Planning pro formas

[Guest]

Hi there - I'm sure lots of people have the same concerns at this time of year but I am moving down from reception to nursery (which I have never done) and need to think about how to set out my planning and have lots of questions.

 

 

Do you do a LT plan? Not sure how I would do this as I couldn't possibly say now where kids will be in June!

If you do, do you list DM statements, or activities.

 

Also MT plan - is this a half term or full term.

 

Weekly plan - How are you all showing how you respond to children's devp needs.

Do you just write up a general overview and aims, or detailed adult led activity sheets for when doing carpet activities with all chn.

 

Any advice would be great...

Tks

[Helen]

The idea of LT (and some MT) plans are now pretty outdated- thank goodness! Looking back when we used to plan topics, picking out learning intentions from dev matters statements, or any of the previous curricula for the past 10 years- meant that we spent hours doing the paperwork and then the next week not keeping to any of it!

 

The most important thing now is to observe your children regularly and frequently, and to plan for their next steps using their current interests. There are a million ways of doing this, and a search through forum topics and the resource library will give you some more ideas. An effective way is for each key person to use their observations for a couple of their children to plan for the next week's activities and experiences. Their initials can be added to the planning- and other KPs can perhaps add their key children if they believe the activity would be of interest to them. This way, you can track the whole observation/planning cycle and explain to advisors/inspectors etc why you are offering certain activities to certain children, and what you hope they will learn from them.

 

I'm sure other members will be along to share their ideas :1b

[Sue R]

That is how we used to do it in my old setting - it works, is quick and easy, gives you more time with the children and both our LEA advisors and Ofsted Inspectors liked it!!

[Guest]

For LTP I simply have continuous provision planning for all of the areas such as snack, malleable materials, role play etc. I'd dearly love to get rid of MTP altogether as it isn't necessary, but the powers that be in schools continue to ask for it, and the school I'm moving to in Sept is insisting on a topic per year group each half term, another pet hate of mine. I've been asked to produce a 'scheme of work' for my Reception class.........no idea what they think I'll be producing but I'll be submitting my continuous provison planning and see what they make of that.

For weekly plans, I've used an A3 sheet with 8 boxes (1 for each area of learning and development, and another for CoEL). In each box I make a quick note whenever I see a child displaying a particular interest or see that they have a particular need/skill that needs developing. For example if a child clearly doesn't know the names of his/her peers I might add 'name games' and the child's initials to the grid, in the PSED box. This forms the basis for the weekly plans, and I simply highlight and date each 'entry' when it is added into the planning. Once the sheet is full (it could be up on the wall for quite a few weeks) I put it in the planning folder then start a new one. This then is the evidence of planning for children's next steps/interests.

My weekly continuous provision planning itself is simply adapted from the BH Nursery planning for 3/4 year olds on the old EYFS CD/ROM. It can be found in the resources list in section 3.1. I have separate planning for adult led activities, but generally try to keep everything as simple and straightforward as possible, as I don't believe having shedloads of paperwork makes me a better teacher, no matter what anyone says. The best and most informative/productive use of my time is spent with the children.

I'm always looking for new ways of doing things though (aren't we all) and I'm seriously tempted by the objective led planning from Alistair Bryce-Cleggs blog ABCdoes.

[Guest]

Even though it's outdated I like a long term plan just to map out festivals and cultural events but sometimes I also add in books (classics) that we will use for Letters and Sounds.

I like planning.....there I've said it! It's of course child led and observation fed on a weekly basis but I still add development statements to my weekly plans based on what we have observed - habit I guess

[Guest]

Thanks so much. SOme really good points for me to dwell on.