Where Do You Put People?

[ketch]

Just wondering where you put your adults?

 

I have 30 reception children and 2 members of staff, 1 teacher, 1 TA. Ive been told i have to have outdoors open all day every day. So other than 3 15 minutes full group times 1 of us is out and the other in. I really struggle to really get stuck in AI and CI activities as well as obs. I just feel like i am not doing justice to the children and we are spread to thinly. Just wondered if anyone else is in a similar situation and how they manage their day

[catma]

If you think about it though - if you are stuck in with the children then you get far more to observe. You'd only be standing back if you were doing a planned narrative observation which takes not much time really in the scheme of things. Otherwise, you'd only need to make a written note if it was something significant or unknown about the child's capabilities was observed. There is a tendency to feel the need to be "doing observations" which often translates into chunks of time spent writing down everything and anything that's happening on post it notes, without it adding significantly to what is already known.

 

Outdoor activities with adults can be "larger" and rangier than indoor activities, easier to leave for a few minutes to sort out issues etc but it shouldn't just be "supervising". This way you can blend sustained shared thinking/adult supported activity linked to current learning foci alongside CI learning.

 

Whilst you may only have 45 mins of whole class adult directed activity, you would still presumably have other group adult directed activities running simultaneously with children having time to enagage in their own ideas? It doesn't have to be just all AD or just all CI if you see what I mean.

 

Try doing a time/motion study of your day - where are adults and what are they doing? Are you making the best use of the time available? Are there systems in place which take up time unecessarily?

 

Cx