Evidence For Moderation Of Profiles

[Jackie A.]

I am a Nursery teacher working in an LEA where reception children are admitted to school the term in which they turn 5. This means that I have reception aged children in my Nursery Class who will be moving into Reception after Easter (the summer-borns).

Our Reception teachers have heard that they are to be visited by a moderator after Easter and they will be looking at evidence of children working at 3 ability levels in CLL and C.

At a recent cluster group moderating meeting, we were told that we need evidence for each point marked in these 2 areas of the curriculum for the chosen children.

We have collected certain evidence in the form of post-its, annotated photos, observations, some children's work, and also in evaluations of group work in phonics and number.

However, my question is how do we present all this evidence? We had started putting relevant post-its into the profile booklet itself in the relevant section, but there just isn't room for those as well as photos. The evidence is in so many different forms that it would be difficult to "present" it to the moderator. Especially as the children will not even be in my class any more, and I will not be present to discuss the evidence, the moderator only wants to see the Reception teachers, who have their own focus children as well (autumn and spring birthdays).

Do you leave the actual profile booklet blank inside, apart from circling achieved goals, or do you put photos/notes within the small spaces provided? How do you present other evidence such as observation sheets, class record sheets, children's work. Do you put reference points within the profile booklet? What do you "do" with all your post-it's?

I am just struggling to find a way of "handing over" all this information to the Reception teachers. I would be interested to hear what other people do.

 

 

Thanks, Jackie

[sunflower]

Hi Jackie,

 

I work in a Reception class and this is my second year of collecting evidence for the profiles.

 

For each child, I complete a Record of Achievement booklet that is provided by the EDYCP. This has a page for each area of learning with a space for the date and then the observation. After each observation I write the profile point that it contributes to eg. CLL CT2 I leave the profiles blank, apart from adding 'nearly there' type comments at the end of the year. I used post-it notes a lot last year, but they started to drop off and get lost. This year I have used a notebook for one-off obs and then written them into the ROAs.

 

I also have a separate folder with a section for each child. I collect long observation notes, annotated photos, photocopies of work etc in here. Again, I go through and write on the profile points that each piece contributes to.

 

What do the Reception teachers in your school do? We are also being moderated this year and I have started to compare my evidence with the other Reception teacher's to make sure that we are looking for the same thing in relation to each point.

 

Hope this helps

 

Sunflower

[Guest]

Hi Jackie,

 

we also keep post it notes as evidence and we stick them in an A4 booklet entitled 'Look what I can do!' - one for each child. The booklet has one page or more dedicated to the six areas of learning (containing objectives copied from the profile) and we stick the post it on the relevant part. When we have gathered enough evidence of the child's achievement in this area we circle the profile and sometimes write a supporting comment.

 

Good luck with your moderation!

 

AngieM

[Sue R]

Just wanted to say Hi and Welcome!! to AngieMia!!!

 

Sue

[Guest]

Hi Jackie,

 

we stopped using the government scales booklet for that very reason, you simply cant fit everything into it. Instead we have produced our own profiles which start in the Nursery and follow onto Reception. We have produced our own end of year reports for parents which cover all the legal reporting back requirements. Our profiles are those type with plastic clear pages in and we put in photos, stick it notes and annotated work into these, also with the stepping stones and early learning goals which we highlight and date when achieved. Other info such as parent teacher discussions also goes in. We find these so much more useful than the scales booklet and all the information on one child is then in one place.

[Jackie A.]

Thank you ever so much for your replies and for reading my very long post! I do think that in the near future we need to sit down as a FS team to devise our own achievement folders instead of using the scales booklet. It would be good to have a system that we can use for FS1 and FS2 as our LEA use a different record keeping system for children in their first year of FS, so we end up having to transfer information from one system to another. I wonder how many other schools have abandoned using the scales booklet?

 

Thanks once again,

 

Jackie

[Susan]

Hi and welcome to Angiemia!

 

The scales booklets were onlt ever optional anyway and for those settings in an authority encouraging the eprofile, unnecessary. It still remains only stsautory to produce the scale totlas at the end of FS2, so abandon those booklets if you have an alternative method of record keeping!

 

I was not in the habit of using post-it notes, I was worried about them falling off but I have been told that if you but the branded variety and not a copy version, there isnt a problem!

[Guest]

I know what you mean about the post it notes! We use sticky 'address' labels which never budge!

[Guest]

Hi Fionas-how do you organise your sticky labels? I favour them for putting in children's profiles/portfolios but favour post-its as they're handy to stick on wall as a visual reminder to file away after.

