Morning Circle

[Devondaisy]

Good morning everyone, I'm after some opinions, hope you don't mind.

 

Since starting at my nursery a few weeks ago I have instigated a morning circle time. When I visited I felt that it was quite chaotic when children first arrived, as they went straight to free choice but weren't really supervised properly, as the staff were all involved in talking to parents. I also felt this loud and busy environment was quite intimidating to some of the quieter or newer children (our age range is from 2, and some of the older children are quite boisterous!) The children come in and sit in a circle with an adult and play a little game, (something really simple such as building a tower together) we say hello around the circle and then I usually quickly discuss what might be new today. This seems to be working well, and the staff like it, and the children often come in asking what game are we playing today, and overall I think it gives a better impression when parents arrive. If a child was to get bored and wander off we wouldn't mind, but actually this never seems to happen so far.

 

The problem is that I have been told by my committee chair, whose opinion I value, that Ofsted would not like it, as they want free choice. Obviously I want to please Ofsted, but we have free choice for the rest of the session, until tidy up and story before lunch. I have been told it would be better to have free choice at the start, then pull the children in for circle time part way through the session, but I think this would be worse as we are disturbing them when they are involved in their play.

 

Any thoughts? I'm really interested to know how other people do things, thank you.

[Guest]

Good morning!!

 

I think you have to do what suits your setting and your children!

If you can justify this decision then I believe that would be good enough for OFSTED if they see good practice elsewhere too (obviously!)

 

Weird though because we USED to start like that but with latecomers and parents wanting to chat it became unworkable with 2 staff, and some children (those arriving first) would be on the carpet for a long time which started silly behaviours at times.

So now they come in and go straight to play which our parents like.... they can see their litttle child busy and also for new children we feel this is less intimidating than having to come in and sit down straight away which can be tricky!!

 

I am glad we changed the start of the session but as I said if you can justify what you do and it works for you........ my opinion would be carry on!!

[mundia]

I agree with scarletangel. We also preferred it the other way, having free flow fist thing, encouraging parents to join in, and giving us time to talk with them. We also felt that as many of our chidlren lived in high rises and never saw the outdoors, some of them really needed to get straight outside.

 

But, that was my setting and what worked well for the chidlren I had. You have shown something different, that works better for you and your children. All I would say is how do you ensure that you can still talk to parents, and how do you keep that time short? If you've got that sorted, then I think you can easily justify why you do what you do and that's fine.

[Inge]

we did just as you do, all children come in and join in a circle time before going off to play... we also had a group of children who enjoyed the focus to come into, rather than the free play . We too found one staff could play with the group of children while others dealt with/talked to parents . In our case we also found some of the children who were upset on coming in liked the routine, they knew exactly what was going to happen and were very happy to move onto freeplay. We also had story or something at the end... hence they had a long time uninterrupted freeplay during the session.

 

Ofsted will be happy with whatever works for you and the setting... (the setting got outstanding with this routine)

 

It is all what works for you and the children...

 

trying to think of how to phrase it but by having it later could you argue that you are actually interrupting the freeplay so they are not getting long periods to develop play...

 

Inge

[Guest]

We all come together at the start of the session in a large group for welcome/register then at the end in small groups for story, allowing the children then plenty of time to 'wallow' in their activities during free flow without being interruppted. Ofsted were perfectly happy with this.

[Guest]

yes ofsted like child initiated, but although we are very much a child focused setting, cirlce is an important start to our mornings

 

I welcome parents and children the rest of my staff are in the circle to welcome the children and start the process

we sing a small welcome song followed by what the eather is like, day and date, the children show anything they might have bought in, on certain days we ask what the children want to plan for next week and we might talk

about what is going on

it takes 10 mins, my children then free flow and child initiate until 11.30 but we all tidy and we all sit for story or singing in small groups both of these activities are adult directed

 

so is your chair saying no story as it is not free choice !!

 

if you are the professional in charge, you must be allowed to do just that.

 

good luck

Edited November 30, 2010 by Suer

[HappyMaz]

Our parents come in with their children in the morning into a foyer area, and help them find their peg, self-register and read a story or whatever. This is where our book corner, role play area and block play area is, together with low cabinets with resources for self-selection.

 

The session begins when an adult arrives into the room at which point parents leave and children choose a chair to sit on and we do the register, share news etc. We find it gets our day off to a good start, and Mrs Ofsted was more than happy with it when she visited.

 

I think it depends on what the needs of your children (and staff) are. Sounds to me like you've organised things so that children are welcomed effectively and engaged in an activity whilst their parents are free to talk to practitioners if they need to. Your post makes some really good points about why you've chosen to do things this way, and so I'm sure you can justify your approach to Ofsted!

[Devondaisy]

Thank you everyone, I feel a lot happier now.

 

I have justified my reasons to the chair, and also discussed this with staff today, who are really happy with the 'new' circle time and don't want to change it now. I think i could justify it to Ofsted too if necessary. It's just reassuring to know that others have had Ofsted approve of this way of starting the day, so I'll pass that on to the chair. She took me completely by surprise to be honest, of all the things she could have commented on I wouldn't have expected this, as it seems (from my point of view at least) to work so well!

 

Thanks!!

[Guest]

I'm just going to repeat what other people have said but I know when ofsted are due it's nice to just be reassured that what you're doing is right by as many people as possible!!

We had the visit from the big O earlier this year and they basically told us before they started the inspection that they know that anything that we do is for a good reason and as long as we can explain that reason to them (to prove that we know why we are doing it!) then that is fine. You are obviously doing what is right for your group and you've explained why in your post so I think you should carry on. Make sure your staff all know why you do it that way too (I'm sure they do already but it might be worth checking to make sure that if Mr/Mrs O asks them they say the same as you!).

If you were to change back to the old way and ofsted came and asked you why you do it that way you wouldn't be able to answer honestly and with conviction and it would show. If you stay as you are you will be confident in answering any questions because you know that it's best for you.

My experience of ofsted was that they know that we know our kids best and so we know what is best for them. The fact that you've changed the way things were run is a positive thing because it shows that you are flexible and are always self-evaluating your practise (or is it practice? I can never remember which is which!).

Also, if they do question you, don't assume it's because they think you're doing it wrong. I know of schools where they have tried to trip people up by saying that they disagree with things they were doing just to see whether they would argue their case or say they think it's wrong too just to agree with them! As long as you stand your ground and justify why you are doing things you'll be fine.

Good luck!

Oh and by the way, we got outstanding so we must be doing something right!

[laura]

We have a setting improvement plan, and i have put in it why we have changed our routines, as long as it can be justified then there should be no problem. Next year you may find you need to go back to free play, so again i would put that in your improvement plan when the time (if ever) arose.