Learning Journey

[Sam1985]

Hi I am thinking about changing the way i do learning journey. Currently split it in to 6 areas of learning to show progression. And I have seen people spilting into months

 

How do people do theirs

[Cait]

Ours has 3 areas. The first is the section that parents complete, the second is the children's section full of their own things, photos, things they want in and key person's bits and the third - which is the bit you mean, is observations, next steps and then the six areas of learning

[Rufus]

I find it easier to enter evidence in a chronological order. I don't split my learning journeys into the 6 areas at all I simply use it as a big scrap book and enter all observations, post its, childrens work, pictures etc in chronological order.

[Sam1985]

what info from the parents you include? When you say childrens next steps we generally discussing pupils daily in how they got in tasks. Weekly children being observed and then half termly how they got on and areas to focus on for them. We dont have a form for this do you? Im an nqt and never heard of the way you do it.

[Sam1985]

do you track the different areas with different coloured post it notes?

[Cait]

have a look here

 

this was our starting point. As you are School? and I'm Preschool it will probably be different. At the moment the story is in 2 files; the first bit and third bit is in Key Person's files which are confidentially locked away and the second section is kept in children's trays so they can access them. They have photos from home in as well as things they've brought in from home or holidays. We went with files rather than scrapbooks as they stayed tidier-looking for longer. We had scrapbooks in the past but we had a time when we couldn't find any that fit in the children's trays so had to have a re-think.

 

Learning stories can be time consuming if they are done well, but are a great resource and always commented on favourably by parents who treasure them.

[Rufus]

do you track the different areas with different coloured post it notes?

No, I simply have a big exercise book and I fill it with photos, under each photo I wirte the area that it relates to and next steps if there are any. Post it notes just have the area and Developmental monts referenced on the bottom. These Learning journeys also go home every hapf term and parents add their own photos or comments as they wish.

[Panders]

Im much the same as Rufus, every goes in as it is done, even the children's photos, bits of art work etc. its very chronological, referenced and observations are matched up date wise to an overall sheet at the back of the folder where we can see at a glance which areas we have observed and when, very quickly. We can then plan where we need to observe at a later date. The dates of good evidenced observations are written in on the sheet under the EYFS months.

 

When we have an observation recorded in the Learning Journey, we then turn to the recording sheet at the back of the folder, and starting at the point of the child's true chronological age we look through the EYFS manual, but if the achievement in the observation did not match up to the chronological age, we would actually record the observation under the age in months they had achieved; they may be 36 months old in reality, but may well be achieving something that a 40-60 month old is expected to achieve.

 

The parents are asked to contribute to the folder as much as they wish with photos and anecdotes and they are consulted when we have observations to show to them and discuss progress, over a 12 week period we would have maybe 3 or 4 discussions with a parent and after 12 week blocks we review progress overall and meet with parents

 

The children also have their own scrap books which they can cut, stick, draw and record absolutely anything they wish.