Structure Of The Day Help Pls :)

[jodiebt]

Hi there,

 

Im looking for a bit of help on how people structure their day in a reception class...

 

i teach in a two form entry reception class and have made big changes to go towards child initiated learning and allowing the children to engage in contin. provision for extended periods of time. I do daily phonics, v short maths sessions and a planned focus activity everyday. I know the balance should be 70% CI and 30% AL, at the moment my children are getting more than 70% CI however there are adults interacting all the time and moving them on in their own learning either individually or in groups the children are playing in. Im happy with this and feel the children are making significant progress and the adults are supporting their learning more effectively in the play than they would be in more preplanned adult activities. It also reduces transitions for the children. however, does this give the children their 'entitlement' to adult led activities?

 

i wondered if anyone could give me an example of how they achieve the balance of 70/30 and how effective it is?

 

sorry for such a babbly message! ill be very grateful for any help

[KST]

I have actually never heard of the 70/30% split you are talking about - have I missed something major?! As far as am i aware the EYFS states that we should provide a balance of adult led and child initiated learning. It is the assessment of their learning that needs to be 80% from their child initiated learning and only 20% adult led.

 

From what you describe, it sounds to me that you are doing a great job! I currently do it similar, although I have been aiming to do 2 adult led tasks a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but one of these may be PE or a music session. I do find it hard to get through 2 adult led tasks each day so sometimes just do 1. like you, I place a huge amount of emphasis on the importance of child initiated learning, if you know you are meeting the needs of your children well through this I wouldnt change things. It allows me to tailor learning to the individual child much better than through adult led tasks.

[jodiebt]

thanks KST. the 70/30 is said to be a rough guide of what the 'balance' should be. I tried two focus groups a day but found i wasnt getting enough time to interact and observe (i also read with every child once a week and fitting everything in is already a nightmare!!).

 

Do you work with all the children in your class on a focus activity each day? I have a class of 30 and work with half (roughly) a day between me and my ta.

 

Also (sorry to be a pain!) how do u plan for individual next steps? i just read another reply u had written else where about termly next steps... wot does that look like?! im using plods and trying to plan all focus activities around children interests but its hard making sure i work focused with them all on sumthing they r interested in.

 

thanku so much again... and to anyone else who can help!

[Louloos]

Hi people!

 

I am in a four form entry infant school leading Year R and new to the school since September. We have been making significant changes to the way we do things and are really trying to embrace the EYFS fully making our day much more CI rather than AI/Led as the previous head didn't appear to do Early Years! However, we still have to 'teach' the children and we are struggling with exactly how we do this! Please can you tell me how you actually do your adult led stuff. We had been splitting our week into 'subject days' for our adult led specific teaching of skills e.g. CLL all day Tuesday where our focus might be writing. We would then work with our little groups but this would take all day to do thinking of equality for all. Our continuous provision was then enhanced with lots of other things for the children to access independently. Doing it this way works as you can tailor the way your work with the children to the needs but the downside is you are then rushing all day to ensure they all access it. We also do daily phonics setting across the year group and I do lots of mental Maths on the carpet for 10 mins which they love! The thing we find hardest is fitting in observation and getting the evidence from that 80% of CI. Many of our children are not accessing the writing area out of choice, wrting lists, invitations etc. depsite what we put in there following their interests. They want to make things all day which is great and I've been enhancing the craft area with things to write with and most of the boys really just want to use the construction toys and the computer all day long!

We also have an outdoor area that isn't attached to two of our classrooms which hinders our current progress as we have to timetable our LSA's out there, however from next September we will be three classes and all attached to the outdoor area which will make it all so much easier!

Anyway, sorry to ramble but some advice would be greatly appreciated as I'm trying really hard to also convince my team and do what is right for the children!!

 

Look forward to hearing your replies!

