How Do You Link Your Observations To Eyfs In Learning Journals

[SazzJ]

Hi

 

Can I just ask how you link you observations in your learning journals?

 

Do you just use the areas of learning or do you link into development matters? If you link into development matters do you handright them or do you have another method?

 

I am trying to make it easier for practitioners and I am currently debating on typing up all the dev matters and printing them out on stickers but if I can save myself a lot of time i would lol.

 

There was no learning journals or even observations in place when i took over and have some staff reluctant to do them though I am getting them but would rather make is easier for them when linking observations etc in l.j.

 

 

Any help or advice would be very much appreciated

[Panders]

You know Sazz I think there are those on the forum who have them printed onto labels - I don't do that, I think the only way to get to grips with Dev Matters is to keep reading them and finding the right ones - then even reluctant staff begin to know what's where, if you spoon feed it too soon they may never really understand what fits in where and why. But certainly pre-printed would be rather lovely and if you are lucky someone may already have put them in the resource library and saved you the trouble!

[HappyMaz]

For a 'formal' page of our special book, I have a photograph (or a series of photographs if approporiate) followed by a description of what happened, followed by the development matters statement itself.

 

We have observation trackers that show the areas of learning/development matters statements/ELGs in a table, each with its own number. We use these numbers to annotate short/ad hoc observations by writing down the appropriate number. I've also typed these codes into the search and replace feature of Word so that when I type in PSED1.1 the appropriate development matter statement is automatically inserted into the document.

 

Hope all that makes sense - am very sleep deprived!

 

Maz

[Cait]

I've also typed these codes into the search and replace feature of Word so that when I type in PSED1.1 the appropriate development matter statement is automatically inserted into the document.

 

Yes I did that too, with the old birth to three and 'stepping stones' statements - took me a while but saved much more than that over the years! Unfortunately I've changed my laptop and it was on my 'to do' list for the summer, but didn't get done. It's certainly worthwhile if you're going to go down the 'typing' route.

 

Our Learning stories are a mix of typed and handwritten. I always handwrite the child's 'voice' on the things in their book - their memories of an activity or photograph. Handwritten is fine as long as you have a legible style of handwriting and your spelling is up to the mark!

[HoneyPancakes]

I uploaded a copy of the practice guidance a few months ago. Its in excel format so you might like to cut and paste into Word. Feel free to search my posts for it.

 

Honey