Planning For Observations And Info In Special Books

[Guest]

Hello everyone, its been while since I posted on here but I've enjoyed following some posts. I start by apologising if this has come up before!

 

Myself and other staff work on the EYFS profile - called our 'Special books' inserting observations and post it notes with footnotes stating which profile point has been acheived. An A4 page with eight sticky notes each side x 3 for each subject. (is this the norm?) Its alot of notes. Now and then there is the excitment of a photo, an example of work or 'the work itself' ! All in all its alot of hard work and very time consuming. I've developed a more informative style of note taking that tells the reader what has been acheived, how, the child's disposition towards the activity and at times the next steps. If you can explain the difference beteen formative observation and narrative I'd also be grateful as I'm sure I'm doing this already but it would help to have a friendly definition to refer to.

 

Please can anyone help me to be more organised and effective in working through the Profiles for next year? There is great value in showing parents how their child has gone from being so shy and unconfident to talk in front of the class about a trip to the seaside (for example). Parents are keen to know about how the transformation took place in just one year. Some children don't like talking about school when they are at home.

 

If anyone has a good method, a good organisation strategy for samples of work as evidence for each EYFS profile point for every child (I have 30 on role so far). I would be very grateful. I want to be putting some observation / post it notes into the 'special books' on a daily basis. Is there any format to plan for observation ? I want to improve my organisation and management. I've learned alot in the last few years but I need to be clearer in the objective of the Foundation Stage Profile / Special books.

 

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance in this. I am determined to learn from the mistakes of this year and not leave eveything until the last minute.

 

Yours sincerely

Dori

[Lucie]

Hi, I just wanted to tell you about our - not sure im going to be of any use though!

We use a blank book at the start of the year with the profile scales in the front. Each observation is numbered as it is entered into the book and then this number is put onto the scale point at the front, for exqmple observation number 10 might refer to SD2, LCT3, KUW1 etc. so 10 would be written in these boxes on the front sheet.

I then use this sheet as a tracker.

Apart from observations which are done by adults, our children have a lot of input into the books. They put in what they feel is special ''work'' etc, and talk to adults about the photographs that adults or they take. Each term we look through the book with the child and add comments and the parents are also asked to make a comment each term. (Parents can contribute as much or as little as they wish uing ''wow'' cards at any time)

 

I would have thought that all observations are formative...or should be used in this way i.e. to inform future planning.

Narrative obs are the longer ones and from what i understand are used to capture everything a child does in a time span..but written in prose.

I do spontaneous obs daily duing CIP and do 2 focus obs a day, which could be an area, a child (going down the register or picking up on a child who i am concerned about meeting the need for) or a group of children.

Spontaneous obs are filed in each child's pocket (on a door) and put into the folders on a wed and fri (half on each).

 

Hope this makes some sense...not sure if ive helped you, but it has consolidated my understanding of what we do!

 

Lucie x

[Lucie]

PS when doing ''post it'' style obs, i only ever write down something i didnt already know about a child. x

[Guest]

We use a blank book at the start of the year with the profile scales in the front. Each observation is numbered as it is entered into the book and then this number is put onto the scale point at the front, for exqmple observation number 10 might refer to SD2, LCT3, KUW1 etc. so 10 would be written in these boxes on the front sheet.

I then use this sheet as a tracker.

 

 

That sounds great idea, I think thats just what i need. I was wondering how you would track where each childs observations were. Would it be possible for you to upload an example on here for me to look at.

 

xxx

[Lucie]

Gld to hae helped.

can you explain what you mean - 'where each childs obs were'?

The obs are entered in order therefore where the obs is is depicted by its number. Im not ure what you mean, cn you clarify?

I can't upload because its all manually written in and on.