[KST]

When I am doing the focussed activity I do it for all the children, but I think if I were to run the activity all day I would do it half the day and get my TA to do half. It currently works more like this for us at the moment...

 

Monday morning - guided writing session, Monday afternoon - outdoor PE and library (I usually have 1 writing group left to work with too in the afternoon)

Tuesday morning - PSRN focussed activity, Tuesday afternoon (finish maths groups) and start creative/topic activity

Wednesday morning - PE (dance or gym) and circle time, wed afternoon - continue creative/topic activity

Thurs morning - PSRN focussed activity, thurs afternoon - topic/finish maths

Friday - Morning - guided reading, afternoon - music session (half an hour) and finish guided reading groups

 

Does this sound about right? I don't currently do individual reading as can't fit it in. I do sometimes do phonic reading activities in the afternoon. I think I will have to review the way I work next year as I will loose an adult. I currently have 31 children.

 

I'm lucky to have 2 TAs this year as one child has pupil specific funding so it means I can have 1 adult doing focussed task, 1 adult inside making observations, extending learning etc and 1 outside doing the same. Children have free flow access to outdoors all day. Children access CI continuous provision all day except when doing their focussed tasks.

 

With regards to next steps - I write next steps next to observations of children in their learning story. I then do PLODs which are basically their core next steps for each area based on observations and gaps in the profile. I will choose a theme (context for learning) based on something I feel most/a lot of children are interested in. The theme will run for 2,3 or 4 weeks it just depends how into it the children are. If they loose interest and another interest emerges I will change it to that. So far though, all children have become engrossed in the themes. I based my adult tasks around the theme and on next steps that I know broadly lots of children share.

 

 

I also find it very hard to ensure you meet every childs interest, what I have been doing and would be interested on feedback on this is - having a 5 focus children a week. I ensure I get a longer obs of the children during the week they are a focus child and I enhance my provision to meet the needs specifically for those children. So by the end of a half term each child has been catered for. I will enhance the provision on a daily basis on observations of all children as and when they occur.

 

Whilst I do themes (at the moment we are doing mini beasts) I also have a group of girls really into princesses so I have got a fairy tayle castle outside and lots of provisions to support this. I also share concerns about boys writing!! Although I bought some ben 10 pencils and lightning mcqueen pens the other day and that seems to have interested lots of boys this week!

 

Hope I've answered all your questions - not saying my way is the right way, i'm still learning!

 

KST xx

[Louloos]

Thanks KST. Sounds a bit like all of us really! It is hard to only have the two of us and even harder with our outside area being the otherside of the building for us as this means there are mornings and afternoons where I have no TA so what can you really achieve on your own?? I will change to observing and interacting during these sessions. I know my children really well so I know they are making good progress and the rest of what I am doing is based on their needs and interests anyway!

 

Louloos

[KST]

Sounds great LouLou. You can only do the best you can in the situation you have. Sounds like you have a good balance. x

[Guest]

Hmmm.....

 

I have an interesting predicament and would be interested to hear your views. I currently am in a job-share that used to be Rec/Y1 mix but is now pure Reception.

 

Our timetable is:

 

All mornings ~ 20 mins phonics. Literacy session, 1 group working with teacher, one with TA. These activities rotate through week, differentiated for groups. Literacy play activities out for other groups. Maths session, same format as Literacy.

Afternoons ~ topic, Teacher and TA led activities throughout afternoon. 2 PE sessions a week and an ICT slot in ICT room. Our planning is linked to topics that don't interfere with Year 1 and 2, all with detailed medium-term planning.

 

We had a visit from early years advisor who said we were doing too much, my job-share doesn't feel comfortable with CI as she feels guilty for being paid to play and likes to know what each child is doing and when.

 

In September, I will be full-time in the class. How on earth do I go about making changes that the rest of the school will agree with and also the parents will be happy with?? I do have a supportive head but I want to make sure I'm prepared for September.

 

Any advice on layout of days, planning etc would be gratefully received.

