Value Of The Foundation Stage Profile

[Guest]

I am currently doing the Early Years Foundation Degree.

One of the competency statements asks about the value of the FSP.

 

As I am now based in KS can anyone give me any pointers?

 

Have written a few things but need fresh ideas.

 

Thanks

[Susan]

You could possibly be in a better position in KS1 to answer this question, than those of us working in FS.

Ultimately its value must be determined by the use that is made of it after completion?

So how did the year 1 teachers in your school use the information?

What do the statistics produced from the collected data tell you/ the school/ the LEA?

[Guest]

Sorry Susan, that was meant to say KS2.

 

Having spoken to a year 1 teacher who has a mixed year 1 and 2 class, I'm not sure that the ELGs are planned for.

 

Is there a lot of work in filling in profiles?

 

Do you think they are valuable or are the stepping stones too broad?

 

I think at the moment we are also using something called Flying Start.

 

I am getting so confused by all of this!!!

[Susan]

ARRRH!

 

Quite a difficult one then! But to some extent my comments remain the same.

 

I think most people would agree that the profile is a massive piece of work, although I think those in LEAs who encourage the use of the eprofile are probably happier than those who dont. That is certainly my impression from the comments on here. It is far more time consuming than I believe it was intended to be and many of us find that it is difficult to use it to celebrate success, as was the intention. In many cases the statements which do not relate directly in many cases to stepping stones or to Goals are very broad. This in turn tends to lead to teaching to profile rather than teaching FS curriculum.

 

The profile was designed to be a useful reporting tool to parents but in fact most parents find it completely bewildering. So in most cases it is not used to report to parents and a more traditional report has to be produced as well. Another workload!

 

The major disadvantage in my opinion is that the profile is only in use in FS2 ie the reception year. This adds to the workload. It would make more sense for the profile to be used across the foundation stage to demonstrate progress and inform planning.

 

I dont know anything called flying start although it sounds as if it could be some sort of assessment programme?

Good luck! Hope this helps a little.

[Guest]

Thanks Susan, you are a star. I shall print this and it will help me in piecing things together.

[Inge]

While the 'official' profiles are only used in reception yr, all pre-schools and nurserys will also produce a profile on each child. The format they use will very often be one they have developed themselves. This is used to demonstrate progress and inform planning, Just as the profile is I believe supposed to in Reception. These records can often be simpler and just as informative. Ours have been developed around stepping stones and as we have developed it ourselves directly relates to them. it is shared with parents several times in the time the child is with us.

 

So if as Susan says "In many cases the statements which do not relate directly in many cases to stepping stones or to Goals are very broad. This in turn tends to lead to teaching to profile rather than teaching FS curriculum" It would not help if it was used in the early stages of the FS.

we have found that some reception teachers do not want any information about the children despite all our efforts, they say they want to find out for themselves and not have preconcieved ideas about the children, So why do we do all this work recording.

 

As for our profiles, It is time consuming until you develop one suitable to the setting, we find that it now takes very little time and is ongoing every session, based on observations.

 

 

Inge

[Susan]

hI Inge, as the reception calss teacher I can not understand that!

I certaimly value all the input that feeder nurseries and preschools send me but often find them to be very sparse and unuseful. Another reason for a consisitent document for the whole of FS then?

[Gezabel]

Oh Susan! How I wish our pre schoolers moved on to your class

 

We spend alot of time ensuring we give 'as full a picture as possible' of each child but the reception teacher is simply not interested She would rather let the children settle in and draw her own conclusions as oppsoed to reading what I feel is valuable and helpful information from us.

 

When I think of the hours and hours we spend doing profiles, including paying attention to their presentation, I have to admit I sometimes wonder why, when I know their contents are not taken on board and in some cases not even read

[Susan]

Well I used to go and visit all the children in their previous settings prior to them starting in school, as part of their induction programme. This worked really well and while I did not let myself get wound up too much about some of the things I was told, as children do react differently in different situations and parents attitudes change once child is in school, or can do, which in turn can affect child. I always valued what had gone before and would like to see a profile that incorporates properly the whole of FS.

