Foundation Stage Forum Update: September 23rd

[Steve]

Hi -

This repeat of the emailed Forum update is for those suspicious souls who prefer not to give me their email address . If you didn't receive the emailed update but aren't aware that you've given me an incorrect email address, email me and let me know and I'll help you fix it!

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Forum update: September 2003-09-15

 

Hello all! This is the first forum update of the new academic year, and I’m slightly surprised at how much there is to talk about. At the time it seemed like a quiet summer, but lots of changes are taking place, the most significant of which is probably the quite dramatic increase in numbers. (I’d just like to thank all of you who emailed to congratulate us on the arrival of our 1000th member. The winner of the 1000th member competition was Mundia – congratulations and thanks to Mundia who with great nobility asked me to donate the cheque to the BBC s Children In Need appeal.)

 

Along with the increase in numbers is a surge in activity with the start of the new year. This might seem obvious now, but it’s the first time we’ve been up and running over the summer, and the influx of topics and posts as you begin to consider the new term/year of study/move in jobs is very marked. Long may it continue!

 

Anyway, I’ve had a quick springclean of some of the dustier corners of the site, and this will be stepped up over the next three months with what I hope will be a significant enhancement to its functionality. Please let me know if there are any improvements or additions that you would like to see. The community exists for you, and we will only get better if you make yourself heard.

 

New material

Major thanks to Jan who has donated a huge number of extremely well written policies. You can find them in the Gateway to Members forum under Policies and Procedures. If you make use of any of them, please email her to thank her!

 

Forum Structure

We’ve been working on re-arranging the forums into a more accessible listing, following feedback from some of you. I’ve put a suggested layout into the Lounge/Golden Time forum, and if any of you have any preferences I’d be very pleased to receive them.

 

We’re also planning to introduce a new forum for students on Early Years Degree courses, NVQ’s and so on. There are so many students joining now (along with a growing number of lecturers) that we wanted to offer a dedicated place for them to come with their queries and issues.

 

New Moderator

Thanks very much to Susan who has volunteered to moderate a Planning Formats forum. Susan spends a lot of time on the forum already, offering help and advice where it’s needed, and we appreciate her commitment.

 

Queries from members

Where topics have been started asking questions which do not seem to be attracting any replies, I’ve started to put the queries on the front page of the site (www.foundation-stage.info), to make it easier to find your way to them – and also to make it easier for non-members to see the items. Hope this helps.

 

Poll

I’ve also decided to run a series of polls to see what attitudes are on a series of subjects. The first of these can be found at the bottom of the front page, and the question is: Should we scrap SATs and extend FSP to the end of KS1? What do you think?

 

Tips

Reminder – if you want email notification that someone has replied to your posts, just click ‘Track This Topic’ after making any posts you want to keep track of.

 

Problems

I’ve had a query concerning difficulty in downloading some of the MS Word resources. If anyone else has had problems downloading any of the resources please let me know.

 

That’s all for now –

 

Regards, Steve.