Opservations

[sadie19]

In the setting i work at we have been doing 10 Minuit observations we been trying to do it on each child as often as and if possible one a week if not one every half term. how often do you do observations on your children and also do u just do the writing 10 min ones or do u do tracking n time sampling as i did these in college n was told should do them aswell not always have to do a 10 minuet writing observation. Also Learning journals how much time do u get to do yours i am giveren an hour to do mine a week but fins im going over a lot of the time.

[Cait]

Hi Sadie19 - a lot of questions there - I'll try and answer them all about how we do things. Firstly, it's important to realise that whenever these type of questions arise, there seem to be loads of different answers, which tends to suggest that there's no particular 'right' way of doing things.

 

In my setting we don't do observations just for the sake of it. We do them when there's a particularly noteworthy event, or a pattern of behaviour to record. The only time we do a planned observation is the first day a child starts, then it's generally a time sample where we look at what the child is doing over a particular period of time, doing a 'snapshot' every 5 or 10 minutes. This shows any particular area a child is interested in, their verbal 'skills', their attention span, well-being and involvement.

 

As to how often, this is vaery variable. Occasionally children have short 'spurts' of developmental progress and there may be a spate of observations as there's such a lot to record! Other times the children are 'coasting' along and there's nothing particular to observe, and in those cases I may record different types of things, by setting up some adult-led activities to make notes which I'll use to plan next steps.

 

We use several different types of observations, the simplest of which are photo obs. where we photograph a child doing a particular activity and print these onto a sheet and ask the child to talk us through the action. We scribe the information alongside the photographs and then tie it to the development statements.

 

How long we get to maintain the children's files - obviously this varies according to how often children are 'in', but several things can be done with the child, so that cuts down on non-contact time quite dramatically. I pay my staff an hour a week non-contact to do other parts of their Key Person jobs. How may key children do you have? My staff have about 10 each and don't generally go over this. Do all the other members of staff manage to work within the hour?

[blondie]

hi we do one five minute observation per half term which is linked to their next steps, we also do obs on children when we do keyworker groups - the activity would be based on the childrens next steps too.

we also make notes of anything relevant during the session as staff have their childrens next steps so know if this is relevant although other staff will make notes on things they see on any child - hope that makes sense

[sadie19]

Hi Thank you for your help we have 8 soon to be 9 key children each. i never manage to do it in an hour as we try to do an observation and a photo a week on each child.

 

I was always told to do the photo obs on look listen note sheets which we do then do the writtain 10 min obs on a look listen note sheet aswell but when i was at college we did more time sampling and tracking than 10 min. I personally think time sampling shows you more as u check back and it shows children concertration and how long they manage in one place. where i work we only do 10 min and photo.

 

Also reports how often do you do reports in your settings and what do you do your reports on and how long do they take you to do.

 

Thank you x x x

[Cait]

Do you mean EYFS reports to parents? I only do the pre-school group in the term before they leave for school. We have 'stay and chat' each term for parents to come in and look through their child's file and see the steps progress and help plan some next steps that can be achieved at home - getting dressed etc.

[sadie19]

Yhhh EYFS Reports we were advised by OFSTED that you should do them termly but its too much and hard to find the time we were gunna do them at xmas but for one reason and another we only now got round to them. Then have to do another one in like 6 weeks once they go to school well befour.