Scrapped 'timetables' In Year R - Free-flow/child-initiated Le

[Guest]

Hi All,

 

Have finally had time to log on here!

 

Can any of you Year R teachers let me know whether you have been brave enough to scrap all traditional timetables in favour of free-flow child-initiated learning - so not going to assemblies, not having playtimes and not following any structured sessions during the day except for lunch times? I am interested to know and how this has been received by the head and other colleagues!

 

Thanks!

[Guest]

Hi Louloos

 

Well we don't go to assembly and we don't have playtime and we eat lunch with the children and have a short lunch break but we don't have freeflow all morning and all afternoon. We use a High/Scope daily timetable where we have small group times, large group times and then plan/do/review and we do this morning and afternoon. Our morning and afternoon sessions are both 2.5 hours but in September we are going to 3 hours to see if we can manage it!!!!

 

We don't miss having a playtime at all and as there are two of us in each class we go to the loo as and when we need to and then we have our snack and lunch with the children. We join the rest of the staff in the school for half an hour over their lunchtime while we have midday meals supervisors for half an hour with our children.

 

We do an assembly in class each day.

 

The day seems to flow well and the children are settled and engaged!

[Guest]

Wow Emilia!

 

Thats sounds great !! Its nice to hear that it is manageable. It certainly gives me some inspiration and maybe some 'balls' to try something similar next year - knowing it can work.

[emmajess]

We don't have playtime or whole class snack time and for us it runs much better that way - I think those small transition times are tricky for the children and adults to manage really well, and now the children are able to engage in their play for longer periods of time, rather than being stopped playing to go to play! Still go to whole school assembly, though, which has its good points as well as its down sides - good for whole school feeling etc but often not well targeted to reception age children, moe oftentowards upper KS2, so not great in that respect....

But scrapping playtime and snack time was a HUGE breakthrough and change in mindset in our school, so I'm pleased with the changes we've made so far.

[Guest]

We dont go to assemblies and this has freed up lots of time for us (unless i think the children would enjoy going to any of them that its!) We have a milk and fruit snack bar which the children access when they want through the day and my next step is to scrap playtimes - we are almost there but staffing has changed lots and lots through this year and we are relying on other staff arond school to cover breaks at the moment so this has been tricker - from September we wont have break times though!

[Guest]

Thanks for the insight everyone - I'm off to a new job in September and it's something I'd like to put to my new head! Knowing it's manageable is great to hear and backs me up really!

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the insight everyone - I'm off to a new job in September and it's something I'd like to put to my new head! Knowing it's manageable is great to hear and backs me up really!

 

 

So if you are doing free-flow child-initiated learning all day, what sort of planning would you do - learning walls? weekly obs and then plan the next week on children's interests - planning just learning intentions or what? Mine is too overplanned, although go with children during PDR, want to do it all on their ideas.

[Guest]

Hi, this is my first post to the forum.

 

I am a Reception teacher and i have been asked to create a new timetable for my head so she can see what i will be doing in September in the class.

I only joined the school last year as a NQT and the class was run like a year one classroom and is was very structured with a full literacy and numeracy hour every day and only CIL on a friday.

I have moved right away from this but still don't feel their is enough CIL.

Iwas wondering if anyone could share their timetables with me on here as i would be happy to share mine after. I could judt do with a bit of help to see things visually.

 

Thanks x

[Marion]

Hi All,

 

Have finally had time to log on here!

 

Can any of you Year R teachers let me know whether you have been brave enough to scrap all traditional timetables in favour of free-flow child-initiated learning - so not going to assemblies, not having playtimes and not following any structured sessions during the day except for lunch times? I am interested to know and how this has been received by the head and other colleagues!

 

Thanks!

 

We had worked this way for four or five years as an EYU and then a fully integrated FSU. At first this wasn't well received by other staff, especially KS1 as I no longer took my turn on playground duty and things like hymn practise but the head was very much behind the move. The only really "structured" times were registration and prayers at the end of the day - we are a more structured since EYFS.

