Baseline in Nursery

[apple]

Please can I just ask how you are carrying out and recording baseline assessments for your Nursery children?

Are you just concentrating on the prime areas - it does seem hard to gather evidence for some of the areas after such a short period.

I would also be interested in finding out how you have inducted your children - are they all in now and how have you done it?

[Guest]

we did a week of home visits, then the youngest 5 started mon/next 5 tues last 5 wed/all older ones returned thurs so all 24 in after 4 days. i think it's too quick, but kids settled quickly and head wants them in asap. we focus on general routines e.g. aprons, paintings on driers, how to wash their hands - they have no clue at first, drying hands with paper towels, teaching to independently access snack bar, learning how to share and cope in big group, accessing garden etc etc etc.!!!!

we focus on 3 prime areas and just jot down examples of speech, what their social skills are like, independence, fine and gross motor skills, and note possible speech/understanding problems. also interests, and preferred learning styles. we have been using the very loose topic of colours to produce an easy display and give opportunity for chatting during nice activities - i made cup cakes today and we'll ice them yellow tomorrow. we are all doing our progress summaries this week, then the parents will get them next friday, ready for parents meetings week beginning 22nd oct. not much time for us but school have theirs then so we have to fit in with them. all observations are put on post-its or annotated photos and put in their learning journeys, as we aren't making extra work for ourselves! parents will get to see these at parents evening so we're trying to get as much as possible in them. phew!! x

[Guest]

Hi there, just use the Prime areas, we expect that keyworkers will have hem done by the end of October. Thats the point of the Prime areas. Once they are confident in those areas then you can worry about the rest. Yes it really is easier than before.

About five years ago we changed our policy from getting the children in slowly to getting them all in quickly then working with those who are struggling, perhaps shortening their hours/days until they are more settled. We find that since by far the most children settle quickly and are fine within a week it is better to do it quickly and then be very flexible with any that are struggling. It was controversial when we introduced by a previous manager and I was completely against it, but it works fine and it absolutely stops the settling in process form dragging on and on. It has been observed by two Ofsted inspections now and they have both been impressed how settled the children are so early in the term. Obviously parents are encouraged to stay for as long as the children need them but our expereinced team are very good at knowing when to encourage separation and when to hang back.