Examples Of Outstanding Planning

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

 

We had a visit from Ofsted in January and they really liked our FS unit however the rest of the school were given notice to improve (therefore we were put under the same umbrella). We are now following lots of advice from local authority advisers who want much more detail going into our planning in order to make the school outstanding. I am wondering if anyone has any examples of planning they wouldn't mind sharing as at the moment I seem to be planning for hours and am questioning whether I am doing it correctly.

 

Any help would be great! x

[Guest]

I work in a nursery attached to a school that is in notice to improve.

 

Our Ofsted took place in October 2011.

 

I do not have outstanding planning to show you, in fact I am not sure our planning has ever been looked at! But what I do know is that one size is not going to fit all. If you got a good prior to the notice to mprove I wouldn't worry too much. You know your setting well and planning is always evolving.

 

I suppose maybe someone will come along who has FS experience and planning (I do not. Sorry!) and it might be useful to see what someone else is doing but to be honest whoever told you to try and aim for outstanding planning perhaps isn't concentrating enough effort on the areas that took the school into notice to improve!

 

We have had many LA folks in but whilst they have observed us, the majority of time and effort has been spent looking into the areas of concern from the report.

 

Good luck!

[mundia]

Hi Steph.

I agree with scarletangel, and have worked in schools in both special measure and notice to improve.

 

Personally I don't think there is such a thing as 'outstanding planning'. What makes practice outstanding isn't really about the bit of paper you use, but in how the bit of paper you choose to use frames and supports your thinking and the thinking that goes on behind it.

If you really feel that your planning falls short in some way, then get several examples (eg by looking in the resource library) and see what might suit you better, perhaps tweaking what you have already rather than throwing it all out. Perhaps also consider whether or not you really need to change yours given that it was the school in general that got the notice to improve but that they obvioulsy didnt find anything untoward in foundation.

[Guest LornaW]

Fight your corner steph you were not deemed to be inadequate and I agree totally with mundia and scarlettangel it is not the planning in the end that makes the difference but the execution of what was planned to meet the needs of those children! In the past I was an LA adviser and can tell you as many good teachers I saw there were as many good ways to plan. Are you meeting the needs of the children are the progressing if you answer yes then you are doing enough. Good teachers need a life outside school to carry on being good teachers!

 

Read last weeks TES re burn out!

 

Lorna

[catma]

Personally I don't think there is such a thing as 'outstanding planning'. What makes practice outstanding isn't really about the bit of paper you use, but in how the bit of paper you choose to use frames and supports your thinking and the thinking that goes on behind it.

 

I agree.

 

.

 

We had a visit from Ofsted in January and they really liked our FS unit however the rest of the school were given notice to improve (therefore we were put under the same umbrella)

 

But if you were inspected after Jan 1st you wouldn't have a separate EYFS judgement but just a whole school one that reflects the overall effectiveness across all children within the organisation, as the framework changed. The school is not adequate if it is not sustaining good outcomes across all it's key stages...

Edited July 12, 2012 by catma

[Guest]

I am also looking for this, especially how you plan for continuous provision. We are looking at changing ours as we are not entirely happy with it and SLT want more detail in it to link to the observations staff should be doing. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!

 

Thanks in advance!

[Guest]

We are looking at using an A4 page divided into 7 boxes (such a tricky number!) - one for each area. In each box we outline what is always available for each area, and that will stay the same for several weeks I should think. Under that each area has a space for resources we will make available for that week in response to observations. so eg

Numeracy

number tiles

clock

numeral cards

counting objects

Phil started sorting so will

add small objects and sorting

trays

 

This is a new way of planning for us, but seemed to make responses to obs. very clear on at least one piece of paper. I am not going to be able to respond to every child's observed progress in planning each week - haven't begun to crack that one yet!

[Guest LornaW]

I have just had this book delivered

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reception-Year-Action-month---month/dp/0415618509/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342981989&sr=1-1

 

and it is brilliant!!! I would really recommend reading this and then giving it to the SLT in schools to read - what a school!

 

Lorna

[Susan]

I thought that looked brilliant but as I am no longer teaching, I have kept my hands in my pockets!

[Guest LornaW]

Ah! Susan a wise move! I do some traiing which is why I have bought it!

 

Lorna

[Guest tinkerbell]

I have also bought the book and I agree with Lorna it makes good reading.

[trekker]

Yep - I think its great too. We have adopted some of the approaches in preschool - works really well.

[Froglet]

Thank you for the recommendations - I've had this book on my wish list for ages - think I'll actually buy it now!

[Guest]

We had Ofsted last year and the FS came out as 'Good' with outstanding aspects. They did not look at our planning - they just wanted to see what the children were doing and to know that as a teacher you can talk about why you had planned that activites.

Tbh it all depends on the results....if the results are not very good I think they will start to look more closely at planning, teaching & learning.

[Guest]

We had Ofsted at the end of June 2012 and came out good with outstanding features. We had a great team and the Lead Inspector spent the afternoon with my class. She didn't look at my planning but asked me to explain how I plan. I showed her our planning wall with the children's initial ideas and how that idea develops. This planning is at child height and the children are encouraged to write on it or put their ideas on using post its-that way it is ongoing and will invariably go off in different directions with different children! I enhance it with activities that I feel need working on and make sure that all areas are covered! The children come up with what resources they would like in their role play areas and had even started making their own 'spider's webs' with their ideas! I will plan in exactly the same way in september too! It works and the children love it and feel empowered! As Ginamaria08 says it all depends on the results!! Good luck!

[Guest tinkerbell]

Hells Bells

Your learning wall sounds great and I like the way the children can get at it to add their own ideas.It makes me realize just how high the boards in the classroom are and \i need to get things down to chil height.

Do you have any photos of your planning to show?

 

thanks Tinkerbell

[Guest]

Hi Tinkerbell-I am trying to work out how to add an image to this post! I'm on it!! My planning with the children is put on the wall just by our whiteboard. I did have it on the bottom of our classroom door but as that was open most of the time it couldn't be seen! We moved it to the bottom of the outside door but then it kept getting blown away! It's about just finding the right place for you and the children!

Our outside planning is on a post (broom stick) stuck in a bucket of cement. I have these cement buckets dotted around the outside area with 'challenges' on them; eg Construction Challenge-Can you use the wooden blocks to make a rocket thats big enough for you and 2 friends? Draw your rocket. Write a list of food you would need if you were going to the moon? supply clip boards etc. These cement buckets are the most useful resources I have. I can move them around the areas and then the children look for messages on them each day!!