Next steps

[trekker]

I am having a horrendous time trying to come up with next steps for my children…I have lots of obs…but I really cannot see an obvious next step…they are pretty much working at expected levels. At other times or for a few children who are struggling, its that I cannot choose...there are many options but which should I commit to.

We are using in the moment planning so Im always responding to their play and developing, adding things, modelling, demonstrating etc…and children are making good progress. So when I come to identifying and recording my monthy next steps (focusing on one aspect of development per child) I feel like im forcing something….its so much effort…its been like that for a long time….it feels pointless.

I just feel like, and my setting expects that, I need something on paper to show I’ve got something to focus on in the context of observations and provision. To show that that child has been considered and their needs and interests are planned for. It should be simple…I can think of things to do without any effort in the moment why can’t I transfer that to this task?!

Anyway id be interested to see how others decide their next steps and record them, how often this happens… and if anyone has completely abandoned them - how does this translate to sharing plans with parents and other staff to ensure children are supported in areas of need? How do you evidence this?

[louby loo]

We do it most verbally :rolleyes: That said we are a small team of 8 , average about 40ish children on role.

 

We have regular staff meetings where we discuss all children as a team, and I record basic next steps on a master list. These are only ever very basic like ' support counting 1-5' or 'support parent with toilet training' type comments.

 

As for sharing info with parents we play it by ear - some parents just want a quick daily update, other like more formal meetings, so we do whatever suits the parents best.

 

Obviously if a child has specific needs their planning will be more in-depth.

 

Ofsted praised that she could ask any staff member about any child - and that staff member could answer questions about any child - but we are all longstanding mature very old team!!

[lsp]

We do the same as Louby Loo.

[libellule]

Totally agree with you trekker. I use Tapestry, and at my last inspection found it hard to answer questions about how I recorded Next Steps - the inspector said I wasn't systematic. I care for 4 EY children (all part-time) and I feel I know my children, but while looking after them I found it difficult to explain to the inspector... any tips for how to record Next Steps in a useful way on the Tapestry system?

[Foreveryoung]

We don't record next steps using Tapestry or anywhere else, we only do NS in the moment. You could though do an obs titled next steps for zoey and just do an ongoing obs updating it every so often? I found adding NS onto various obs pretty pointless as hard to do any tracking before we moved away from them. We use cohort anylasis to plan overarching NS for the areas.

[SueFinanceManager]

Totally agree with you trekker. I use Tapestry, and at my last inspection found it hard to answer questions about how I recorded Next Steps - the inspector said I wasn't systematic. I care for 4 EY children (all part-time) and I feel I know my children, but while looking after them I found it difficult to explain to the inspector... any tips for how to record Next Steps in a useful way on the Tapestry system?

 

Hi libellule

As you may be aware we are constantly looking to develop and improve Tapestry and the way Tapestry deals with next steps is one of several big projects the developers are looking at.

Next steps is quite a diverse thing, some people want the ability to add their own personlised next steps for individual children. Some folk are looking for next steps to be indicated when making an observation so you can select them and add them to an observation. People have asked for ways to export lists of common next steps for groups of children.

 

As you can see there is a lot to consider and the team need to work out ways such ideas could be implemented.

 

A bit of a work around for next steps could be the reports function. When you create a report for a child Tapestry will add the next steps based on your assessments in each area of learning but these are editable. This means if Tapestry makes some suggestions you agree with you can leave them in but you can delete things and type in your own next steps.

 

There is a tutorial here about creating reports but feel free to experiment with one of your children, it is easy to delete a report and they are not visible to parents unless you make them visible.

[Buzz]

Does anyone know a way of collecting the next steps information on Tapestry as a group? Obviously I realise that the next steps are provided by Tapestry for individuals and, at the moment I collate the information by hand, so to speak, by looking at each child's idividuals next steps then checking them against other children to see who else has the same or similarities so that we can then provide activities and resources to group them together and encourage them to extend their learning. This is very time consuming but worthwhile (I think), but an easier way would be SO much easier.

[Rebecca_H]

Hi,

 

Thank you for your message regarding next steps -

Tapestry does not have a group view of next steps. We are however intending on improving next steps on Tapestry so that you may be able to perform something similar to this in the future.

 

Best wishes, Rebecca H

[MarshaD]

Trekker we have abandoned next steps in the usual sense it was too time consuming to generate snappy NS that were SMART, easily referred to and then keep them updated. We do however include three broad curriculum targets on the termly parents voice sheets eg count to five with 1:2:1 correspondence, make transition to using toilet.

 

If you're using ITMP then aren't your NS recorded on your group / individual sheets. I recently attended training with Anna Ephgrave and Ruth Moore (?). Which was great. They said that Tapestry users were uploading sheets.

[SueFinanceManager]

If you're using ITMP then aren't your NS recorded on your group / individual sheets. I recently attended training with Anna Ephgrave and Ruth Moore (?). Which was great. They said that Tapestry users were uploading sheets.

 

Have you spotted the Anna Ephgrave article on the forum, find it here