New Forum Structure - Help Please!

[Steve]

Hi -

We’ve come up with a new structure for the forums, following feedback that a) it would be easier for practitioners and teachers if they had their own dedicated sections, and that it was sometimes not clear what was in which forum. I’d be very grateful if you could have a look through and give me your impressions. Let me know if there are any obvious omissions!

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Dedicated Early Years settings discussions

Policies and Procedures

Management issues

Nursery Education Grant

Observation, Assessment and Planning

Accreditation

 

Dedicated Reception and Year 1 discussions

Foundation Stage Profiles

Observation, Assessment and Planning

Reception and Year 1 Curriculum and General Issues

 

Other setting discussions

Birth to Three Matters (BTTM)

Registered Childminders, Homechildcarers, Children Come First Network etc)

 

Mixed or non-setting based discussions

Practice and Provision/Curriculum General Issues

Topics and Activities ideas

Child Development General Issues

Special Educational Needs (SEN)

ICT

Foundation Stage Units

Research

Resources

Parents discussions

 

Miscellaneous

Introduce yourself

Lounge/Golden time

Training and Professional Development (students taking Foundation Stage degrees, NVQs, BTECs etc)

Forum News

Foundation Stage News

Books

Members documents

 

Reasons for changes

Inspections: Originally I had an Inspection forum for each setting. I agree with Mundia that there's little point in this - and also, the Inspections forum is little used at the moment.

ICT: Although technically ICT is just another curriculum item (so why not have a forum for maths, literacy etc) it is slightly different in that many people are less confident with it, and it also benefits in a unique way from being discussed in an online forum where people can be pointed to resources and information.

FSPs: I think it is necessary to have a separate section for FSPs simply because they're so new and many people are worried about them. Poppy's right though, that they could plausibly go under Assessment, and as they become more routine we might well lose them into the Assessment subject.

Observation, Assessment and Planning: Um. Not sure about merging the two. It seems to me that the numbers a reception/yr 1 teacher has to deal with make the obs&ass procedure necessarily different? 1:20 or even 1:30 with a part time TA seems quite common here, whereas in a pre-school its 1:8 at the most. But I'm still thinking about it. Comments welcome

Accreditation: New forum I thought of as a result of Joan's comment. Does this seem sensible?

Parents' discussions: Again, Joan's comment made me think of this. I'll, um, run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes!

Topics and Activities: An obvious one which Nikki reminded me of. I've put one forum in, not dedicated ones for each setting, because I think this is one obvious one where we ought to be able to share ideas? (PS Nikki, I think it was me who suggested the Bear who goes home with the children - stolen from my daughter's reception class! )

 

In conjunction with making these changes, I intend to re-vamp the forum tips page, so that it emphasizes a number of methods of tracking new posts and replies to your own posts:

1 Use the front page (www.foundation-stage.info) if you come in regularly (ie daily) - the last 10 posts can be a useful shortcut to seeing if anyone has started an interesting new topic or replied to one of yours.

2 Turn 'Track This Topic' on for any conversations you'd like notification of updates to.

3 Use 'My Assistant' to remind yourself of your last 10 posts, and also to be told how many posts have been made since you last logged in, and also which of these are replies to one of your posts.

 

We're getting there!!

[Guest sophie]

sounds great but could we have topics and activities ideas in pre-school, always looking for new ideas

Sophie

[Susan]

ICT springs to mind as a curriculum area that might benefit from a specific location??

or curriculum and general issues specific to Reception/ year 1. We have specific demands made of us!

 

Susan

[Steve]

Thank you both -

Sophie, yes of course!

Susan - I just forgot to type ICT. Of course we need that

Do you think a separate ICT for nursery practitioners and Reception teachers, or will one combined one do?

[Guest]

Hi Steve

 

I wonder if it might be beneficial to have a curriculum discussion within the 'Dedicated R/Y1 Discussion', otherwise which bit would we discuss curriculum issues - I'm not sure from the list!

I also wonder why you propose a separate discussion for the profiles - don't they come under assessment? I think it would be better to keep the forum headings simple and not to have too many sections/sub-sections. Postings are not the problem because if you want to post a message you will look for the most appropriate place to put it. The problem is whether anyone else will read it and join in the discussion. If the discussion group is difficult to find there won't be much discussion. At the moment, when I'm looking for interesting discussion, I'm not sure which bit of the forum to go on. Hope this makes sense and is helpful in designing the pages.

