Guest Posted April 22, 2012 Posted April 22, 2012 Hi all, I was just wondering how many of you have already started to implement the new EYFS? I know that it shouldn't be fully in place until September but are people already relating their observaions to the new DM or still to the old one?
Panders Posted April 22, 2012 Posted April 22, 2012 I'm sticking with the old style for now. I do have a child starting pre-school for the last six weeks of term, and so we shall gear her learning journey to the new format. I am doing a learning journey for my grand daughter at the moment who is only 11 months old and I am doing that new style, just to get used to it and trial a couple of new things for my group to see if they work or not. 1
Guest Posted April 23, 2012 Posted April 23, 2012 we're using the new one with our easter starters ( 8 children) and are linking their obs and individual planned activites directly to the new DM. Activites which are planned as part of our continuous provision are still being linked to the old ones as these apply to the bulk of our children who are on the old DMs but keyworkers are cross referencing them to the new ones for these 8 newbies if they access the activity. Bit messy but enables my staff to get to grips with the new statements on a few children to start with and hopefully when all the children change over in September they should be vaguely familiar with the new ones from the start
catma Posted April 23, 2012 Posted April 23, 2012 They'll still be in the same age/stage regardless of the document you use won't they - I'd say use the old one and then shift them to the new doc in sept. Cx 1
jacqueline1 Posted April 23, 2012 Posted April 23, 2012 Hi All Now, unless i'm missing something i read the ELG (and the steps of goals from birth leading up to the summative goal) as under the heading of the principle 'Unique Child' instead of under 'Developmental Matters'. Our planning has always been laid out with the activity and one of the goals that we are aiming to achieve. Am i understanding it wrong?
alechunter Posted June 25, 2012 Posted June 25, 2012 Hello All Please can you help some very confused pre-school ladies. One of my colleagues went on the briefing training on the revised EYFS and she is now of the opinion that we do not have to use the development matters statements in the same way as we have in the past. In the past each child always had a set in their Learning Journey book and statements were colour-coded each term when the child achieved them. Their Learning Journey Books were then full of observations, work, photos etc. to back up the statements that had been colour-coded. She says we now need to continue with the Learning Journey Books as this is good practice but do not have to use the development matters. This doesn't make much sense to me. I also notice that several versions of the Progress Wheel have been put on the forum. I thought this had been done away with? I do feel that when important training like this is put on, it shouldn't be limited to only 1 person per setting being allowed to go as it is often difficult to take it all in. Can anyone please let us know what we should/should not be completing under the new system? Thank you for any replies.
finleysmaid Posted June 25, 2012 Posted June 25, 2012 perhaps the confusion here is that the dm's are not compulsory they are only advisory....so you don't need to follow them but most of us do use them to create some sort of framework to guide us.
Guest Posted June 27, 2012 Posted June 27, 2012 Hi alechunter (lovely name!) I am also in Essex and did the revised EYFS briefing this month. We have used the development matters as you have suggested, highlighting where a child has achieved with notes/photos etc. in Learning Journeys. I was not led to believe that this had changed in the briefing and in fact there have been a number of Development matters versions put up here in the forum. If in doubt search for posts by KirstyC who is a absolute star! R
Mouseketeer Posted June 30, 2012 Posted June 30, 2012 Have just done revised parts1&2 and it was very much based on DM as well as introducing the characteristics of learning into observations and planning (not sure where the less paperwork comes in - maybe that's gonna be part 3 ;p )
Guest Posted July 1, 2012 Posted July 1, 2012 Have you any ideas how you would include the characteristics of learning into the planning? :huh: So far Ive planned a display in the hallway of what they are and how we promote them at the nursery for the parents.
