and it starts to become fun (honest!!!) dottyp Totally agree, children don't always need 'moving on' or 'next steps' they need time to repeat, consolidate, explore 'same' knowledge, skills, experiences in various contexts. I never underestimate childrens ability to move themselves on as well, maybe concentrate on children who appear 'stuck', or need encouragement to areas of the curriculum that they don't often visit, ie: use their observed interest to introduce particular concepts ie: interest in frogs, need more 'input' with maths 'one more than' plan to do 'frog' action songs. So in a sense there are 3 outcomes to observations; What interests the child, what learning are they experiencing(knowledge, skill, attitude), and in what style are they learning - social style solo, parallel, co-operative etc and learning style, kineasthetic, schema, interest in symbols/pictures for learning, sensory focus etc. Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 (edited) I thought I had my planning all sorted, well it works for us anyway! but this week one of my staff has covered planning at college as a part of her DPP and the way she has been told to plan goes against everything we do. At present our long term plans are our continuous provision sheets, medium term plan are our next step sheets which each member of staff completes for their key children on a monthly basis, and then we have a weekly plan which is completed following a hours meeting every friday to discuss next steps, observations and interests. We then choose activities which incorparate their interset and set the learning itention to match their next steps we also plan enhancements to continous As I've said this works for us all of our children are progressing really well and are always enagaged and having fun. My staff member has been told we should have a long term plan of all the topiucs we are to cover over the course of the year(we don't do any topics!), a medium term plan detailing all the activities WE would like to do as a part of that topic, and a short term plan connecting the activities to learning intentions. this doesn't seem very child led to me but am now questionning if I have got it all wrong and we are not doing enough I have attached my planning sheets would be interested in your comments Hi I am currently doing DPP (at home learning tho so no tutor to really talk to) but you may find i have posted about this on here. Totally frustrated with this planning assignment as it goes against what my setting is doing! I had to use the layout my tutor wanted ie topics and do a medium term plan covering these topics and then a short term plan where i used continuous provision, enhancements to do very loosely with the topic plus boxes that said childs choice...a right old mixture! When I asked my tuor for advice i didnt get any. Think its because it all so new. Even all my college books provided still talk about birth to 3 and foundation stage. iwould ignore what the course says as I think its all out of date. Go with what you know works for you. Edited March 21, 2009 by marley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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