Planning help! Staff finding it too difficult...?!

[farmpark]

Hey to all, I am having problems with my staff finding our planning system too much work and not getting to grips with it and was seeking some advice as to whether I am asking too much of my staff or do I need to be more firm?! Firstly we changed our planning in September due to reflecting on our previous planning system not being effective and was too much paperwork! Therefore we scrapped our weekly planning sheets and began using a next step approach where each key worker came up with 3 next steps for each child (1 psed, 1c&l, 1pd) ~ although they can be linked to a specific area (especially for those 3 years old or over) and then put an activity that will help develop the next step on the wipe board causing a spider diagram for each activity with child's initials on it so that other key workers can add their children if they are working on same next step or any other of their key children. once the child has taken part in this activity their initials get wiped off and a new activity is put up, continuing this until they have achieved the next step... At the end of the month an achievements of the month summary is completed which can be brief 3 paragraphs stating whether each next step has been achieved, and if not, why. The key worker then plans 3 more if they have been achieved or can carry the next steps on if they feel further progress is needed to achieve it. No other planning is done as toys are put out by looking at wipe board and choosing toys to enable learning through child led play and toys are available in the stackers if the children would like to pick something different then they can help themselves. Observations are done in relation to next steps and any spontaneous wow moments. One long observation is done each month to look at the characteristics of learning and level of involvement.

 

 

Soo... What do you all think?! Reading some of the threads I have seen you all plan differently so was just looking for some feedback?

 

Many thanks for reading and any feedback :-) xx

[louby loo]

The first rule of planning ' never ask about planning ' :)

 

I can never work out if what we do is enough/ not enough, we've tried to seriously cut down the amount of writing paperwork for each child- unless a need is observed. After all is what/who is all this paperwork for? If a child is developing normally in all areas - just why the need to write every last thing up?

 

But them I have a wobbly moment and think we should be doing more.

Currently each child has one or two VERY SIMPLE next steps, depending entirely on the individual child. Could be a simple as putting own coat on.... This would reflect in our planning as ensuring lots of dressing up/ self help activities offered that interest this child.

 

We are a term time preschool, 2-4s.

Edited January 7, 2014 by louby loo

[flowlow]

Hi

I would think your planning sounds quite straight forward and to be honest my staff would think by reading what you do that I am horrible and make them do too much lol.

 

We plan by objective not activity. So the first two weeks of every term is given over to observation for interests/needs etc... in these weeks staff not children's interests next steps etc.. and we use this information to 'group' into three or four interests (doesn't have to be this number just tends to be) and we then can use this as a basis for planning for the term.

So already this term we have lots of children interested in the texture of things and exploring different media, different sounds that instruments make and enclosures/emptying and filing. We will then log which children this applies to on a spiderlike diagram and then make sure over the term we have a range of activities that take these interests into account (we find that even though children are individual learners and will explore in different ways there are normally some 'themes' that apply to more than one child) and we make sure activities are resourced carefully enough that there is plenty of 'room' for extending or support depending on which child is taking part and what there level of intereaction would be.

For any child that does not 'fit' into any of the 'themes' we have seen then we can add their individual interests as this will more likely be just the odd thing here and there so easy to manage. We set next steps in terms of what skill we think they need or are interested in developing so therefore it is easy to 'fit' the skill to be learnt into the activities we have already planned, although staff may choose to spend time at the activity to make sure that the 'skill' is being 'learnt'. Within the first two weeks we note any development need that the cohort might have and then we work out two or three objectives to focus on through out the term.

 

Each week we do a feed forward sheet which means we talk about how the objective is coming on, how the next steps are coming on, make sure the interests are the same, what individual needs/interests etc...might be changing on what is working not working, we may have observed and any environment changes we have noticed that need to be addressed. Then I make a very simple enhancement sheet which just identifies any activity or resource that we need to 'add' to our CP.

 

Reading this back sounds like loads and really complicated but it isn't really when you get into the swing of it.

[farmpark]

Thank you for your replies, I now feel that what we are doing is right the staff just need to be reminded why they chose the job - for the children!!!! and make sure they manage there time well to keep on top of planning! :-)

[Mouseketeer]

Is that 3 next steps for each child a week ? I think my staff would struggle with that too, though I guess it depends on how many key children they are planning for, a couple of my staff would be planning 36 next steps a week......or maybe I don't expect enough of them, but they don't think that gggggrrrrrrrr to planning