[KST]

Oh my goodness that sounds more formal than what year 1 should be! I would really really look forward to making changes if I were you. Just make your staff read EYFS for a start! There are lots of good publications that support the value of play. I think as soon as you start the child initiated process and get into observing and supporting children in this way you will see how much they learn and will feel liberated!

 

EYFS says there should be a balance of child initiated learning so when children are not engaging in adult led tasks they should be able to choose what they want to do, not just with selected resources related to a particular subject area. And it also says you should plan in response to childrens interests not pre-determined topics.

 

I know it probably seems scary to have to convince your staff but I had to deal with this when I arrived and although it hasnt been easy, they are starting to see how much better these children are for it. Just keep reminding yourself that you know you are doing what is right for the children. I am currently reading a book called 'Moving on to Key Stage 1 by Julie Fisher' - it will do the argument for you and should make key stage 1 teachers realise its not what is right for the teacher but what is right for the children. If you want any other advise, there will be loads of experienced teachers on here who will support you. Good luck xxx

[Guest eck1975]

Oh my goodness Jo916.

 

Has your job share been on the EYFS training? Maybe this is a good place to start - any Teachers/TAs who haven't been on it, go on it. Am sure if you ask for your Early Yrs Adviser's support, they will support you and your school in making the changes to more CI learning and also an equal balance of the areas of learning.

 

I had mixed YR/Y1 for two years and things were more formal then, more Y1 based even though we were in the Reception classroom, partly because I didn't have all of the Y1s - the others were in a mixed Y1/2 class, so there was a lot of scrutiny on whether the Y1s in my class were getting what they were supposed to and a lot of concern that they were repeating Reception, which wasn't the case at all. They have all gone on to do very well. I am biased, but I think they benefitted from being in a class where they could still access CI activities sometimes, rather than the other Y1s who were in a very formal Y2 situation. Anyway, I seem to have digressed .... sorry. I had to kind of re-educate myself into a less formal literacy & numeracy session every morning and then topic sessions in the afternoon.

 

Will you be the only Reception teacher in September or are there more Reception classes at your school? Is there a Nursery at your school? How do they do things? Could you work with them and be more of a Foundation Stage Unit than an isolated Rec class?

 

I often wonder if I'm getting things right, but what I do is:

 

(I have one TA Mon-Thur mornings, a different TA Mon-Fri afternoons, no TA Fri mornings)

 

Morning - Registration, (Whole school assembly, - Mon, KS1 & Rec assembly - Tue, Hymn Practise - Wed, Celebration assembly - Fri) we then choose the 'Special Day Person' and have a sing and a dance, then we have a 'carpet session' - this isn't a set subject or area of learning, it is whatever is appropriate for that week. Sometimes, especially after a holiday it is a 'show and tell' session. Then there may be an adult focussed activity, there may not be. If the carpet session was a CLL or PSRN for example, then there would be AF activities throughout the morning. The CI activities cover all the areas of learning not whatever the carpet session/AF was. We start snack at about 10am or just before, a group at a time while the other groups are engaged in CI or Outdoors, we have daily phonics after snack, 10.25-1045 (at the same time as KS1, as two Y1s come to me for phonics), we then have freeflow with Nursery - we open up the doors between Rec & Nursery and the children from both classes can CI in either class or outside. We have a rota for freeflow time - I am outside one day, in Nursery 2 days and in Reception 2 days. This is absolutely brilliant for transition. Nursery finish at 11:30, so tidy up at about 11:10. We then continue any AF/sometimes have a brief carpet session. We use freeflow time for focussed observations, we all observe YR/YN.

 

Afternoons - Monday ICT/Guided Reading - we split the class roughly in half (by guided reading groups) and I take half to the ICT suite while my TA does Guided reading with one group in the classroom, the remaning group in the classroom CI. Then we swap over. The children then have CI/we may have AF to finish off. My TA changes reading books.