[Guest]

I have spoken to my head, and am going to trial 'no playtimes'. My TA wasn't happy, so she has been included in the playground rota, and I will have to send her for her breaks. My Head is ok with the idea, but is worried that I will miss out on my social times with the other staff - that's why I'm only trialling it. I have had a rolling snack bar for 2 terms now, and think it is fantastic. I will go to assemblies, but only when I feel the children are ready, and probably only the ones on a monday and friday. The only reason mine may have to go to assembly, is that they make up a chunk of my ppa time.

I have a very rigid timetabled cll and psrn beacuse I do it at the same time as year 1, who for their mental starter share my room. But once that is over mine are free again. I am hoping this will all work, and luckily with the support of my head, if it doesn't I can change it.

[Guest]

Hi Lizziebee, welcome to the forum,

 

We moved this way last year but came from quite a play based routine already. We moved to having whole class doing adult led times together followed by everyone doing CI time. You could easily run them together as many reception classes do, but our LA entry system makes this easy to manage. We abandoned rolling snack as we fund it too hard to monitor.

 

8.45 - Register

9.15 - 10.00 - Small Group Time

10.30 - 10.15 - Snack Time

10.15 - 11.30 - CI Time

11.30 - 12.00 - Phonics / Story

 

1 - 1.45 - Small group time

1.45 - 2.30 - CI Time

2.30 - Playtime with Y1/2

2.45-3.10. Story

 

I do get less breaks but we still get cover at the 'whole school morning playtimes' so depending what we are doing we can usually nip up to the staffroom alternate days. It has certainly taken away the chaos of trying to fit everything in and we have tried to mirror the routines of our feeder pre-school.

[Guest]

Hi

 

We trialled having no playtimes last year on the days that we were not on playground duty. I found it to be very successful so this year we will have no playtimes as children have access to outdoors all year round. No playtimes meant that the children had longer on CIL and it also allowed moer time for the adult focus activities. It also helps you cut down on your carpet sessions as you can do Phonics first thing, introduce focus etc and if need me have no more carpet time until lunch.

 

I would like to know how other schools have managed TA's not having break times ? due to their hours.

 

We also do not go to assemblies unless special assemblies where children are being celebrated.

[Marion]

I'm not sure what you mean about TAs not having breaks due to their hours. There doesn't seem to be standard working hours for TAs around the country.

When we moved to no playtimes the information was that no one is legally entitled to a playtime break it is something that most schools allow staff while children are on their break. Employment laws say you are entitled to a break if you have worked continuously for more than 6hours

[Guest]

Hi Marion

 

Thanks for that....with regards to TA's and breaks the issue that arises is that TA's in Nursery and Reception who have always had a break no longer have one but fellow TA's in Year 1 and above do. Therefore does not that not mean that they are working longer hours.

 

It is a new one for us but I wonder whether some schools still offer the TA's in Reception the opportunity to have a break.

[Marion]

We actually work more hours than the rest of the school because in addition to no breaks we start before and finish after the rest of the school to provide the 3hour sessions for our nursery children so are losers all round in the hours worked.

[Guest]

We don't have a set playtime anywhere in school if a class feel the children need a break then they all go out together so it isn't a problem for us.

 

One way to look at it is that we are there for the benefit of the children and so what works best for their well being and their learning is the major consideration.

 

Like Marion we used the entitlement for one or two members of staff who doublted the legality of what we were doing and it really did make them realise that hey didn't have a case. sounds hard I know but in the end out job is to enable children to learn as well as they can and if this means adults don't get a set break then so be it!

 

What I do know is that no one misses it and our mornings flow so well as we have reduced all those transitions!

 

Hoping everyone is enjoying the holiday!

[Guest]

I agree that having to stop children's learning just so they can go out and have a break does cause a problem. There have been so many times that the children (and myself!) are so engrossed in learning that we've missed "tidy up time" ready to go for break. Then it's all a huge rush to get coats on and some children have toast as a snack so then they have to get their money... It's all a bit of a palava! By the time they have got outside it's almost time to come in again! I would much prefer to not have break in the morning if it was an option. However, I understand that it's a social time for the children to meet with older children and siblings. We have to attend assembly 4 days of the week which encroaches on phonics, literacy and numeracy whole class times. If you're Head allows you to not have breaktimes then I would say go for it! It will make your morning so much more flexible.

 

Good luck

Edited August 13, 2009 by Sallie