assessments from home

[flowlow]

Hi all

 

I have in a previous thread put that there is some variation in assessments from different settings but now I have a question about information from home. Essentially we have 45 children on role and at the end of term two parents said in some areas they felt their children had been graded too low. Well one was because another nursery graded higher, although I have moderated this file and think our grades more than fair so will take this up with the nursery when we go back. However I am now looking at another file (different key person) who had a parent say they were not so happy with some areas but agreed with others.

 

Now my question this parent is a teacher and works in early years so you would feel that she does know the EYFS and what she is looking for. She has provided us with so much information from home (three pieces of 'work' four examples of 'writing' and at least seven separate observations) with what my staff member has done it doesn't fit on the moderation form there is loads from home all carefully written out like proper assessments/observations on her child (just like you would expect to find in her files of children at work) which is lovely but it is just so much.

 

The other problem being that her child is doing a much higher level of stuff at home than what we see in setting. Now the key person has judged on what we have seen although she has put the home information in the file, but this does make a difference in what the assessment would be depending on what information you use to make the assessment. Now I know we should use all of it, this is the idea behind holistic child information and parent partnership but there is quite a difference to the level of working.

 

What would you all do? from a moderation point of view I agree with both parties depending on whether I am looking at home information, setting based information or all of it! do we take it as read she is doing this level of working at home? or could this be 'helped along' I am not saying it is but as we are not there we don't know if it is independent or more adult led. I know we should believe parents but I can't be the only setting to have had parents in the past saying their children could do certain things but when it came down to is independent working was actually much more parent supported!! I also hate to say it but some of the most difficult parents are teachers as they feel that their child should be doing well as they know all the 'right' things to do and say to help them learn (I know this is a huge generalisation but just commenting form past parents)

 

ideas and thoughts???

 

 

[Guest]

We add them but annotate them as 'parental observations' to diferentiate

[Upsy Daisy]

Let me start by saying I'm not a teacher and I know very little about these assessments.

 

Surely you're assessing what the child can do in the school environment.

I would imagine that lots of children can perform at a higher level with one to one attention (even if this isn't scaffolding the task), at a time that suits the child best, in a quiet, distraction-free environment where the child feels most relaxed and confident.

If future expectations and planning in school were based on what the child could do at home, wouldn't you be setting the child up to fail?

 

Just my thoughts.

[flowlow]

We add them but annotate them as 'parental observations' to diferentiate

So do we max but when you come to make your 'assessment' of where a child is do you then use the information from home to make that assessment, the information from the setting or both? thinking that as Upsy Daisy says most children will approach an activity very differently at home to in the setting due to individual attention, maybe more confidence on home turf, less distractions etc...

 

Let me start by saying I'm not a teacher and I know very little about these assessments.

 

Surely you're assessing what the child can do in the school environment.

 

I would imagine that lots of children can perform at a higher level with one to one attention (even if this isn't scaffolding the task), at a time that suits the child best, in a quiet, distraction-free environment where the child feels most relaxed and confident.

 

If future expectations and planning in school were based on what the child could do at home, wouldn't you be setting the child up to fail?

 

Just my thoughts.

this was our thoughts Upsy Daisy and what my staff member made her judgement on but then parents were unhappy. I mean the information from home is like proper observations you would think we had done them! but overall I feel that if we grade too high we set the child up to fail, in addition this child is only three and has another year with us, as a parent I don't think I would be too worried at the moment if it was my child especially seen as the child is still emerging in the age band that is appropriate to her age.

[Guest]

In the past I have recorded things like this and written into the narrative sections of my recording that "Mum reports that at home, x is able to ...." I'm not saying that the child can't do or can but equally I'm flagging up that the different situation at home may enable that child to do the specific thing more readily than within the setting. I've explained this to the parent too, simply pointing out that the child might be more engaged in different types of activities in different settings/situations or that they might feel more inclined towards certain types of activity in the different situations.

[flowlow]

In the past I have recorded things like this and written into the narrative sections of my recording that "Mum reports that at home, x is able to ...." I'm not saying that the child can't do or can but equally I'm flagging up that the different situation at home may enable that child to do the specific thing more readily than within the setting. I've explained this to the parent too, simply pointing out that the child might be more engaged in different types of activities in different settings/situations or that they might feel more inclined towards certain types of activity in the different situations.

I agree Holly I think our problem has been when we have had to note the assessment we made such as emerging 30-50 months etc.. that the problem came as mum felt she should have been assessed higher. It is the price you pay I guess for letting parents see the assessment bit lol but we have made that assessment on what the child does in the setting, what we have seen and recorded.

[Guest]

Feeling your pain!

 

Not sure how you record your assessments but ours are colour coded for each term - if this is how you do it could you add mum's grading in an additional colour and add it to you key - also adding to 'see obs from home'??

[flowlow]

good idea we do colour code ours to each half term. we are also thinking about not doing large summary until end of the year but we will check progress on a progress tracker. So it may be less obvious that we are grading from what we see only. Here's hoping anyway.