 

Are you going to have the same headings as these because they seem complex, I don't really understand what you mean by 'Mixed or non-setting based discussion'!!! Don't want to sound negative, Steve, just want to add ideas and how others might see things. I've worked with databases that seemed very straight forward to me but not to others.

 

Keep up the good work and look forward to seeing the improved site!!!

[mundia]

Well Steve, you've set yourself a real challenge there. I think one ICT category is enough. I also think that you dont really need two heading for 'obervations, assessment and planning'- yes some issues may be specific to R/1 groups of which there seem to be many, but many of the best ideas can be shared by us all, and are not necessarily age specific. If someone is looking for a specific discussion, they may miss one thinking its not relevant to them when it could contain really good ideas. I would also take out inspections from every group and make it 1 for the same reason. Thre last thing I would like to see in such a great forum is any devisiveness creeping in .

But as I said, ask 1000 people what they think and you'll get 100 different answers...so good luck..

[Steve]

Hi Poppy and Mundia -

Thanks for your replies. They're both extremely useful and well articulated, and reflect the differing opinions of the membership as they've expressed them to me (integration v. segregation) and I've been thinking about them all day. This naturally means my brain is scrambled and I'm going to have to hide in a cupboard for a few hours.

 

Mundia, thanks for your empathic comment about the differing points of view. It's made me realise there's no real 'right' way and I might have to adopt the role of a benign dictator here and hope it doesn't upset too many people.

 

Poppy, you're not being at all negative - the 'mixed or non-setting based' category just reflects my wish to integrate professionals from the differing disciplines together as much as possible, which I think is going to be very important in the future (indicated by the growth in interest in Foundation Stage Units).

 

For what it's worth, I thought I'd just describe the philosophy that drives (my vision of) the community. If that doesn't sound too pompous...

 

I want to help bring together the various participants and professionals in Foundation Stage Education. I would like to see these professionals engaging in full and enthusiastic debate, learning from each other and appreciating each others' roles. This includes nursery practitioners, childminders, nursery nurses, teaching assistants and teachers - professionals from very different traditions and viewpoints. It includes the support professionals who are employed to teach and support these 'coal face' workers. It also includes academics and writers, who very often have little regular exposure to the day to day experiences of the first group. And it includes students, who I think will benefit from being able to read about and discuss the world they are intending to enter.

 

But I can see that trying to ignore the natural difference in emphasis that you all still must deal with will not make your visits here easier.

 

Now you can see why I'm looking for a dark cupboard!

[Guest Joan]

Steve you have indeed set yourself a task and a half. There are a range of reasons that support both integration and segregation.

I come from a background of working in mainstream education and now I'm retired (very early I hasten to add!!) am actively involved in a Family Centre with pre-school nursery that is a registered charity. There are definitely areas/issues we have to address now that I never had to face in mainstream - funding and easily accessed support being high on the list, although both this forum and a gradual building of networks is easing the latter. We're involved in accreditation at the moment - something rarely condsidered in mainstream schools - So do you segregate those out as well? Don't know

I do believe that throughout the Foundation Stage there is much we can learn from each other - particularly in curriculum, planning and assessment. I have always maintained that unless you know what experiences a child has had - either at home or at the start of the educational journey then you may struggle in providing appropriate curriculum for the child in your care. Also vice versa we need to know what experiences a child will meet as they progress through the education system so we can help them prepare for that.

The one thing I know in my visits to the forum is that I first concentrate on the areas I mainly interested in but rarely leave without having a quick browse just to make sure I haven't missed anything.

I read your philosophy for the forum with interest and would ask do you have a vision as to where or if parents could contribute.

Hope my ramblings make sense -

Regards

Joan

[Susan]

The philosophy sounds good Steve, which is probably why we all keep coming back here and the way the membership has grown.

I always browse through most things anyway-perhaps I'm just nosey! but I should think anything that you set up will be okay!! Dictate away.

I would most certainly encourage anything that supports inclusion/ integration rather than diversion/ segregation but thats what I've found so useful here already.

Don't hide in the cupboard for too long

 

Susan

[Guest]

Dear Steve,

I am with Sophie, I feel sometimes I drag out the same old thing each year and while most of it works its great to have new ideas - for instance, taking the bear home with a letter and asking him to write all about what he did - not so sure who suggested this but I have to say I introduced this this term and it has been a great success. Seems stange that I have heard that three other schools in the area have introduced this this term as well!! So topic ideas would be a good one for me and I personally like the idea of having a separate site for students, perhaps with a section on useful websites for areas of research.

