Guest Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Hello! I am really struggling with our nursery timetable at the moment and was wondering if anyone would share theirs with me for some inspiration. I've done a bit of searching but not found too much discussion on here. We are a large nursery with 40 children in the morning (along with a 10 place speech and language unit which shares our facilities, especially during continuous provision) we have 2 teachers and 2 nursery nurses, the S&L unit has 2/3 adults but they are not included as part of our ratio. At the moment it flows like this: 8:45-9:15 Children come in, self register and free flow inside. 9:15-9:30 We split into 4 groups for circle time, this one tends to have a CLL/talk focus 9:30-10:45 Children access continuous provision both inside and outside, we have 1 adult free flowing inside and this term this person has also been manning the snack table, which children access whenever they want, a 2nd adult is usually doing a focus activity inside (sometimes outside). Outside we usually have 1 adult free flowing and another doing long obs. 10:45-11 Tidy up time 11-11:15 Into groups for 2nd circle time, this one usually has a numeracy focus 11:15-11:30 Story time in 2 larger groups 11:30-11:45 Singing time/Doors open for parents My main problem is that the snack table takes away an adult from supporting children in free flow and also my NN's prefer to do snack in circle time. I'm wondering whether to go back to a circle time snack, last year they did snack in the numeracy circle time but I felt that this takes too long and ends up with a rushed numeracy activity and children being asked to sit for way too long. So I'm looking for new ideas! Thank you if you've stuck with this thread for this long and please please let me know how your session runs... Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Hello I will upload a copy of my nursery timetable - but first, a health warning! Our Ofsted inspection is imminent so I cannot say whether the timetable would be considered good, bad or indifferent! However, it is always good to look at the way other settings operate, so hope you find it useful. Any questions, please ask. Page_13___WEEKLY_TIMETABLE.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Thank you for that, it is really interesting to see how other people do it! I do have a couple of questions, How many adults/children do you have and can you tell me how you organise your adults? At the moment we have 2 inside and 2 outside but there never seems enough time for staff to just play alongside the children and support them... too many things to do and too little time it seems! In your circle time before story time do you stick to the same focus, e.g. is it numeracy some days, CLL others (or whatever) or do you just play it by ear depending on that weeks planning? I also love the idea of 'cooking time' is that linked to your cafe snack? Thank you again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Interesting to see how others do it, isn't it. Thanks Devonmaid. Ours is much more loose. Children arrive for 9 or 12.30 and go into their own play. A register is taken as they arrive and they also self-register. Children free play till about 10 when snack is ready and we sit down together for this and have a good old natter! From there it's back into play, but Keyperson-led. So it may be a game of dominoes, fishing, some letters and sounds, numbers and patterns, getting the big blocks or parachute out for something physical, or the musical instruments for something rhythmical. This lasts until 11 when we tidy up and get bags and coats together and then sit in a circle for plenary, story and songs before hometime at 11.30 or 3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 We are connected with a school, and free flow for an hour in the morning when we open the doors to join the F2 class. We are a preschool though not a nursery class, so have 4 adults to 24 children which is rather easier than yours! Though when we free flow, we are all assigned an area with the F2 staff as well, so we are then more tied for that hour. 9am children come in and self register, sit on the carpet for a natter or some sticky kids. 9.10am once all in, adult will do some show and tell, or read a story or introduce an activity. Children go in small groups with key person to do an adult initiated activity 9.30am children begin to choose things in the room to do, some stay longer at the adult initiated activity, member of staff clears one table and puts a cloth on for snack time 9.45am snack (carb and fruit) is announced as being ready, children can choose to come when ready. Depending on the onslaught, sometimes another table is cleared quickly, sometimes one is enough. 10am children begin to go outside, or continue to play in our room 10.30am snack is formally cleared away, but F2 children have a fruit table open throughout so if any of ours didn't have snack with us and we sense them being hungry or they ask, we give them a piece of our fruit to have at the fruit table in the F2 area F2 area doors are open, our children can access 3 other areas and F2 children can use our area for their creative activities. 11.30 Tidy up time 11.45 song time or story time or letters and sounds activity such as silly soup 11.55 gather up coats etc 12.00 Home Time Sometimes, at 10am we may make use of the small hall in the school, and organise another adult type activity if appropriate, so currently on a Monday we have a puppet psed group in our room for the quieter children, and we take the others off to the small hall for something HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Hi, I'm in a school nursery as well. This is our timetable: 8.45am: Dancing/action songs, then when all in Register, prayers, any quick introductions to different resources/activities 8.55am: Free-flow CI play indoors and outdoors, all (3) adults to support & observe (29) children (sometimes an adult will be focused in an area or have a teacher-initiated activity to over-see) 1 key group has phonics each day 5-10mins at beginning of free-flow. 10.40am: Tidy-up 10.50am: Milk & Snack together 11.00am: Key group activities (different focus everyday, rotated round groups) 11.20am: Large group story/singing 11.35am: Get ready to go home or for lunch These times are all flexible of course! We tried having a snack-bar but it was too difficult to manage and the children seem to really enjoy having a chat at snack-time. We go straight into tidying-up, then snack-time without coming to the carpet to minimise children having to wait around - also gets children tidying-up fast as once their area is finished they can have their snack! Ofsted came in June and liked the timetable - particularly doing focused activities in small groups simultaneously - they commented on the children