What do most of you do with these incidental observations? I know some people just use them as evidence and to help them fill in ROA/profile but that others keep them in their 'look what I can do' portfolio of work. I've not got into the swing of it yet but like the idea of it going into their portfolios (we have scrap books with photos/a description of the topic and the type of things we have been doing and samples of the children's work) as I was told they aren't 'individual' enough but think that post-its will just look messy when they go home to parents at the end of the year.

[Guest]

Hi,

 

I had my moderator in today and it was over in ten minutes! This was the first meeting and all we did was fill out a sheet, she didn't even look at the kids or the profiles. Strange...

 

Anyway she did advise me on filling out my profiles and evidence which was good, and as she is also my advisor i went to her school to check out her profiles and planning.

 

I'm doing about twenty times as much as she is for evidence! ah well at least i know what to do next year!

 

buttonmoon

[Susan]

Different in your LEA then!!!!

[Guest]

Just wanted to say Hi and Welcome!! to AngieMia!!!

 

Sue 

26440[/snapback]

 

Hi Sue

 

Thanks for the welcome! I am finding this a very useful site , it's good to keep up to date with new ideas, good practice and various concerns people have - they reflect mine!

 

At present I am updating our foundation policy and reviewing the way we observe our children in nursery and reception. We are also being moderated soon!

 

Good wishes to all,

 

Angie M

[Guest]

Hey Angie - am glad you are liking the site - it's very good isn't it? It's lovely to know somewhere you can come for honest, supportive and good advice!

 

How are you thinking of changing your observational approach in your school? I'd be interested to know seen as there is actually no official stance on observations in my setting! It is seen as a bind from the FS co and NNs - time taken away from actually interacting with the children - so at the minute I very much rely on reading of other people's trials so that when I eventually a) get a new job or the FS co retires, I'm not years behind everyone else!!!!

 

Thanks!

 

D xxx

[Guest]

Hi Zim, we are also giving the portfolios to parents with the stick its included, but as it is a working document we felt that it was fine and the little conversations the children have had are lovely to read no matter what the handwriting is like! We always substantiate the stick its with what the example shows ( in terms of stepping stone or ELG) We write what we have seen or heard, or take a photo and write" this demonstrates that Jenny is beginning to..."

[Guest]

Do you choose certain chn to observe each day/week? I haven't found a method of making sure I've got a balance of observations yet

[Guest]

Zim, I havent found a way to balance either.......I tried observing a child each day but found i was missing great observations of other children. And yesterday I found, through looking through my profiles that I need to make more obsevations for all in Creative development, which I seem to have been quite slack at! I do plan observations when involved in group work, which is easier. Someone suggested to me to do 5 mins with one child, writing down their conversation/ what they were engaged in.......I havent tried it yet but I was told you can get loads out of it.

[Guest]

I know some places spend up to 30 mins observing 1 child, writing everything they see. Others have tracking systems but its what to DO with all this info that gets me There was an article in this months Nursery Ed which suggested drawing a plan of where the children go over a certain period of time so you can see at a glance where they DON'T go. I suppose I should make time and try it-only then will I know if this information will be of any use. I already have quite a good idea of the areas certain children prefer but short of encouraging them to use different areas and providing adult focused activities in those areas I'm not sure what else I can do. I suppose though, that if one of my boys never goes in the writing area I should ensure that there are writng opportunities in the other areas. Its just fitting it all in! Sorry, went off at a tangent there!

[Guest]

I know what you mean Zim. This is exactly what an inspector said to me........why dont I track where the children go so I know they have chosen everything? I thought the point of child initiated activities was that it gave the children the opportunity to follow their own interests and if that meant playing in the sand for much of the day, so be it! The point of adult led activities is then to make sure that all 6 areas of the curriculum are being focused on, and then I make sure that I have seen all the children?Sorry, ive digressed! I tried the 5 minutes writing all down with one child today......really rough notes which i can get examples for the profile as they do show evidence of development eg " Ben demonstrated that he could take turns and share fairly in the playdough today. While playing, Jamie came over but there was no playdough left. Ben said " Jamie, you can have a bit of mine and use the rolling pin. Mines all rolled out now. I'll use it when yours is rolled. I'll make some biscuits"

[Guest]

I am a Nursery teacher working in an LEA where reception children are admitted to school the term in which they turn 5.  This means that I have reception aged children in my Nursery Class who will be moving into Reception after Easter (the summer-borns).

Our Reception teachers have heard that they are to be visited by a moderator after Easter and they will be looking at evidence of children working at 3 ability levels in CLL and C.

At a recent cluster group moderating meeting, we were told that we need evidence for each point marked in these 2 areas of the curriculum for the chosen children.