NIkki

[mundia]

Steve, have you come out of that cupboard yet?

Joan, well said, I think you're spot on. Nicola, Im nosey too, but only because there are issues i dont have to deal with at the moment but you never know what's around the corner and how your own role will change over time.

[Steve]

It's surprisingly comfortable and very peaceful in our cupboard under the stairs (aka Harry Potter). I was disturbed only occasionally by the dog sniffing under the door, two children thumping up and down the stairs and a wife thrusting a hoover into my face. Bliss compared to my usual existence...

 

Thanks to everyone for their comments! I think the noseyness of Susan and Mundia is something I'm going to lean on heavily. If I can set the place up so that people who can only spare the time to dip in and out in quick bursts can still find their way to a useful place, but others can spend their time mooching around a wider set of forums, that's the closest to an ideal we'll get. As long as we make it clear by the title and description that everyone is welcome into the forum, no matter that it may be primarily for, say, teachers - then hopefully you'll continue to mingle and cross pollinate (as it were...).

 

By the way, Joan that's a good point about parents. I'm always delighted when a parent registers - I haven't noticed any members who list themselves as parents actually posting yet. I guess it might be quite intimidating to break into the conversations we tend to have here as a kind of outsider, but if you can think of ways of involving them I'd be happy to work on them. We've probably had about a dozen who list themselves as parents. I'm guessing that a large percentage of the professionals are also parents of course.

 

Thanks again everyone - your input is really useful and very welcome!

[Guest Joan]

Steve - My first thoughts:-

It's a bit like saying we have a policy on Parents as Partners and then finding most of the parents are reluctant to get involved.

Yes many practioners are parents, but then you have to remember which hat you are wearing sometimes.

Specifically say somewhere - don't know where - if you are a parent what are your thoughs on this issue/area/problem

 

I'll think hard on this one and get back to you when I've thought.

[Steve]

Thanks for that Joan.

 

By the way, for everyone - I've made some changes based on your input, and edited them into the post that started this topic, so that's the current latest and greatest. I'll give it another day or so, then I'll start updating the forum

[Susan]

Hi Steve,

looks good to me- observation is a tool of assessment and of planning and as such the principles are the same whether you work in Nursery/ preschool or in Reception. Obviously a certain amount of observation also takes place within a year 1 or indeed any classsroom but its structure and format will be different!

So I think it quite logical to have them together.

 

I think Profiles may continue to be worthy of a separate area as this is the first year that we are going to be using them from the outset and I guess peoples experiences are going to vary. Within my LEA for example we didn't have any moderation but the implementation of that process is about to begin. It may even be relevant to moderate within ourselves so a separate forum could be useful.

Anyway Good luck with the revamp. I'm looking forward to seeing the result.

 

Susan

[Guest]

Please can you call the first section 'Early Years settings' rather than pre-schools? Splitting hairs I know but I run a nursery school and I feel we should all used the agreed terminology. I don't consider the nursery to be 'pre' anything. We enjoy seeing this stage in the children's life as a stage in it's own right. All respect to pre-schools though! We are all in this together, striving to do our best and make a difference to our next generation of children!

 

Anna.

[Steve]

It shall be so Anna -

Thanks for pointing it out!

 

By the way. Does anyone have any strong feelings about how long topics should be visible after the last post? I remember someone saying they thought there were too many, and they should be 'retired' after a certain time. I'm not sure about this. It means we'd lose visibility of such classics as 'Reception - the way forward'.

 

It's very easy for me to make them disappear after a month or so though. They'll still be there and findable on a search, but I quite liked the idea of a build up - a kind of 'bank' of conversations which would still be relevant even after they had run their course.

 

What do people think?

[Susan]

I think it would be shame for the topics to disappear, Steve, unless they need to.

 

I was a paid up member of another "website", which folded and one of the problems I had with it was that I could never find anything. I knew it was there because I'd read it but the archive didn't retrieve it in a search.

Never could work out why and wonder whether that had anything to do with it suddenly disappearing but either way it was very frustrating!

 

Some topics may be worthy of resurfacing and original posts relevant too?

 

Susan

[Steve]

Thanks Susan -

That's my feeling too - good to have it corroborated!

Steve.