Continuous Provision and next steps

[Guest]

Aaaaaaaaarghhhhhh !!!!! Please can someone help !!! I am demented trying to think of an easy, simple but effective way to identify next steps in continuous provision, follow this up and reflect it in my learning journeys !!!!! Xxxx

[Rob6692]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by next steps in continuous provisions. Are you looking for children's next steps to further their learning and development; or ways to improving your continuous provisions? I'm assuming you mean the former but then why are you looking for next steps specifically related to your continuous provisions? Just want to clarify the question before I try to answer

[Guest]

Hi !! Next steps to further their learning. When they are workng in CP say we take a photo and write a small observation with next steps ( which we have been told to do) how do we then follow everyones next steps ?? I need a sinple system but struggling to develop one !!!

[Cait]

Who has told you to do it this way?

 

I find that this sort of planning can become bogged down easily. A child who is thoroughly enjoying a CP activity one day, won't necessarily access it the next day, so all your hard thought out strategies can go to waste. It seems much more sensible to act on your ideas immediately, and then note down how you helped the child to achieve a next step 'in the moment'. For example, a child who is enjoying the water tray with a small boat or something, could have some floating and sinking input, where you go round the room together and find things and predict whether they will float or sink, spur the interest immediately, 'strike whilst the iron is hot'

 

It can be hard to change your method of doing things, but it is much more rewarding to see learning in action, straight from a child's interest.

[Mouseketeer]

We are finding this is working really well, we still have a couple of next steps per half term so we can let parents know what they could support at home and staff can engage at the right time to promote/observe these but we aren't all frantically planning and trying to cram in adult directed activies a week that suit the needs of 60 individual children :-)

[trekker]

I agree with Cait 100%...this gives children chance to actually explore fully the area of focus and truly develop their skills rather than a quick activity, photo call and a tick / highlight for the sake of covering everything.

[green hippo]

Yep, I'm with Cait, Mouseketeer and Trekker! I have tried every which way to do 'next steps' including on observations and have yet to find a system that is truly workable. If you are writing a next step for every observations - how is it possible to follow them all up? If we did a next step with every observation that would be about 45 per week!! I also found when we had list of next steps that it was very easy to become blinkered by these, at the expense of extending the children's learning in other areas (that were not a next step.) I also feel that a next step is an adults view on what that child will learn next but in every aspect there are different elements to it - in other words, next steps can actually narrow the curriculum and our interactions if we are not careful.

We now work much like what has been described above - ceasing the moment - how can I extend their learning now? Of course if a need is identifying itself, then extra provision or support will be planned but this doesn't happen after every observation.

This is something I asked Anna Ephgrave about when I went on her course. I said that in the past we would interact with a child, support their learning - say for example, supporting a child's cutting skills, then after that we would plan more cutting activities to further support that child - Anna said that by supporting a child whose struggling with cutting, you are working on a next step there and then on something that child has chosen to do, unless there are very limited opportunities for the child to practise that skill again, there would be no need to provide a number of further cutting activities (which they child may not/probably will not engage in anyway!). Of course, if there are a number of children who are struggling with cutting and not accessing it, this is when I would may be question my provision - is there enough 'reasons' for the children to cut? Could I provide more opportunities? More of a provision next step than for a particular child.

Good Luck,

May be ask the person that has recommended that you do this, to show you a realistically manageable way forward!

Sorry if this is a bit of a 'ranty/rambly' post but it's an area that I have spent many a sleepless night over and know how you are feeling.

Green Hippo x

[pickles37]

We are currently receiving support from our LA and she has advised that we plan the setting for each area of learning and development, in these areas of development we plan for children's next steps!

 

And she has advised not to read too deeply into the EYFS, but use it as a guide and word the development matters appropriately - no topics, only a focus......

 

 

So our focus for some is fine motor skills - therefore we are planning peg boards, threading and pop pom and tweezers.

 

Focus for others is encouraging vocabulary and forming meaningful relationships so we have planned chattersacks & talking boxes, adults concentrate on modelling language.

 

Feeling even more lost reading the above posts!

[Rob6692]

I agree with Cait et al., I think it's much more effective approach to pedagogy. The only trouble is that I think it's harder to evidence

[Guest]

I agree to with teaching in the moment but then how do you evidence your teaching / support and whether / when the child has achieved that next step?