being really focused and that the adults were able to really concentrate on supporting children's play during free-flow. We find that if we have an adult on a focused activity during free-flow that the whole dynamics of the room changes and the 2 free-flowing adults end up sorting out problems! Have a try at doing something different - you can always change it again!! Good Luck, xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 hi again, wanted to add that there was a national strategies play document (name escapes me, but i will find it) that confirmed that it was 'ok' to have all the children doing focus activities at the same time, to enable to adults to support better than trying to run focus groups during child initiated time. Us and our F2 counterparts do it this way, with the adult focus first then free flow following, which means the adults are all free in CI time then to enhance this time and support it. I like the way green hippo does it with free flow first, try either way, it may make it easier on you! Clare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 hi again, wanted to add that there was a national strategies play document (name escapes me, but i will find it) that confirmed that it was 'ok' to have all the children doing focus activities at the same time, to enable to adults to support better than trying to run focus groups during child initiated time. Us and our F2 counterparts do it this way, with the adult focus first then free flow following, which means the adults are all free in CI time then to enhance this time and support it. I like the way green hippo does it with free flow first, try either way, it may make it easier on you! Clare It was the 'Learning, play and interacting' document which outlines the reasons why you should consider doing focused activities in this way. It's worked brilliantly for us - I was apprehensive before trying it but wouldn't go back to how it was before! Green Hippo x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 Oh interesting, I would never have thought of all doing focus activities at the same time! My Nursery Nurses would also LOVE it if we all free flowed at the same time! I will definitely have a look at that document. This might seem like a silly question but what kind of focus activities do you do- is it a bit of everything? And do you do it on the carpet, at tables or a mixture depending on what you're doing? I'm trying to work out if it is similar to our current 'circle times'- we have two a day and tend to do a Phonics/KUW/other CLL focus for the first one and a PRSN focus for the second. From reading this it seems like lots of other people don't do two circle times that are so focused so maybe that is the area I can afford to relax, it does sometimes seem a bit much for such little ones and I don't feel we get enough time for just chatting and discussing the day. Hmm, lots of food for thought. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 It's on page 16! We do a bit of everything - we make sure that we have covered all areas of learning each week - on Mondays we tend to do phonics and P.S.E always with the key person, and physical on a Friday when we have hall time (although we sometimes do extra things for Health and Bodily awareness and Using equipment and materials), the other areas we fit in on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (and 1 adult will repeat the same activity with all the groups - so that we all get to know the children better). Sometimes a focus will cover 2 areas of learning or 1 area of learning will be covered through adult support, modelling etc during CI time. We try to make as many of the activities open-ended, exploratory and/or a game. They are done on the floor, table, in a circle of chairs, outside, around the school etc. I usually plan at least one for outside and we do make it out in most weathers!! If it's a nice day we often take the children outside to do the activities anyway. We only do 1 of these a day, plus a short large group song/story/game as it does end up being a lot of sitting and you loose half the children's attention. I can't tell you how much we love our focused group times! We find that it is so much easier for the children (and the staff!) to concentrate on the task without other children playing around us. And their play has improved loads too! Green Hippo x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 We are as follows 9.15 children self register and join a welcome time - we choose helpers, days of the week and talk about our theme, we sit for 10 mins max 9;30 free flow inside and out. during this time we serve a rolling snack bar that the children have helped get ready key work is done at this time but my key people have set days to key work on, incidental obs are done during the week 11.30 mass tidy up - we are pack away 11.50 we sit for either story , we have 3 groups for story ranging in ages and ability. we also have a letters and sounds session in the groups 12.15 home time our children are 2.5 to 5 yrs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 Ah thank you all! You've given me lots to talk about with the rest of my team, I will definitely suggest having focus activities time to them as I think it could really work for our children. Green Hippo or Clare would you be willing to share a sample of your planning with me? It feels cheeky to ask but it would be really useful to see it if its easy to upload and you don't mind, don't worry if not! We've decided our snack bar which needs manning is making life too complicated so I think we'll be doing some kind of compromise and have a fruit/water snack bar available all the time and a snack as part of a general, chatty circle time. Hopefully we'll do a special snack day once a fortnight or so with extras on top of the usual fruit. Nice to feel like we're moving in the right direction! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 hi we are a 39 place school nursery with 3 staff. We start at 8-30am by having a member of staff in the cloakroom doing the register, member of staff in the main part of the nursery and the 3rd member in our book/quiet corner. The children come in, self register then go to the book corner. We have 'shake and wake' when most of children arrive and about 10 min group time. Then free flow till about 10am when the children sit with their key workers for a small group time finishing with having their snack, free flow again till tidy up time about 11am and we finish with a story all together. A member of staff goes on the nursery gate to ensure that no child gets out without an adult, whilst the member of staff who has told the story hands the children over to their parents. We have just had ofstead who were happy with this system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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