Monitoring Quality Of Provision

[Guest]

Hi all,

 

I was wondering what sorts of things you monitor in your nurseries to ensure the quality of provision. There's the obvious things like planning, learning journeys, menu, risk assessments... but what other sorts of things do you keep an eye on and how??

 

Thanks!

[Helen]

I think interactions between staff-child, staff-parents, staff-staff are so important so I've monitored those in the past (I'm not in a setting anymore). I used to raise examples of great interactions at staff meetings, praising staff who took great care in developing respectful relationships with others. I also used to model the interactions that I would want to see continued in my absence, particularly to new staff, or students on placement.

[Guest]

I have found the Early Years Quality Improvement Support Programme (EYQISP) booklet from the Teachernet website to be really useful - I don't know whether it is still available sinece the new government took over.

[mundia]

I would agree with Helen, interactions are really key both between staff and between staff and children.

 

I would also monitor the use of the environment, and staff deployment.

 

A couple of ways that I know this has been done successfully in settings I have worked with are:

Video whats going on, and use that for staff development/meetings, or in supervisions.

Joint observations.. agree a focus and observe together..come back and share what you see. This takes a lot of practice if you have never done it before but its well worth the effort as it gives everyone the opportunity to occasionally just 'stand back and watch'. Sometimes we are just so busy with the day to day happenings that we don't actually do this too often.

 

You can still get the EQUisp materials here