[Inge]

So we are not the only ones disheartened by the lack of respect from some reception teachers. we all know how very different children are in each setting but if I have had a difficulty with a child and managed to begin to sort it out it would be great to know that the next step at school could be continued from where we finished rather than another reassesment and starting again.

 

my records are far from sparce and we use them all the time for planning etc.

we do a tansfer to school document for every child moving on to school in June show parents and send to schools in July, some say it is helpful, but I have had several say that they do not even look at them, the comment being that they do not know how true a record it is!!!! They seem to forget we are professionals too, just dont get the money for it!!

 

we all have very valuable skills, many of us becoming very proficient in the early years, a profile for the whole foundation stage may be a step forward but it would depend on content and how relevant it is to the stepping stones as well as the goals. This may help with the schools taking more notice of our input and perhaps the help less proficent at record taking.

 

sorry to rant, feel better now, a sore point with us.

 

Inge

[Inge]

By the way every year we write invite the local schools who are taking our children to come in and visit the children in our setting, no-one ever takes it up or even replies.

 

Inge

[Guest]

Thankyou everyone for your replies.

 

What do you think is the value o f the FSP for individual learners?

[Guest]

oops! Sorry

[Tigger]

I hope the previous replies have been able to answer you FSP queries. I think a can of worms has been opened regarding the differences in pre-school and school relations!

We put alot of effort to ensure a good working relationship with the pre-school attached to our school.

As far as transferring records are concerned we have had difficulties with some of the information that some of our feeder pre schools schools pass on, for example staff helping a little more than we hoped for in producing a picture of themselves unaided and over positive lengthy reports that make comments like Johnny knows all his colours except followed by a list of every colour except red! Some form of national information sharing that all parties agree would be helpful would surely solve this. I do agree with some who say they don't want any pre concieved ideas of the children interferring with making our own impressions of the individual child too so does anyone have any ideas??

I haven't replied to too many messages since joining although I have read probably them all with great interest!

[Guest]

Thanks for your views Sharon.

 

I must admit there seems to be an awful lot of work goes into the profiles but I'm not so sure much of it is used inyear 1.

 

I can see it from both sides but like you, I'm not sure what the best way forward should be.

 

 

regards

[Andreamay]

We fill in the step by step profiles in our pre-school and pass them on to school they take a lot of time and effort and it is very demoralising to know the schhool does not even look at them unless there is a additional need.As the fs starts with us and ends with reception surely one profile would make more sense with the same training on how to fill them in.

[Gezabel]

I would love to see a universal FS profile, the completion of which was started in pre-school/nursery/playgroup and went with the child to reception with teachers continuing the completion.

 

Does that make sense???

 

It seems to me that there is a great variety of 'information' going to reception classes, both in terms of format and content. One document recognised and understood by all those working in the FS would surely make life easier and be more beneficial for the children. Or am I in cloud cuckoo land?

[Guest]

hi

at the moment I think that the FSPs filled in in reception are quite time consuming, they also do not always allow us to reflect the achievements the children have made

the year 1 teachers with the best will in the world do not really have time to look at all the info passed up and probably only pay attention to the overall scores

 

however, on a more positive note ...

year 1 teachers are now doing lots of work on the transition from reception to year 1 and part of that work is looking at how the statements in the FSP relate to the objectives in the NC for year 1

Birmingham LEA have produced a good document called making links which tries to show how the FSP and the year 1 curriculum link up.

Once these links are more embedded I expect the FSPs will be more useful to Year 1 teachers

I know that at my school year 1 now plan to cover some of the FSP stuff in the first term of year 1 as lots of our kids go up not having acheived all the early learning goals especially in CLL and MD

 

hope that made sense.. my head is a bit tired tonight!