Simplfying The Observation Process

[Guest]

Hi,

We had a visit from our EY advisors today and I have been advised to 'simplfy' our observation process by using sticky labels etc... I am not keen on the idea although I would like to cut down on the written work that is being done and was interested in what other settings do. We currently use 'Wow moment' obs books and planned activity obs sheets which are then re-written into learning journals. My first thought was how messy the journals would look with loads of post-it notes sticking out of them!

[Scarlettangel]

I think you as a setting should do what suits you and your staff and what is manageable.

 

We do use post it's and actually they look fine in the learning journal and can be written "on the go" and put in the book later. No need to write them up and waste time.

If bought in lotsof bright co ours they look very jolly. Sometimes a photograph is taken too and the post it can enable a quick insight into what was going on.

Where possible I don't think things should be re written, again it's the time element!

 

Perhaps you should talk to your staff about what their thoughts are on the process you currently use.

[fimbo]

we use sticky labels for small obs - along the same lines as sticky note, but they look tidier in the learning journeys (im a bit ocd like that lol !)

for other obs we have specific observation forms that we use, and just pop them straight into the files as is - we dont re-write anything if at all possible, as we have found that if things are re written, they have sometimes been 'embellished' a little and arent as true to the original observation as they should be.

our wow moments go on a special wall -then when new wows happen the old ones go in their learning journeys as they are...we use the wow's that another poster shared here a while ago (sorry cant remember who !)

[Mouseketeer]

we use a sheet of sticky labels for each key worker, with a couple of sets in different areas of the playroom, all staff can add wow's or LLN's to any keyworkers sheet when the key workers have their time out they just grab there own sheets and put labels in journals, no need to rewrite

[Guest]

we tried post its but found we lost them - they ended up all over the place!!

Now we have one sheet per child, its split into 6 boxes (one for each area) then we just write small obs on there. Its neat and all together. The sheets gets added to learning journey when full. the other nice thing is that everyone can write up anything for every child, so if keyperson not in for whatever reason, the moment isn't missed

we have seperate sheet for long obs, and we don't re write either.

[Stargrower]

We returned to post-its after a long break when we were re-writing obs into learning journeys for the same reason as you, Mollie1 - we thought it looked better. However, the time saving element won and we now stick post-its directly in. We use a dab of pritt stick to ensure the post-its stay in. The learning journeys look fine and we use lots of photos to support the obs.

We put a note in the learning journeys when we changed the format to explain to parents why the LJ suddenly looked different

Beehive

[Guest]

The L J is a working document so is fine to have notes written on it, we use post its and i tell my staff not to rewrite anything its a waste of time but a couple of my staff are neat freaks and will re write and thats fine too

 

Our children have access to their LJ and will add their 'written comments ' to the notes in the book.