Tuesday - totally depends what our focus/topic is that week - we have the whole afternoon, so often KUW/Investigation/Cooking type stuff or Creative, but is sometimes CLL/PSRN. We start with a whole class carpet session/intro, then AF/CI activities. Either myself or TA continue with Guided Reading groups.

Wednesday - my PPA time. A TA covers my PPA, so the two TAs split the class - I plan music for one, Circle Time for the other, then they swap and repeat with the other half. When they have finished the focus activities the children have CI. One TA changes reading books.

Thursday - PE usually followed by RE (we are a Catholic school), which is sometimes whole group, sometimes group work. Guided Reading, if time.

Friday - as Tuesday.

 

I hope that makes some sort of sense! ... it does to me, lol.

 

We have one Nursery class and one Reception class and we are joined together. We both have access from our classrooms to the outdoor area, which we share. We do try to work as a team and loosely do the same topics, we have some sort of shared day each term, e.g. we did 'Under the Sea' as a topic and had an under the sea day for the foundation stage, when all the children came dressed up and we had snack all together (bit of a squeeze!) - we had biscuits and juice as a treat. We did a dinosaur day the following term. We are doing teddy bears this term and inviting grandparents in for a teddy bears picnic all together. We also do shared trips - we took them all to see We're Going on a Bear Hunt at the local theatre and this term we're all going on a steam train and going bug hunting. The Nursery teacher and I try to have a weekly meeting, but this does have to be a dinner time. The TA that works in Rec in the afternoon is the NN in the mornings, she usually also gives up a lunch time to meet with us, the TA I have in the mornings isn't able to.

 

My recommendation is to establish an Early Years "Team" with any other EYFS teachers and the TAs/LSAs who work in Foundation Stage. It really makes a difference. If you don't have any other Reception classes or a Nursery class at your school, how about arranging visits to other local schools, to see how they do things in Reception. Am sure your EY adviser would help sort this out and recommend good schools to visit.

 

Good luck with it! Keep the faith! EYFS is brilliant! x

[Guest]

Wednesday - my PPA time. A TA covers my PPA, so the two TAs split the class - I plan music for one, Circle Time for the other, then they swap and repeat with the other half. When they have finished the focus activities the children have CI. One TA changes reading books.

 

 

You're timetable sound great to me, but this brought a question to my mind. I always thought that legally teachers were not supposed to have to plan for the lessons when they are on PPA, someone else is supposed to plan and deliver the lesson. Have I got this wrong?

[KST]

I think it depends on the school. I have to plan for my PPA but as I know the children it makes more sense for me to do it, I have an HLTA cover mine and I she doesn't do any planning.

 

Also liked your timetable eck1975, sounds quite similar to mine but we don't have a nursery. Lovely that you are involved with them throughout the year x

[Guest]

eck1975 ~ My class is only Reception, no on-site nursery. My job-share has been in this class for well over 10 years. I think her worries about CI is that some children will only ever play with one thing and won't necessarily develop their learning, and I have to admit I also believed that, having seen children getting bored when not focussed. However, I do realise that there needs to be direction and thought into the activities on offer to ensure there are opportunities there.

 

I just want to make sure I get it right, but I don't think any EYFS teacher ever feels it's right. I do like to be well planned and know what I'm doing when so it's going to be very hard for me to let go of that. From what some of you are saying, you plan day to day and I just don't think I can be that disciplined.

 

I've visited 2 other schools, one was completely CI and in an hour I observed two children pulling each other around the classroom and then the outdoors being silly with no input from anyone else, which I thought was a bit off. The other was similar to how we run ours so I'm quite confused.

 

We're just developing our outdoor area and have only just started Learning Journeys as well. I think I have a mountain to climb...!

