Guest Posted September 24, 2009 Posted September 24, 2009 Could any of you lovely people advise me on this?! After a day from hell I need some pointers! Im 4 weeks in at my new job (foundation unit) and they have always had there learning journeys organised chronologically/ in sections for each term but with the observations from all 6 areas of learning just mixed up - whilst I realise that many observations cover more than one area of learning I feel that some areas are not/wont be focused on as much as for eg PSE will be. I feel that the observations would be better organised if they appeared in designated areas of learning therefore if we are particularly missing out KUW or PD then this will be easy to identify. What do others feel about this? Also in terms of tracking am I to specifically refer to the learning journeys as an aid to tracking and does anyone use the e-profile to do tracking? Sorry so many questions! Many thanks
Guest Posted September 24, 2009 Posted September 24, 2009 We did try doing it in separate areas last year but didn't find it particularly effective and have it in chronological order really builds the picture of the whole child. I take your point of ensuring coverage of all areas but maybe that needs noting somewhere - possible a centrally held class list tick sheet - columns for each area tick when observation has been noted for that area? Just a thought
Guest Posted September 24, 2009 Posted September 24, 2009 Coco, I've puzzled about this, too! Finally I decided to print the targeted observations on coloured paper(red for PD, green for KUW etc) which are then filed in chronological order, so I can see at a glance roughly how many of each are there. Simple but it works for me and the parents! Nona
Alison Posted September 24, 2009 Posted September 24, 2009 (edited) some people sort learning journeys into areas of learning but it does make it difficult when an activity covers several areas, we sort by date then at the end of each term we write a report which summarises all 6 areas we give a copy to parents and put a copy in the learning journey parents can then contribute their thoughts which we can also add to the folders as "parents voice" which ticks another box for ofsted. have you looked at Progress matters we are just about to start to try it this term Edited September 24, 2009 by Alison
Panders Posted September 24, 2009 Posted September 24, 2009 I'm pre school but i have a sheet at the back of the learning journey with the areas and aspects in the first column and then the age ranges in the next four or five columns. Each time we make an observation under an area, we write in the date against which aspect it relates to in the age related column. This way it is easy to see at a glance what observations have been made, which areas are in neglect etc. We like to collect 3 good observations per aspect before we would be sure enough to plan on for the next age group.
Guest Posted September 24, 2009 Posted September 24, 2009 We fill in our learning journeys chronologically so everything goes in in a random order. Every half term we update the EYFSP so we can see then if there are any areas that we don't have evidence for.
Guest Posted September 24, 2009 Posted September 24, 2009 thanks everyone for your speedy replies. lots of good advice as usual! just got to get my head around tracking now...
Guest Posted September 25, 2009 Posted September 25, 2009 We too have some kind of checklist to see at a glance which areas have evidence and we leave it to staff to decide whether they organise the file in chronological or learning area order. If they choose the latter each observation is cross referenced to the other areas of learning that it evidences. It can sound a bit confusing but it does work. Panders, is there any chance you could post the sheet(s) you mentioned in your post above? I'm trying to just tweak one or two things and that sounds like it could be useful but I can't quite picure it.
Bliss Posted September 25, 2009 Posted September 25, 2009 We are a pre-school, and have just had a go at putting data into progress matters tracker. However, not had any training on this yet, and found it surprising that I had to plot each child's progress over the whole learning area, not aspects. Even so, it has already identified that we do not seem to "do" Knowledge and Understanding of the World! Reflecting on whether practitioners are not observing or understanding these development matters, or whether they are ignoring these areas in favour of PSED, CLL and PSRN. We also keep learning journeys in date order as we plan for each child holistically. (Except, perhaps for KUW!)
Guest Posted September 25, 2009 Posted September 25, 2009 we use e profile at our school. once you figure out an easy system to keep track of who has what and have had a practice it gets pretty easy to input. plus you can do loads with it all different sorts of graphs and tables that really help identify issues within your cohort and ind children. I use a spreadsheet on excel to record what each child has achieved which i update weekly x p.s make sure you are given time to input your e profile data not in your ppa time!
Guest heleng Posted September 25, 2009 Posted September 25, 2009 (edited) I teach in Reception and on the wall I have a water lily for each child with their name on. The water has 6 leaves/ petals and they are stapled on the wall in such a way they create 6 pockets. At the bottom there is a key so I know what pocket is for each area of learning and as we write observations they get put into the pockets so I can immediately see what children/ areas are lacking. The pockets are emptied fortnightly and stuck into their learning journeys, these are chronological as we tried it with seperate areas of learning and it just didn't work. Edited September 25, 2009 by heleng
Guest LornaW Posted September 25, 2009 Posted September 25, 2009 we use e profile at our school. once you figure out an easy system to keep track of who has what and have had a practice it gets pretty easy to input. plus you can do loads with it all different sorts of graphs and tables that really help identify issues within your cohort and ind children. I use a spreadsheet on excel to record what each child has achieved which i update weekly x p.s make sure you are given time to input your e profile data not in your ppa time! Why would you not want to input during PPA time? Surely PPA time is Planning Preparation Assessment and and you cannot prepare nor plan until you have looked at the assesment?
Guest Posted September 25, 2009 Posted September 25, 2009 well you see i asked ever so nicely because the rest of the teachers at my school get time on top of their ppa to input their tracking and assessment data so i thought it was ony fair since down in fs we get left out o most things so i get the extra time then my ppa after, 2 birds in one stone x and it does no harm to ask does it
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