Guest Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Evening all!! I am about to put forward a proposal with regards to a book about Learning Journeys My questions to those of you who use learning journeys are these: *What do you think is so great about them/ why are you happy to use them as part of your practice? *What do you wish someone had told you before you started using them? * What do you personally include in these books? To those who don't use them: *What would you want to know to enable you to confidently use a learning journey in your setting? I would be grateful of your thoughts please to put forward a proposal for a useful book!!!!!!!!! Thankyou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 How exciting scarlettangel and what a great idea. I'm sure it would be a very useful tool for those starting out, or for guidance on what to include or not. Okay we are a pre-school with children aged 2-5years. Each child has a journal which begins on their first day with us. Ours are a scrapbook style, with large bright outer cover, sugar paper sheets, then hole punched and bound together. On the front cover is a lovely photograph of themselves with start date and handprints. We see them as a fantastic pictorial history of each individual child's time spent with us and may include pictures, artwork, photos, post its, observations including next steps, book-club sheets, development matters statements, and anything else of interest both at home or at pre-school. We love them at our setting, but they are time consuming to collate and we are always looking for innovative ideas to help with this. May have been useful to know what to put in or not when we first started, but it has gradually evolved with us. I would be very interested to hear of your findings and your success with this. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Thankyou bridger will keep you posted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie-pops Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 Hi - I have just started a course covering Documenting Children's Learning so hopefully by May I will have a clue what I am supposed to be doing and whether what we currently do is anyway near to what is expected! lol x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie-pops Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 (edited) We use ring-binders and poly-pockets by the way. They are filled with anything and everything ; observations, photos, art work, records of things the child has participated in (walks to library, sports day etc) at the front there is a little bit of info about EYFS and at the back there are a few sheets where we can just loosely track that each child is making progress etc . Last week I had the opportunity to look through some examples from other settings and I have to say the things that were most eye-catching were the photos and anything which made the books look individual, or made you feel that whoever had compiled the learning journey really knew what was special and unique about the individual child. x Forgot to say - the most important feature, although it probably goes without saying,I feel, is that everything is positive and celebrates what the child CAN do x Edited October 13, 2010 by Annie-pops Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inge Posted October 13, 2010 Share Posted October 13, 2010 What do you think is so great about them/ why are you happy to use them as part of your practice? For us they were a useful tool to see how the child developed over their time with us.. just by looking through the book you could see progress and changes, this also allowed us to identify areas which needed help . Having completed them in several ways, each one worked at the time, and as we added to them they developed into something which was unique for each child. *What do you wish someone had told you before you started using them? They take time to produce.. don't worry what they look like, they should all be individual to the children, give each person a 'crib' sheet on development and eyfs to make linking to areas easier. * What do you personally include in these books? we used scrap books front cover was child's photo, taken when they started and date of starting and leaving, sometimes another photo was added in last week, showed how they had changed over time with us. poem,' I am special' in the front Photos - annotated and linked to EYFS where possible observations - stickers/post its of spontaneous obs as well as longer ones childrens work, painting, pictures drawings anything they want parental notes about wow moments, sometimes just a comment about something parent told us about verbally, we would write in. speech bubbles with comments noted down during the session anything and everything we could add we had the children help the keyworker complete the books so they had input as well, child could access them any time to add a picture if they wanted or just to look at them. Our evaluation was to use the obs and books identify next steps and put them into planning.. Have done them in chronological/date order or areas of learning... both showed progress over time, but we ended up with a date order book. Inge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Thank you all so much for taking the time to write your thoughts down! I think the way we do our books are similar in ways to all those previously mentioned here, but its good to know that your own practice is in keeping with everyone elses!! We currently use the plastic folder type books with A4 poly pockets already in them.................. But things evolve and once the stock of those has gone I plan to use A4 ring binders (from Tescos) which have a plastic cover and are not as stiff as ringbinders I personally use. We would then put poly pockets in, as and when necessary (like our reception class do) and that way some children won't have to go on to a second book!! Do your parents get to keep these books after reception has seen them or do reception build on them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted October 14, 2010 Share Posted October 14, 2010 Our books/journals are given to parent/child when they leave us with a covering letter to encourage them to share with their next provision or school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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