[Guest eck1975]

Kariana - I've always planned for my PPA cover, and my NQT cover when I was an NQT, often I spent so long planning the cover it felt totally pointless having the time out of class, but planning doesn't usually take me quite as long now. I don't know about the legalities, but if there's a TA (not a HLTA) covering my PPA time, they couldn't be expected to plan could they?

[Guest eck1975]

Jo916 - I don't plan day to day, as we (all teachers in each class at our school) have to hand in planning folders on a Monday morning for the week ahead. I usually spend most of the day and evening on Sunday planning (as always end up using my PPA time for Subject Leader stuff), so I am usually very well planned for the whole week.

 

However, I am going to speak to the Head about this, one reason is that I am finding it difficult to get through everything I plan most weeks (I guess I'm overplanning!?), another reason is that it isn't truly EYFS - as I don't feel that my daily observations and assessments are feeding into the planning as they should. I have asked on this forum about people's planning and the consensus seems to be more day to day planning is better.

 

As for CI, it does need to be planned and thought out rather than some sort of free for all. Some things can be games/activities that you/TA have done with the children in Adult focussed time, so they know how to use them/play with them, some things can be linked to your topic etc. I think it's important for there to be an adult to interact with the children during their CI and bring on their learning, making observations and thinking about their next steps etc, both inside and outside, which should ensure children aren't pulling eachother around the classroom, - but this is my (and probably everyone else's) biggest problem - number of adults. Usually there are two of us, sometimes just me, but even with two of us it's v difficult to have one person doing AF, and someone interacting and observing the children inside and outside. Sometimes there are three of us when I have a student.

 

There are ways of getting round children always wanting to use the same things, mixing resources, setting 'challenges' in certain areas, limiting how many children can use certain activities (I made "choosing names" - names and pictures with velcro on, and some activities have a laminated card with 2, 3, or 4 smiley faces on, indicating how many children can use that activity, and the children using it stick their names next to the smiley faces), being a bit cunning about which children can go and 'choose' first, sometimes just a bit of encouragement to do something different. Continually review and vary what's on the CI plan.

 

It's a real shame you're the only EYFS person, or will be as of Sept. Did your EY Advisor recommend those schools that you visited? It's a shame, neither sound like what you needed to see. You should get the EY Advisor involved and supporting you in making changes for Sept. How experienced/open to new ideas is your TA? Get them on board and helping make the changes.

 

I do understand - I still feel like I have a mountain to climb. We've done a bit in our outdoor area, but need to do more, I don't feel I'm using daily observations and children's interests quite as much as I should, my classroom is continually a mess no matter how long I spend tidying up and re-organising things ... I'm not sure I've got my planning quite right and I often don't seem to get done what I intend to get done. Despite spending most of Sunday working and most evenings, I can't seem to get everything done ... but, you have to take a step back and look at what's going well, the children are happy, enjoy coming to school, and are making good progress.

 

Make an action plan and focus on one bit at a time - and keep talking to people on here!

[Guest]

Thanks again eck. I'm going to get through reports and then get the advisor back in I think to go through my thoughts with. Will be a permanent resident on here over the summer I expect!!

[Guest]

Fantastic topic, has been so useful to read through. My day seems to be similiar to many of those mentioned- some short whole class inputs (phonics, CLL, PSRN) and focused activities throughout the week. We have long periods of CI play, during which time children will be called to do a task if necessary. Always struggle to get everything done though!

[KST]

I know that feeling! I think that I need to start planning less!The more CI play I offer the better I think it is - children really do learn so much that way.

[Guest]

Oh my goodness Jo916.

 

Has your job share been on the EYFS training? Maybe this is a good place to start - any Teachers/TAs who haven't been on it, go on it. Am sure if you ask for your Early Yrs Adviser's support, they will support you and your school in making the changes to more CI learning and also an equal balance of the areas of learning.

