RBear Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Hello Can you help me Im struggling a bit with when/how during the session to meet the children next steps! Each child has a plan which shows a next step in each area of learning that we plan to cover over the term. We split the children into weeks and focus on X amount of children a week during this week we plan to cover their next steps My question is how you cover their next steps- do you plan to do this in a group time - key person time or ? Can anyone share a planning format that you use? Also do you do a big main focus activity a day for all the children to join in with ( we do and do link some of the next steps into this but not all children will come and join in and it does tie a member of staff down to this activity for the morning) Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 I will watch this post with interest. Each Key person is responsible for plotting their childrens 'next steps' this is usually done when they are updating their children's profiles each week - this is then fed back during our weekly staff meetings and implemented into the planning. I must say that the 'next steps' for a lot of staff is very difficult, they try and overcomplicate it. I would be very interested to hear how and when others do this. thanks Debster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Hiya!! We have the same problem- there is just not enough time in the day!! At the moment- I get given a sheet from each key person with the titles: I want to see.... I can encourage this by... Resources I need... I then put them onto a weekly planning sheet. Depending on what the child next steps are depends how we meet them. I.e- Child A- Counting to 10 independently- So il put in the planning '10 mins Key Person A spend with Key Child A in every session counting coins in money tin' So that example the Key Person is in charge of when. Other things might include children need to be encouraged to join in with peers so il put in the planning 20mins spent with Child A and Child B in sharing game.... then il have a quick chat in the morning and delegate it to someone! We are trying and testing it at the moment! I don't really say what time and day things need to be done- unless a child is in on one day or something. For the joint activity go with the flow... we try and do music a movement on alternative days so all children get a chance. When we have small children in who don't want to join in it's a case of putting so music on and having a party! As long as were moving!! Hope this hepls!?!? xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joanne2212 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Hi could you please explain more as to how you observe and fit these into your assesments, do you obs over a term and then put the next steps onto the following terms planning. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafa Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 I will watch this post with interest. Each Key person is responsible for plotting their childrens 'next steps' this is usually done when they are updating their children's profiles each week - this is then fed back during our weekly staff meetings and implemented into the planning. I must say that the 'next steps' for a lot of staff is very difficult, they try and overcomplicate it. I would be very interested to hear how and when others do this. thanks Debster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafa Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Whoops dont know what I did there?? But agree Debster..think everyone struggles with this part of the eyfs (new or old)! How do your staff manage to find next steps EACH week? That seems like a lot of work or maybe we are'nt doing enuf?! We use next steps from one term..after summary...and just two or three significant ones and then place these in general planning for the next term. Its up to keyperson to provide play and experiences to allow the said child to have the opportunity to meet the step or continue wrorking towards it......Oh dear, think I need a few next steps myself...to the wine rack ha ha is it nearly summer vacation...?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 rbear...can i play devils advocate for a moment? how do you know what a child's next step needs to be in 14 weeks time? and what happens if a child is very good at physical abilities but can't talk....do you still just plan for all areas equally? are you wanting to re do your planning or just to tweak it?...what works for you and what doesn't?? :blink: :blink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hello Kitty Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 This is something we are working on too - and tbh have been forever! I like to think of it as reflective practice Our keyworkers are responsible for planning next steps for their key children - we update them half termly. Sometimes we do find that the children achieve them in the first week and then it's down to the skill of the keyworker to continue to develop the child in that area and to document that. We used to just have a 'chatty' planning meeting where we'd all just chip in with activities we wanted in the room to help provide for our next steps. We then had a group time each session where keyworkers did activities that catered to their own children's needs. We also did Letters and Sounds activities within those. The way it worked was that if say, I was doing a maths activity and a few of my key children had already achieved the target learning I would see what the others were doing and pass those children to something more appropriate and I would take in children that needed my maths activity. This was working fine for us and our summary sheets showed the children were progressing... But as we are now under the school, we have had to go with what the FM wants and on top of this our EYFSA didn't like the way we planned So now each keyworker writes activity plans for 2 Areas of Learning and brings that to the planning meeting. During the sessions, each keyworker has to use all the activity plans to do directed activities with the key children that need that particular learning intention. Group times are now just with keychildren and have to be Speaking and Listening based. TBH we're not liking it but are giving it a go so we can at least say WHY we do or don't like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafa Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 So now each keyworker writes activity plans for 2 Areas of Learning and brings that to the planning meeting. During the sessions, each keyworker has to use all the activity plans to do directed activities with the key children that need that particular learning intention. Group times are now just with keychildren and have to be Speaking and Listening based. TBH we're not liking it but are giving it a go so we can at least say WHY we do or don't like it. I'm no expert on this but should'nt the eyfs be more about providing experiences thro the 'enabling environment' so that with a bit of input from the practitioner eg lang, modelling play,sustained shared thinking etc etc, thenchildren work at their own pace to achieve!? Planning planning and more planning for adult led activities throughout the mornings session doesnt seem to leave alot of time for the children to play, learn and have fun?? I know its a balance but lets work out how many hours go into planning for a 3 hour session...and then start a revolution... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buttercup Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Rafa definatly agree with this. buttercup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted April 21, 2012 Share Posted April 21, 2012 Well we have our Continous provision out daily such as water, sand, playdough, books, mark making, physical, small world, role play, physical in and out, Psrn, then we engage with the children adding enhancements as we go, this is where we decide on our next steps for each unique child. The children generally determine what our next weeks activities are through their play and interaction with peers and adults. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBear Posted April 22, 2012 Author Share Posted April 22, 2012 What I meant was we have a plan under 6 areas of learning ( given to us by our LA) we use this one each hild per term nd we start by plnning a next step to help the child achieve during their focus week (we pick the up once each half term) and then if they achieve that next step we add another or carry on focusing on it. We do add enhanements to our continious provision but its the amount of adult led times that we re trying to address - thats why I was askin when during the session do people support the focus child to achieve their next step and is it done on a one to one basis or as part of a group/ keyperson time? We do also respond to children interests all the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 I think it sounds like you are over-thinking it. Our children's next steps are worked on as a natural occurrence throughout the course of a session or week or whatever. It's not always an adult-led thing, sometimes a child naturally re-visits something and with a bit of support achieves the next step. As long as we're aware of what the next step is, and any resources are provided for the child to re-visit their activity, or progress it quite naturally, then 'planning' it can actually take away some spontaneity. Of course, there are some next steps that need some planning, there's no getting around it, but I don't think that the planning of these should be overwhelming. Any next steps can be achieved either one to one, in a group, or as a whole group activity. Next steps are all different for children, and the way we help has about as many variables. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rafa Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Thats pretty much how we approach it . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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