Evidence From Nurseries

[Guest]

We have now received the records for the children in our reception classes. We have 2 different authorities that send in records and they are as different as can be. One of the records have all the Development matters for each of the 6 areas on 6 sep sheets and the ones that the children have completed are highlighted. the other authority send us an A3 folder with evidence of what they have observed the children doing but no record as to which areas they relate to and include a transfer sheet with general comments

HELP How am I to know where each child is on the 2nd record and do I have to complete all the blanks on their record?

What do others do please?

Carmad

[Guest]

i always have problems with this. i get children from about 6 different nurseries and they always have very different thing, and some even send nothing at all! so i always start a fresh record for each child as they come into school and take this as my starting point, at least this way you know where you are and that your records are all correct. i just keep the things from nursery incase im ever asked for them but this have never happened so far.

[Guest]

As we all seem to be getting different things as records do you not think that there should be 1 universal record that we can all inherit when the children transfer to school , between nurseries etc then there would not be any of these problems

Carmad

[Inge]

as usual this varies from are to area.

 

in ours the LEA provides a transfer to school form which all settings ahve to complete as part of our funding requirements. this way all are the same regardless of the setting they come from.

 

we spent ages filling them in , often with no extra payment as while we got the forms no money to cover the time we took to do them, and with 30 plus children leaving it took ages even split betwen all staff.

 

our issue was the fact that some schools would not look at them, or ignored them, I even had one stating that they did not think our judgement or observations accurate , and as they all did their own assessment on entry anyway did not feel the need to look at them.

 

I must say not all did this but there were some... we found them a bit redundant as the schools we fed visited us in July and we could discuss all we needed at the time.

 

Inge

 

forgot to say all ours reachec the schools before the end of term so they had time to call us with questions if they wished.

Edited September 12, 2009 by Inge

[Cait]

Is this an area where working together would be very beneficial. Schools could liaise with their feeder nurseries/preschools etc and maybe discuss a preferred format - as the ultimate goal is the children's wellbeing. I know I'd be delighted if schools were to take an interest in my children's records!

 

I devised my own transfer form this year and the feedback from 4 of the schools 'my' children fed into has been extremely positive. I haven't heard anything from the other school, but didn't expect to as it's quite a distance away.

[korkycat]

I have devised my own transfer form too and 2 of the schools I feed to are very positive about it. It's only 2 sides of A4 and covers I can do statements for all six areas. This is all very basic stuff but it gives indications of the level the children are working at. Of course, after six weeks holiday and a brand new set of staff and children to meet and routines to follow lots of them don't perform at that level in september.

We have informal discussions about the children with the reception teachers before the end of the summer term as well.

korkycat

[Susan]

You shouldnt need to complete records from another LEA or even from another school unless children are transferring with a profile within F2.

[Marion]

Yesterday I spent my PPA time transferring nursery data onto the profile grids. I seem to have a large number of children who have already achieved 8 profile points and another child who has scored 3 across the profile even though I know she should have higher in CLLD Lang for Comm & Thinking

[Guest]

I k now the feeling as one child who has very poor English skills has had his profile completed to 8 in all areas

I will just have to disregard the scores and start again with him

Does any other YR teacher have these problems?

Carmad

[Guest]

I have to agree with the difference between reports that I am given, as some preschools give the county transfer form, and othes go into more detail. Personally I don't mind how much informtaion the preschools send, and with the execption of one preschool the reports I have are very accurate. Only with one preschool did I have issues - I ended up spending an entire term informaing parents that no their child could not write their name or other words independently, which din't go down well as preschool said they did. But these results are in the minority. I think on the whole my preschools do a very good job. I do do an on-entry assessment, but its more for me to give my TA 1:1 time with the children, to help the child feel safe, than doubting the evidence transfered.

I fing knowing where the children are on the development matters very important, but tend to look over their profile points information thats transfered. (But then again this is from the preschool who we have issues with. I would go and discuss things with them, but whenever I go, the attitude seems, oh good the teacher is here, we'll just get our mobiles out whilst she deals with the kids!) I tend to look back at the profile points pages after a couple of weeks once the children have settled in to see how they are towards achieving the points.

[Guest]

The local cluster of schools produced a format they wanted us to complete this year but frankly it was a waste of time completing it. My staff all found it very difficult to understand what they wanted and consequently the information passed on was inconsistent. We also passed on our usual comments on each of the 6 areas but were told by one school not to bother in in future, they do their own assessment anyway. I sent a copy of the Cluster sheets to another school we feed into and their response was along the lines of what do you expect us to do with this. So much for liaising between settings!

[Guest]

I seem to get one A4 sheet from each nursery with different info on. They all differ in what kind of info they provide and how accurate they are. I find that visiting the nurseries is far more useful, as you can have a proper chat with the staff about the children and get a good idea of the environment and routine that the child is used to.

Unfortunately bits of paper have to be shown to parents and therefore don't always give you the really useful information. Also some nurseries (as with schools) are better at their judgements of the childrens learning and development than others. After a few years in an area you get used to which ones are spot on and which ones to take with a pinch of salt!