 

I had mixed YR/Y1 for two years and things were more formal then, more Y1 based even though we were in the Reception classroom, partly because I didn't have all of the Y1s - the others were in a mixed Y1/2 class, so there was a lot of scrutiny on whether the Y1s in my class were getting what they were supposed to and a lot of concern that they were repeating Reception, which wasn't the case at all. They have all gone on to do very well. I am biased, but I think they benefitted from being in a class where they could still access CI activities sometimes, rather than the other Y1s who were in a very formal Y2 situation. Anyway, I seem to have digressed .... sorry. I had to kind of re-educate myself into a less formal literacy & numeracy session every morning and then topic sessions in the afternoon.

 

Will you be the only Reception teacher in September or are there more Reception classes at your school? Is there a Nursery at your school? How do they do things? Could you work with them and be more of a Foundation Stage Unit than an isolated Rec class?

 

I often wonder if I'm getting things right, but what I do is:

 

(I have one TA Mon-Thur mornings, a different TA Mon-Fri afternoons, no TA Fri mornings)

 

Morning - Registration, (Whole school assembly, - Mon, KS1 & Rec assembly - Tue, Hymn Practise - Wed, Celebration assembly - Fri) we then choose the 'Special Day Person' and have a sing and a dance, then we have a 'carpet session' - this isn't a set subject or area of learning, it is whatever is appropriate for that week. Sometimes, especially after a holiday it is a 'show and tell' session. Then there may be an adult focussed activity, there may not be. If the carpet session was a CLL or PSRN for example, then there would be AF activities throughout the morning. The CI activities cover all the areas of learning not whatever the carpet session/AF was. We start snack at about 10am or just before, a group at a time while the other groups are engaged in CI or Outdoors, we have daily phonics after snack, 10.25-1045 (at the same time as KS1, as two Y1s come to me for phonics), we then have freeflow with Nursery - we open up the doors between Rec & Nursery and the children from both classes can CI in either class or outside. We have a rota for freeflow time - I am outside one day, in Nursery 2 days and in Reception 2 days. This is absolutely brilliant for transition. Nursery finish at 11:30, so tidy up at about 11:10. We then continue any AF/sometimes have a brief carpet session. We use freeflow time for focussed observations, we all observe YR/YN.

 

Afternoons - Monday ICT/Guided Reading - we split the class roughly in half (by guided reading groups) and I take half to the ICT suite while my TA does Guided reading with one group in the classroom, the remaning group in the classroom CI. Then we swap over. The children then have CI/we may have AF to finish off. My TA changes reading books.

Tuesday - totally depends what our focus/topic is that week - we have the whole afternoon, so often KUW/Investigation/Cooking type stuff or Creative, but is sometimes CLL/PSRN. We start with a whole class carpet session/intro, then AF/CI activities. Either myself or TA continue with Guided Reading groups.

Wednesday - my PPA time. A TA covers my PPA, so the two TAs split the class - I plan music for one, Circle Time for the other, then they swap and repeat with the other half. When they have finished the focus activities the children have CI. One TA changes reading books.

Thursday - PE usually followed by RE (we are a Catholic school), which is sometimes whole group, sometimes group work. Guided Reading, if time.

Friday - as Tuesday.

 

I hope that makes some sort of sense! ... it does to me, lol.

 

We have one Nursery class and one Reception class and we are joined together. We both have access from our classrooms to the outdoor area, which we share. We do try to work as a team and loosely do the same topics, we have some sort of shared day each term, e.g. we did 'Under the Sea' as a topic and had an under the sea day for the foundation stage, when all the children came dressed up and we had snack all together (bit of a squeeze!) - we had biscuits and juice as a treat. We did a dinosaur day the following term. We are doing teddy bears this term and inviting grandparents in for a teddy bears picnic all together. We also do shared trips - we took them all to see We're Going on a Bear Hunt at the local theatre and this term we're all going on a steam train and going bug hunting. The Nursery teacher and I try to have a weekly meeting, but this does have to be a dinner time. The TA that works in Rec in the afternoon is the NN in the mornings, she usually also gives up a lunch time to meet with us, the TA I have in the mornings isn't able to.

