Help Learning Journeys

[Guest lou73]

Hi

I work in a large nursery attached to an infant school. We have 52 children in the morning and 39 children in the afternoon. We started doing 6 learning journeys for every child and found it very difficult due to the numbers involved. The head has said not to do them but this makes me very uneasy as I know that Ofsted has failed a couple of nursery who have adopted this approach. Can anyone give me any advice etc in regards to this or how many we should do....how best to do them etc

 

 

cheers

[hali]

do you mean each staff memebr is doing 6 each?

 

LJs can be done in a varirty of ways but basically just need to include home info on what child likes/dislikes/family members etc

then any observations/ photos/post its / childrens creations - followed by your 6 weekly review (in whatever format you use) then any comments from child/parents (again in what ever format you use)

 

Thats it? some settings i visit sit with the children to stick in post its / photos/ creations - this is great as it saves staffs times and childrens voice can be imputted whilst chatting about the LJ

[Guest lou73]

Hi

We do the post it notes for incidental observations and then were doing one formal observation every half term for each child so that every year each child had six observations.

 

 

lou

Edited December 4, 2010 by lou73

[Guest lou73]

Hi Hali

I'm really sorry if i appear dim but what are the six weekly reviews?

 

lou X

[hali]

just summerising what the child has covered over the last 6 weeks in each area and deciding what development band they are working in - helps with transition docs and monitoring progress m

[Guest]

just summerising what the child has covered over the last 6 weeks in each area and deciding what development band they are working in - helps with transition docs and monitoring progress m

hi all

 

wondered if you could help me please. Each member of staff have 8 key children each and they find the LJ's so time consuming.. never finding the time to do them..we have been asked to do at least 6 observations a month and linking these to the development matters. The staff ask for time out so they can do there LJ's in a quiet room for at least 2 hours..which is impossible due to staff ratio!!!! I have asked them to do them with the children but they say this is difficult, and I would like parents involved with them, but again causes problems...one member of staff was going out the door this morning with hers in her bag, when i asked her what was she doing , she answered, 'I dont get time to do them, and I will add the hours on my hour sheet at the end of the week. Why are they finding it so difficult and how can I make it easier/// HELP!!!

 

Thanks

[Lyanne]

hi all

 

wondered if you could help me please. Each member of staff have 8 key children each and they find the LJ's so time consuming.. never finding the time to do them..we have been asked to do at least 6 observations a month and linking these to the development matters. The staff ask for time out so they can do there LJ's in a quiet room for at least 2 hours..which is impossible due to staff ratio!!!! I have asked them to do them with the children but they say this is difficult, and I would like parents involved with them, but again causes problems...one member of staff was going out the door this morning with hers in her bag, when i asked her what was she doing , she answered, 'I dont get time to do them, and I will add the hours on my hour sheet at the end of the week. Why are they finding it so difficult and how can I make it easier/// HELP!!!

 

Thanks

 

I take it that's 6 observations per child a month? 6 times 8 is 40 observations per month, linking to development matters, planning next steps, implementing next steps... I can see how they're feeling overwhelmed!

 

Firstly, who asked you to do 6 per month, can you go back and say what I just said and ask how they suggest you do it? Or did they actually mean 6 observations per month in total?

 

We use a proforma for observations that I'm finding a lot easier to work with - apart from anything else, it's keeping them briefer. It's for snapshot observations - has child's name, age, observer's name & date at the top, then a section for the actual obs, the 6 areas of learning as initials to circle the relevant area, a space for assesment and a space for the next step. We print up 4 to a page of A4, so they take less time to fill out than it's taken me to describe them.

 

What I find tricky to do though is actually getting them stuck into the child's LJ, plus any photos, or random obs from anyone else... and of course doing summative and jigsaw sheets. Because I'll no sooner get settled at the drawing table with my folder, pen, bits of paper, glue, EYFS practice guidance book + something interesting for the children to do while they come and sit with me... than someone will need a nappy change/wet themselves/throw up...

 

I think you need to pin down your KPs and say 'Ok, tell me why it's hard work. No wrong answers, I just want to help and I can't do that till I know what the problems are!'

 

If it's tha same as my problem, I guess an option is to allocate each key person a session and say to everyone 'Right, Monday morning will be Mary's time to work on LJs, she won't be doing snack, nappies etc - I expect the rest of you to rally round and do them. Mary, sit yourself at a table with a resource that the children can use by themselves - puzzles are good - and do your LJ sticking, summing up, jigsaws etc for the week. Get the children to contribute to them. Tessa, it will be your turn Tuesday, Wednesday will be Wendy, Thelma on Thursday and Freda on Friday.'

[Guest]

WE actually take ours home to do given that we are all in ratio when in the setting. We are not actually paid to do ours either! I feel that at home I can concentrate on it all spread out with scrap book, photos, obs and development matters. Dont get me wrong i ofetn get the scrap books out for the children to contribute. I am full time staff and would find it near impossible to do as i do in session time. I wouldnt feel right doing it then when there is so much else going on. I do however update the files regularly eg twice per half term with 15 key children, takes quite a time plus not getting paid (committee cant afford it). There are 20 staff and we all have at leats 5 children each so would bancrupt the playgroup!