louby loo Posted July 1, 2012 Posted July 1, 2012 Hello All Please can you help some very confused pre-school ladies. One of my colleagues went on the briefing training on the revised EYFS and she is now of the opinion that we do not have to use the development matters statements in the same way as we have in the past. In the past each child always had a set in their Learning Journey book and statements were colour-coded each term when the child achieved them. Their Learning Journey Books were then full of observations, work, photos etc. to back up the statements that had been colour-coded. She says we now need to continue with the Learning Journey Books as this is good practice but do not have to use the development matters. This doesn't make much sense to me. I also notice that several versions of the Progress Wheel have been put on the forum. I thought this had been done away with? I do feel that when important training like this is put on, it shouldn't be limited to only 1 person per setting being allowed to go as it is often difficult to take it all in. Can anyone please let us know what we should/should not be completing under the new system? Thank you for any replies. We have never used the DM in this way - I thought the whole idea was the EYFS was not to be used as a checklist anyway? At the bottom of each page of the revised EYFS it reminds us of this. We used to do it with the old stepping stones. At the end of each term we have a summary sheet (or staff can directly load onto PRAMS) on which children are logged into a 'band' only. I personally cannot get on with the progress wheel - I like straigh lines!! But again I think this simply a personal choice. Also find that when staff use the actual copy of the DM from the book (rather than a sheets of just the statements) there is so much more information for next steps etc. However that said - we do have copies of the DMs only printed off!!! :lol: :lol: which we use for various things :lol: 1
thumperrabbit Posted July 1, 2012 Posted July 1, 2012 Have you any ideas how you would include the characteristics of learning into the planning? :huh: So far Ive planned a display in the hallway of what they are and how we promote them at the nursery for the parents. Mmm will be interested in the responses to this too, we were also told we needed to putting these characteristics into our general observations too that's what I'm battling with We try where ever we can to do an observation from the child's voice not sure how to add the characteristics to the ob....I could of course be over thinking it as such a lot on at the mo!
catma Posted July 1, 2012 Posted July 1, 2012 (edited) Characteristics are about how a child learns, so that's what you'd be seeing and recording like anything else I would imagine? Cx Edited July 1, 2012 by catma
kristina Posted July 1, 2012 Posted July 1, 2012 I am in Essex and have attended the 'briefing'. From what I understand (and I could be wrong!) the DM's are a guideline or example of how the children could could be achieving. You still record obs, photo's work etc then highlight (or record) on something like or similar to the progress wheel where each child is at in the age band. The suggestion was that you shouldn't be using the DM's as your checklist but use them as examples of how the age band's are met. No I could definetly be wrong so will continu to watch with interest! As my staff use the DM's to plan next steps!! Kris
Guest Posted July 1, 2012 Posted July 1, 2012 At our training we were told that we should definitely not use DMs as a checklist. The statements are only examples of what is expected in each age band. When assessing children you should look at "best fit" when deciding on the age band that the child is working at. Anita
Rafa Posted July 1, 2012 Posted July 1, 2012 At our training we were told that we should definitely not use DMs as a checklist. The statements are only examples of what is expected in each age band. When assessing children you should look at "best fit" when deciding on the age band that the child is working at. Anita We have never before used DMs as a checklist but were considering using a great format someone put on here- DMs on the left with a space to the right - to place post it obs and then tick/ highlight matching statement to keep account of what we have observed at a glance. Does that make sense? We thought it would help keep an easier record of where WE were with each child. Then we can see from unhighlightd areas what we could look/ plan for next??? Hope that does'nt constitute a tick list? Very confusing all these dos and donts....
surfer Posted July 1, 2012 Posted July 1, 2012 Sorry- maybe i have missed something? What's the progress wheel?
louby loo Posted July 1, 2012 Posted July 1, 2012 Sorry- maybe i have missed something? What's the progress wheel? It's an Essex thing, someone uploaded an example a week or so ago. it's not something we have to use though, personally I don't really like it - but some of my staff love them.
Smiles Posted July 1, 2012 Posted July 1, 2012 I am in Essex and have attended the 'briefing'. From what I understand (and I could be wrong!) the DM's are a guideline or example of how the children could could be achieving. You still record obs, photo's work etc then highlight (or record) on something like or similar to the progress wheel where each child is at in the age band. The suggestion was that you shouldn't be using the DM's as your checklist but use them as examples of how the age band's are met. No I could definetly be wrong so will continue to watch with interest! As my staff use the DM's to plan next steps!! Kris My understanding also. We also used the DM for our next steps. We were told that you can still use them but not as tick list . A keyworker could have a set to judge a best fit for their idividual children to record progress and then decide next steps. smiles
alechunter Posted July 4, 2012 Posted July 4, 2012 Thank you everyone for all your excellent and interesting replies. Think we have finally got our heads round it! Now on to the 2 year progress check format. Might be shouting for help again please!!!!!!
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