Development summary/ reports..............how often and how long?

[Guest]

I am the manager of a day nursery, and we have been sending development summaries/ reports home to parents for many many years. We always used to send one home every six months. The pre-school room then changdd this to every term, as we had a number of children attending 'term time only' and has we could only offer a few of these spaces, the children occasionally changed each term. We have been sending home a report and holding a 'development meeting' (parents evening!) each term. However a number of staff members feel the summaries are too long and descriptive and are not necessary every term. How often do others send home a summary, and how long are they? do you send just one detailed report a 'year'? how often do you have meetings with parents? These summaries and meetings are done throughout the whole setting, not just the preschool room. It is the same for our babies and toddlers. I would love to hear our others do this?

Thanks in advance.

[bubblejack]

I am an 85 place pre-school,open each day 9.00-3.00. I use PRAMS to observe children. It does brilliant reports to show parents. i invite 2 parents in a day to look at their childs report. It works well for us to do it when children are having their welcome song etc at start of each session. If parents can't actually attend I can e-mail it to them. Thanks to Matt for his help.

[bubblejack]

Sorry forgot to say. I do this 3 times a year.

[Hoolahoney]

We do 1 per term. We have a face to face meeting in the autumn term, a written report in the spring term and then give parents the choice of either a written report or face to face meeting in the summer term. Most choose face to face with the odd written report in the summer term. My staff are happy with this and understand that it in the grand scheme of things is the max of 2 written reports in a whole year.

[meridian]

We do them twice a year, for parents of a child aged between 2-3 years (depending on when they start for some done nearer 3rd birthday, cos need time to settle, will get the written report against the prime areas (the '2 yr old' check, we hold another parents evening in the spring term for a verbal discussion how child is doing, and then a written report to school for children moving up, I also collate information onto the PRAMS system from individual meetings with key person twice a year to summarise development.

[Guest]

We do a summary once a term and share them with the parents in an informal way ie ask them in to have a look at the summary to ask questions/ argue (!!) or comment.

This might mean I see one parent at the start and end of a session, sometimes two, to suit them really.

 

At the end of the summer term we also show them the profile that will be passed to reception. This tends to be the meeting where we sit together to chat.

 

I would like to say though that we speak to the parents most days so any issues are likely to have been raised at another time previous to summary sharing!

Edited December 6, 2012 by Scarlettangel

[SueFinanceManager]

I am an 85 place pre-school,open each day 9.00-3.00. I use PRAMS to observe children. It does brilliant reports to show parents. i invite 2 parents in a day to look at their childs report. It works well for us to do it when children are having their welcome song etc at start of each session. If parents can't actually attend I can e-mail it to them. Thanks to Matt for his help.

 

loulizrob just for your information in case you didn't already know PRAMS stands for Progress Recording and Monitoring System and it was developed by us

 

As a member of the FSF you can download it for free. If you want to know a little more see here

[Guest]

Thanks for all your replies. I have been using PRAMS too, ut we have found it difficult to implement throughout the setting as we only have one computer, and around 90 children in total on role. It was getting to the point when one person would be completing the assesments for the whole setting, and I felt like the staff didnt really 'know' where the children were working at. We do still use it but only for the preschool room. I think I am going to stick to the way we have been doing it, but maybe use a shorter summary in the spring term. The reports the staff use at the moment are quite lengthy, and they have been writing rather long essays on them. I think I will produce a shorter one than only needs a few bullet points. I'll see how that goes!

[SueFinanceManager]

Thanks for all your replies. I have been using PRAMS too, ut we have found it difficult to implement throughout the setting as we only have one computer, and around 90 children in total on role. It was getting to the point when one person would be completing the assesments for the whole setting, and I felt like the staff didnt really 'know' where the children were working at. We do still use it but only for the preschool room. I think I am going to stick to the way we have been doing it, but maybe use a shorter summary in the spring term. The reports the staff use at the moment are quite lengthy, and they have been writing rather long essays on them. I think I will produce a shorter one than only needs a few bullet points. I'll see how that goes!

 

Fair enough, you have to find the system that works best for your setting. Just for future reference though Matt is working on PRAMS 3 and when that is launched PRAMS 3 will be able to run on a server and allow multiple users to connect to a setting database over a network. This will allow several members of staff to access PRAMS 3 from different computers at the same time.

 

Good luck with it all.....it all takes such a lot of time and thinking about especially for 90 children

[Guest]

Thanks! I will look forward to PRAMS 3, and will definitley give it a go!

[Guest]

Does anyone know what is compulsory regarding feedback to parents on their child's development under the new framework? At one point we were told termly written feedback was compulsory?

Edited December 11, 2012 by Guest

[SueJ]

Hi Ibauugrzay

 

I have attached the statutory framework for the revised EYFS for your information (it is freely available on the foundation years website) - assessment is covered on page 10. There is a statutory requirement to undertake a 2 year check for children aged between 2 and 3 years old and report on the prime areas (if you wish to report on the specific areas that is up to you/your setting/LA).

 

Formative assessment is ongoing - there is no hard and fast rule on how much must be done - however it must not interfere with your interactions with the children.

 

The only required summative assessment is at the end of the foundation stage when the EYFS profile must be completed.

 

Hope that helps

 

EYFS-Statutory-Framework-2012.pdf