We have collected certain evidence in the form of post-its, annotated photos, observations, some children's work, and also in evaluations of group work in phonics and number. 

However, my question is how do we present all this evidence?  We had started putting relevant post-its into the profile booklet itself in the relevant section, but there just isn't room for those as well as photos.  The evidence is in so many different forms that it would be difficult to "present" it to the moderator.  Especially as the children will not even be in my class any more, and I will not be present to discuss the evidence,  the moderator only wants to see the Reception teachers, who have their own focus children as well (autumn and spring birthdays).

Do you leave the actual profile booklet blank inside, apart from circling achieved goals, or do you put photos/notes within the small spaces provided?  How do you present other evidence such as observation sheets, class record sheets, children's work.  Do you put reference points within the profile booklet?  What do you "do" with all your post-it's?

I am just struggling to find a way of "handing over" all this information to the Reception teachers. I would be interested to hear what other people do.

 

 

Thanks, Jackie

26398[/snapback]

 

 

Hi Jackie

We put all the evidence for each child in their own A4 ringbinder which is divded into the 6 areas of FS. We keep a seperate 'monitoring sheet/observations' folder also .

We dont write comments in the profile as all the pieces of work in their A4 folder are already annotated so why do it twice (unless we've directly planned for a comment.)

Hope this helps

Jacqui

[Jackie A.]

Thanks for your reply Jacqui. I do find that lots of my evidence (photos, observations) do not fit neatly into one of the six areas. A recent photo for example showed 2 children working together (PSE) decorating © numbers (M) they'd made by rolling lengths of playdough (P). They'd put the numbers in order and decorated them with pasta shapes. They were also talking together about what they were doing (CLL). So this one photo was evidence for 5 areas. So where do I stick my photo to reference it back to the goal that it's evidence for?

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply Jacqui.  I do find that lots of my evidence (photos, observations) do not fit neatly into one of the six areas.  A recent photo for example showed 2 children working together (PSE) decorating © numbers  (M) they'd made by rolling lengths of playdough (P).  They'd put the numbers in order and decorated them with pasta shapes.  They were also talking together about what they were doing (CLL). So this one photo was evidence for 5 areas. So where do I stick my photo to reference it back to the goal that it's evidence for?

27481[/snapback]

[Guest]

I have a print out of the profile with my class names vertically on the left and the stepping stones & ELGs horizontally at the top. I have separate pages for each area of learning - some areas e.g. MD have more than one page.

 

Each time I have collected evidence whether it is written/photo/video/taped etc I log the date of the observation on my class profile sheet and file the evidence (with an observation sheet attached) in chronological order in a file. This way if I need to I can lay my hands on the evidence straight away and if the piece of evidence supports more than one area of learning I can date it in the appropriate areas of learning.

 

If the evidence is too big to fit in my file, I file the observation sheet and put a note where the evidence is e.g. used as class display, in child's big folder etc.

 

I then transfer this information on the e-profile each term.

 

I hope this helps and makes some kind of sense!

[Guest]

Hi Charding, you wouldn't have a copy of that you could post would you? It sounds very similar to what we have tried doing. We basically put our Record of Achievement (I'm going to try and attach a copy of it in another post) which goes from N-R into a class list format as we thought it would be easier to fill in that way. As we didn't have it on the computer at the time we cut and paste the old fashioned way and it took ages!! There are 18 sheets of A3 paper which cover the stepping stones and profile points for each of the 6 areas. We start by putting a red dot next to the point/ childs name for what they can do when they begin nursery, orange during nursery and green during reception. I'm continuing this at the moment but will then have to transfer this info into the eprofile. Because we didn't do it on the computer (silly mistake) we can't just photocopy names as they don't fit columns and it takes ages writing them out 18 times so we've gone back to doing individual ROA.

Do you collect evidence for every child for every point? Or do you just use your own judgement when putting it on the eprofile? What about the stepping stones (as these aren't on eprofile) how do you record them? Sorry lots of questions!

thanks

Zim

[Magenta]

I like the idea of that too Charding - we have on with the Profiel points but not the Stepping Stones - it would make life so much easier!

[Guest]

ClassRecord.docHello

 

Glad I have made some kind of sense. I will try to attach a copy of the format. I can't remember if I got it from someone on the forum or from an LEA so my apologies for not being able to credit the orriginal source! I have adapted it to include some of the stepping stones (appropriate to Reception) but my copy is on my computer at school - hopefully this should give you an idea of what I have done. As I mentioned before, I date it when I have evidence of a child reaching a particular point on the profile. I colour code it when typing the date e.g. red for autumn, blue for spring & green for summer. If I don't have evidence for a particular child then I discuss it with the Early Years Team and we use our professional judgement to whether the child has achieved the point. I like using this format as it gives me an overview of the evidence I have collected and if I have more evidence for some children than others - it helps me ensure that I get a balance of evidence for everyone in my reception class.

