Doing Supervisions

[Guest]

Hi,

I was wondering if some of you experienced practitioners out there could help me with staff supervisions. We are a small private preschool with 5 members of staff and I have never done formal staff observations of any type, however I am wondering if I am missing an opportunity to acknowledge good practice and prehaps help staff with any areas they may be finding difficult. I need to now how often they are done?, are they done with notice to the staff member or unannounced?, how do you ensure that the staff member doesn't feel she is being checked up on (or is the point that she is!), should it be at a planned activity or during free play?, how do you feedback? i.e. immediately or after a written report. Does anyone have a proforma I could see? (bit cheeky but not sure where else to look) and finally is the procedure worth the effort of me adding yet more to my workload. Thanks in anticipation

[meridian]

Hi Max, you must be a mind reader! just doing obs this week followed by mini supervision meetings! I use a format which fits really well with my setting being a High/scope setting which focuses on active learning areas of choice (i.e. the resources available), language from the adult (how adult interact with child/ren), language from the child etc. and is a very subtle way of observing because not all focus is on the adult but on the environment, resources, child=child interaction as well as the role of the adult. I tend to focus on a play room with a view to observing the adult's role in supporting child initiated play. I also observe staff during other parts of the routine i.e. during a group circle activity to see how they interact with the children to keep them interested, how active the session is. Feedback is given in this way, as a 'sandwich' positive....what to work on....positive'...on a negative note...told staff today was doing mini supervisions and one staff member's eyes 'rolled'...she is one member who says 'been doing the job for years should know what i'm doing by now!'...don't we just love challenge!

[redjayne]

I have been doing supervisions for many years - although it isn't as regularly as I would like I aim for evry 2-3 months as I have a team of 20 ! I get the staff to prepare something in advance (i.e a case study of a child who is raising concerns, or a review of a named policy) and this is part of the session, we also discuss every session about workload/ CPD and training, safegaurding, team issues, new ideas etc. It is a habit that all settings need to get in to as it has been flagged as one of the things in the updated EYFS as something we all need to be doing.

[Guest]

thank you redjayne, I knew there was a reason that this had been on my mind, I must have noted it somewhere in the recesses of my mind when I read the new EYFS consultation.

Can I ask how long you allow for the obs and is the feedback/discussion straight afterwards. We currently do CPD/ workload/team issues on our inset days as part of each staffs one-to-ones and I wanted these supervisions to be a seperate thing. As my role becomes more and more office based I feel I need to be 'seeing' what is actually going on.

Meridian, i like your idea of mini supervisions, is there a format I could crib for this? and yes I too am expecting a lot of eye rolling!

[anju]

I do supervisions once a term. I don't do formal observations. We have a general discussion, led by the staff member unless I have particular issue to raise, I comment on attendance and punctuality, strengths, areas for development, training needs, specific small targets and timescales etc. I type up the notes and ask the person to check and sign, I sign then they keep a copy and one goes in their file. I look at the previous one before the next supervision.

 

I also do appraisals once a year and give staff a proforma to complete and give me beforehand and this forms the basis of the meeting.

Edited November 29, 2011 by anju

[redjayne]

Observations of staff tend to be semi formal in my setting - my staff do peer to peer observations of about 10-15 minutes and they the staff have a feedback session of about the same amount of time -these happen about every three months - the observations are them passed to me and any potential issues/training needs discussed. My supervisions that I do with my team tend to be about 45 minutes to an hour long, depending on content and any potential issues etc. Both types are written on a pre prepared form and signed when complete by myself and staff member.

[Devondaisy]

Just bringing this up again as it is something I feel I should be doing in my setting too. At the moment we just have annual appraisals, although as others have said, we talk a lot as well!

 

Does anyone have a format they would be willing to share please? I have searched but can't find anything.

 

Thank you!

[mundia]

I think there are two things going here, connected but at the same time separate.

Observations of practice may be done formally or often informally if as manager you are often in ratio. Formal observations (with a written report) Id keep to a minimum , personally, as they can create extra stress for people, especially those who are less confident. I do think you need to let people know in advance of these though.

 

Supervision, sometimes called one to ones, or support and supervision, are the one to one meetings you have with individual staff in the way Anju and Redjayne talk of. These are opportunities to raise anything that is of concern to you or the staff member, whether it be workload, a particular child or parents; sickness issue; training needs or demands. Done well, (and this can take time to achieve if you are new to it), they should be positive experiences rather than negative ones; and they give managers a view of the 'big picture' in the setting. Often things coming up in these sessions then feed into a future staff meeting. They should be a two way flow, and an open dialogue (also not always easy to achieve but worth working on).

If you are new to doing them, and the staff have never experienced them, You need to do some ground work first on what they are for and why you are doing them (not just because the EYFS-to-be might say so!).

 

I don't have a format to hand, But Im sure someone else might have.

[adventurous]

We call ours a Development review, so it reflects the reason for the meeting. To discuss the staff members role, responsibilitites and any areas of development that they would like to undertake or that we feel would be of benefit.

[Rea]

I've got to do an appraisal for our manager, but as I'm rarely in the setting I stuck on what to talk about. Any clues?