Planning

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

 

I am hopeful that I can get some advice from you all about the dreaded "planning" subject.

 

 

I am a leader for a committee run sessional pre-school. I have been working on my planning this weekend. I have all of the childrens next steps, I have notes of their current interests and I have used all of this to plan for the next half term - hopefully up until Christmas leaving many gaps for change in interests and events/occasions etc and spontaneity.

 

What I would like to know - hopefully! is....... how do you all put the childrens next steps in a format that is easily viewed and accessed by all of the staff team whilst also maintaining confidentiality?

 

I am finding this one a headache? As we have parent helpers in session most days, we are also a pack away setting.

 

I used to have it all in a file, clearly labelled into a section for each child, however the staff don't look in there. We are busy and sometimes it does just get forgotten about.

 

However I would like the staff to be aware of the next steps so that the actvities, their modeling and provision can be enhanced on a daily basis.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks

[suebear]

We have an A4 sheet that is paper clipped to the front of ours that says Planning Staff Only so that others can't see it but we can access it (this is just for the weekly plan). All children's next steps are kept in a separate binder but the ones we're focussing on that week are written on the planning sheet as a reminder.

[Guest]

We to are sessional, pack away with parent helpers.(not sure i see the problem with having parent helpers and planning a round) So keeping paperwork to a minimum is crucial. My staff have between 6-7 key children each and they key work on a set day. They are reasponsible for inputting plans into folders and for planning next steps. This is then written on a sheet which is pinned to a notice board. I then colate the planning and do a weekly continious provision plan. We plan weekly.

Themes are based on indiviual children as is the planning. We have some loose themes eg Diwali, Autumn.

 

As a manager i do make a point of looking through folders occassionally. We also collect 3 times a year data which plots where our children are in terms of their development.

[HappyMaz]

(not sure i see the problem with having parent helpers and planning a round)

I think maybe there could be a confidentiality issue around identifying which parts of the plan are for which children - especially if a child needs support to accept others' needs and feelings, or needs support to behave appropriately.

 

I think planning for children's next steps, their interests etc for the whole half term can be a bit daunting, zoe 31. Could you try Suer's suggestion of planning over a shorter time span? That way you might not find it so overwhelming.

 

I'm not sure how your record keeping systems work, but we have key group planning sheets as well as the weekly plan and this is a useful way for key carers to keep track of which parts of the continuous provision are especially supportive for their key children's development. The sheets are very simple: six boxes - one for each area of learning and the key carer just writes the child's initial followed by the planned activity or the aspect of continuous provision that is particularly appropriate to that child.

 

Hope that makes sense - have half-term brain-deadness!

 

Maz