 

My recommendation is to establish an Early Years "Team" with any other EYFS teachers and the TAs/LSAs who work in Foundation Stage. It really makes a difference. If you don't have any other Reception classes or a Nursery class at your school, how about arranging visits to other local schools, to see how they do things in Reception. Am sure your EY adviser would help sort this out and recommend good schools to visit.

 

Good luck with it! Keep the faith! EYFS is brilliant! x

 

 

Have you got an example of your planning that you could upload. It would be extremely helpful to see. x

[Guest]

Hi Guys,

 

Its been fab reading this topic and has made me feel so much more confident about what i am doing. I am an NQT in the only reception class in the school, and after being trained mainly in KS2, the whole concept of early years and especially CI play was a massive learning curve for me. The teacher before me was running the class in a very formal style with all children being 'sent' to an activity and then rotating after each session - the only 'free choice' available was being able to run around the outside area or use the bikes sooooo after going on courses and learning about the EYFS i have tried to make huge changes but feel like there is still so much to do! Anyway my days pretty much go like this:

 

Mornings - ERR and short input to introduce adult led activity Then one group at a time do adult led activity, the rest of the class have free choice of continuous provision - i try to have activities for all areas based on topic and areas where children need more practice, and some other general activities to keep all interested and able to choose something without over crowding. children have free access to outside. Other adult supports play and makes general or focussed observations.

 

(Adult led activities vary on subjects and skills taught, depending on our topic, what children are interested in, where they need practice, what they havent had much of in previous week etc. We dont do certain subjects on certain days (maybe i should?!) Some weeks the adult led mainly covers KUW, other weeks they may be mainly CLL or PSRN etc. I have come to think that aslong as all areas are covered over each half term, through both adult led and well planned CI and continuous provision activities based on childrens needs and interests, then they will get a good balance of all they need - does anybody agree? ).

 

Assembly (once children are ready for it)

Snack

Break

 

Short maths session with all children e.g. activities on IWB, number games and rhymes etc. Then continue as morning until lunch.

 

Lunch

 

Afternoons - ERR. Then all children free choice of continuous provision whilst one adult supports and observes and the other hears readers. We have P.E. twice a week and on these days i will take all children out for P.E. whilst my TA hears readers.

 

It is so hard to fit everything in and i feel like i should maybe be doing more adult led reading, writing and numeracy, but since changing to this timetable the children seem to be getting so much out of the lessons and seem more interested and involved rather than before when i tried literacy one day, numeracy the next etc.

 

I really didnt realise how hard Early years will be - i am never happy with what i am doing!!! but glad to see im not the only one who feels like this. Anyway sorry for massive message, has helped me get stuff off my chest and hope it may be helpful to somebody

 

xx

[KST]

Hi dudette88,

 

I think it sounds like you're doing a great job to have developed things so much in your NQT year. It definitely sounds like the children are getting a much better deal of it!

 

The only thing I wanted to clarify was - do you make sure you do at least one CLL and one PSRN activity a week? I really think that you should because children need lots of practise and repetition of thes skills.

 

Have you considered doing a rolling snack bar instead of stopping for snack? An table set up for snack that children choose to access over the morning? This allows you more time for child initiated learning and to get through your adult led. Another thing I am changing next year is that i'm not going to have playtimes, if children have access to the outdoors all the time then I don't feel they need it but that is probably a personal opinion.

 

Do you have to hear individual readers every week? I personally think that guided reading in small groups is much mroe effective and its less time consuming. I don't hear individual readers.

 

But I don't think you ever feel that you have got it right and I am always striving to make things better! I was an NQT last year and have continued to learn so much this year. I think you have to find a system that works well for you and your children. So feel proud of yourself for what you have achieved this year and good luck for continuing the learning journey for next year! xx