observing practice

[skippy]

Hi

 

Not sure if this is in the right section but I have been asked to observe practice and provision in our different rooms. I have never done this before and wondered if anyone has any pointers of formats I could get some hints and tips from. the reason is to ensure good practise is happening and there are consistent approaches and practise within each room.

 

I think I need to go with an idea of what I want out of the observation and maybe prompts.

 

Thank you

[catma]

Observation works best when the person being observed knows what the focus is - you could look at something broad like how the characteristics are being demonstrated by the children; you can use the positive relationships and enabling environment sections to identify good practice. If these are in place you would evidence it through the children's behaviours as much as the adult interactions.

 

Make sure you do feedback quite quickly after the observation - we often do a sandwich approach; what was good overall linked to the focus, what needs to be done better (which will become the development points for further obs) and what was individual to that person's practice.

Then obviously there's writing up the feedback for the records.

 

Cx

[skippy]

Thanks Catma

Do you have a pro forma? x

[catma]

To be honest I tend to write narrative notes for myself when watching and then pull my thoughts together from that - we have an agreed LA proforma for the record of any obs we do so I can't really share that I'm afraid. However, you can do it quite simply with 3-4 boxes:

• Key information on the observation - who, what context, no of children and focus of the ob, name of observer, time of ob...
• Main strengths (in an evidenced way and showing impact on children, so e.g. good interactions with children which extend thinking e.g. when you.............)
• Areas for development
• Overall judgement if you are making one

The balance of strengths to areas for development is quite important... more areas for development to strengths might indicate a requires improvement outcome for example.

 

Cx

[SueFinanceManager]

Does this article help

 

Sue

[skippy]

Thank you