Managing Observations

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

 

I work in a large nursery within a school and are getting even bigger next year! We will have 52 in the morning and 52 in the afternoon!

 

Dues to this, we are looking at organising our observations on an observation wall somehow, so we can see who has observations, who doesn't and target certain children for areas of learning. Has anyone got any photographs of how they do this? Have done this before in a school which was a one form entry school, but with so many children, obviously space is an issue. We also want to try to encourage parents to add to the profiles too.

 

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!

[Guest]

You can get those door hangings with clear plastic wallets in (usually around 30) you could hang some of these with a photo of each child on the front and pop their obs in there.

 

I went to a school yesterday who had an A4 Sheet and had 10 children a week for focussed obs and ticked against the area when it was done.

 

Emie

[Guest]

Thanks for that - that is the kind of thing we are looking for it's just space we are struggling with! We tried focussing observations by timetabling children to be observed but with so many children it just didn't work. Some ended up not bring observed for nearly 5 weeks! We know rotate members of staff and they make observations if whoever is working within their area. This might be an area outside or a section of the canopy. This is also a large area. The canopy stretches the length of 5 classrooms and is shared with the 3 reception classes

[finleysmaid]

I have 2 large cork boards...you can get 24 cd pockets to each one (plus i have one small one for the few extras at the mo!) we have them on top of one another behind a door, so they really don't take up too much room and i can cover them up if i have an event on. works well for us, each one has a label with the childs name on (you could even get them to file their own obs if the boards were in the classroom) we just stick them to the board and rename them each year. You can get self adhesive ones too. I would suggest that if you go this way that you buy the ones without flaps at the top...so that they are just small plastic wallets.. they are just the right size for posties and photographs and i can easily see who needs more obs doing.usually when i file the photos in them i will make a list of children i have missed and then 'target' them the in next day or two.

[catma]

I'd say be clear about what you are meaning as "observation" - if you are talking about planned focus time to do an in depth narrative observation of a particular child then yes it may take some time to get around everyone. Otherwise observations are happening all the time, just from what you glean from interactions, so my question would be how good is your team at on the spot analysis of what needs to be recorded and what doesn't? If you are clear about what learning in action you want to observe then it becomes easier to screen out what you don't need to capture based on the fact that you already know it. This makes assessment for learning more the focus of your observations rather than trying to create a system focused on gathering written notes on everyone, about everything; what I call the scattergun approach to assessment. A focus on the quality and usefulness of recorded evidence rather than quantity would be my approach.

 

Cx

[Guest]

We just have one wall with a4 sheets split into 4 squares and when we make an observation of a child we write it on a post it note and stick it on this wall..its as easy as that. Then at the end of the week these observation post its get put into their learning journey books.Parents can add to their learning journeys also. One good idea I found on here also was a wow wall where parents are given a star and they write on there something the child has done over the weekend or time they havent been in the setting.

[Madmum]

I am in a maintained nursery and we currently have 47 children split between 2 of us as keyworkers. We aim to do a focussed observation on each child each half term. At the start of the half term the teacher allocates each of us so many per week to do - depending on the number of weeks. These are in a table, and we can swtich them about if children are absent etc. We aim to have 1 week clear at the end to catch any up. We call them our'Stars of the Week' and each of us has a laminated star on the wall wiht the names for that week written on - it also helps to remind us to do more photos etc for that week's 'stars'! We have a clipboard each wiht the obs for the week on it, with the next step form the last obns on it, and the current individual target.

 

In addition ot his we do 'float and notes' and photos for all children (not just key children) as we go along.

[Cait]

I'd say be clear about what you are meaning as "observation" - if you are talking about planned focus time to do an in depth narrative observation of a particular child then yes it may take some time to get around everyone. Otherwise observations are happening all the time, just from what you glean from interactions, so my question would be how good is your team at on the spot analysis of what needs to be recorded and what doesn't? If you are clear about what learning in action you want to observe then it becomes easier to screen out what you don't need to capture based on the fact that you already know it. This makes assessment for learning more the focus of your observations rather than trying to create a system focused on gathering written notes on everyone, about everything; what I call the scattergun approach to assessment. A focus on the quality and usefulness of recorded evidence rather than quantity would be my approach.

 

Cx

 

I prefer this approach too, otherwise it can degenerate into 'observing for observing's sake' making paperwork for yourself. We have decided to go for using photographs whererever possible - we seem to take hundreds anyway, and annotate these in the files. We'll do a written observation for those moments when you think - I wish I could have videoed that! learning in action moments. I think it's necessary to ask yourself " what am I doing this for?" whenever you're tempted to just do a planned or timetabled observation.

[catma]

I see a "narrative" as part of a toolkit and not the only tool in the box! The thing with stucturing narratives to so many per child per week etc is that the reason for doing them gets lost in the system. What if you had an eal child - wouldn't you need to do them more often because thats how you would get more information about what the child is capable of doing whereas the child who shoves it all under your nose may not need any? Do you consider different styles of longer observation such as every 15 mins to look at engagement or process skills, or tracking where the child goes across a longer period of time to unpick interests and learning styles...

 

Cx

Edited June 16, 2012 by catma

[Guest]

Thank you Catma - it was ideas in how to organise these on a 'working wall' I need. In my old post I gave each child a target - this could last a week or a half term dependant on the child. A diiferent coloured post it was stuck next to the child's photograph on the wall for all staff within the unit the see if they could observe this in action to add to the learning journeys. This way there wasn't an abundance of observations that were all the same. Although this was only with 30 children so was easy to organise and store. Bit more difficult with 84 children! And espeically the 90 in reception! With our unit being so big, we are looking on how to store them more than anything. Our staff are fantastic at knowing where the chidlren are up to and their next steps through through internal moderation and discussions about each child's learning journey. They are paid an extra hour to stay behind one night a week to help file abservations and add to each child's learning journey within the class. So helpful to work with them to track a child's learning!

 

Thank you Mossychops CD cases would be ideal that's a great idea. They are perfect size and would onto the wall we are thinking of putting them on. Also seen the idea on here about a WOW wall for parents to add to and love it! As I'm sure OFSTED would ;-)

[Guest]

We have clipboards dotted about that have short & long observations stickers & pens ready to catch children in action. Near to some of these we also have an A4 sheet per Key Group (we have 3 groups). These sheets list children's names, with a column for long obs, short obs & chn's overaching next steps. The idea is that you know what we are looking out for for each child in the setting, and can tick off as and when we do any obs so you can see at a glance that johnny has 8 short obs so far, but sandy hasn't had any... Its not perfect, but does help us focus in a little on who may need more. Also, we then highlight any of our children we really want extra obs on if we have a child who maybe doesn't "do" much in the setting.

[Cait]

It worries me that people are thinking about 'enough' observations in a child's file. Is it just me? I think the question to ask yourself is, 'do I have enough knowledge about the child's progress, written and unwritten when I come to plan their next steps/learning outcomes for the future? If I do, then I have enough observations!

[Fredbear]

Surely everything we see, hear is an observation, it's how we use this knowledge to plan each child's learning journey, now that's the skill. Hate the thought of the revised EYFS becoming a tick box too, I do hope not.