 

Zim I would be interested in seeing your record of achievement format as the pre-school are trying to come up with a format that will help with transistion to reception.

 

Thanks Claire

[Guest]

Thanks Charding-that's great. I'm printing it off right now. That's what I wanted to do with our Record of achievement which includes the stepping stones and the profile points but because we didn't have it in a word format which we could cut and paste on the computer we did it with scissors and glue and the result wasn't good. I'm still using it now but the nursery teacher has gone back to using the ROA booklets (so that's what I'll continue filling in when they move up) because we made the mistake of drawing the lines our selves so we can't photocopy the names as the lines are out (does that make sense?) so it would mean her having to write the names 18 times Plus, an individual ROA is preferable for children moving school. However, I like class lists as I always assess a subject at a time-ie who can make a repeating pattern and its so much easier to just fill in for everybody without having to get individual booklets out.

Sorry to be a pain but how much is the one you have at school adapted? Can we see it? I'd be interested in seeing something similar with stepping stones as we need to have ongoing assessments from N-R. I've attached one page of our ROA in another post (titled 'how ironic!') as its scanned in its too big to attach but I'm going to try and find a word format as Magenta would like to see it too.

I'll keep you posted!

Zim

[Guest]

Thanks again Charding. Can't find a word format of our record of achievement but would love somthing like this which also includes the stepping stones. Do you find it saves a lot of time to transer this information to the eprofile each term rather than leaving it till the end? You don't have individual child records as well do you?

Sorry-lot of questions!

Thanks Zim

[Guest]

Hi all... I've just read through this post with interest as we have OFSTED a few weeks into the summer term and as I recently put my name forward to be a FSprofile moderator.

 

At the last cluster meeting I went to, I was told that it isn't necessary to keep an individual file of evidence for each child, and a file of evidence for the cohort, showing what is in place to enable each child to achieve in the FS.

 

We fill in the e-profile as and when we assess any scale point, keeping it as up-to-date as possible. As for sticky lables, I too use the white freezer labels and I have a 'Wows' box and an 'ouchs' box. If I see a child doing something I didn't think they could do then I'll make a note of it on a 'Wow' sticker, and likewise, if I see a child struggling to do something I expected them to be able to do I'll make a note of it on an 'ouch' sticker - and these are all stuck in a file sorted by individual children.

 

I try and set aside Fridays for focused observations, and I observe as many children as I can for 15 minutes at a time. The focus differs from child to child, depending on whether I have any areas of concern, for example, interaction with peers, gross motor performance etc.

 

OR, sometimes, I just wander round with my notepad, like some of you have already mentioned and just catch snippets of evidence and then cut it out and stick it on their individual sheets later.

 

are you bored yet? We use these sheets to inform out reports, to make them more personal. But we don't pass anything other than the report to parents at the end of the year.

 

K, now that's what we do... not sure if it's right or wrong, but it works for us. I've been to moderation meeting where people have collected 10 times as much evidence and quite frankly I don't know eher they find the time, and how mych more use it is.

 

Hmmmm

[Guest]

I found this recently on the dfes Standards site which says

 

'LEAs moderate the Profile assessments to ensure that there is consistency in judgements between practitioners, schools and settings. It is not expected that practitioners collect extensive portfolios of evidence for each individual child.'

 

http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/f..._stage/1145653/

 

My methods of collecting evidence is very similar to paulparkie's. I do like the idea of ouch and wow stickers! I also carry my camera in my pocket all the time. I use a lot of photos for evidence which I put on a display board along side the ELGs they may have covered. It's a bit like a spider diagram.

 

I have the summer term reception children so I end up with FSP and evidence for the first two terms from various preschools. The amount of paperwork that is sent varies enourmously. Some send reams and reams of fairly meaningless paperwork which doesn't really show an awful lot of evidence in the end. Is it really worth all that hard work?

Others send very little but have included plenty of photos with comments and some examples of work but which shows good evidence of the ELG's.

I know which method I'll be using next term, that is, the summer term.

( I'm still on holiday).

[Guest]

Hello

I am new to fsf and i am also new to being a manager of a pre school. The record of acheivement and foundation stage profile are something that i need to get familiar with can anyone give me any pointers as to how to fill them out. I am in the summer term and the staff havent filled any info in record of acheivement, although they have keyworker books and I have introduced post its for ongoing obs. Any help would be appreciated.