Students within the setting

[Karen Weller]

Hi I am not sure if any one can help me, we have a student who has started in the setting who needs lots of support. We are looking at introducing a programme of activities for the student to complete during there time with us. We would like to do this as in the past students are starting with us and not having tasks set by there college to complete. if any one has all ready done this within there setting and would be happy to share there plan with us I would be very grateful. 

many thanks

wellerkaren

[Mouseketeer]

Hi Karen and welcome to the forum, I  have also found it odd in recent years the lack of any structure from colleges for practical tasks students/apprentices need to be completing during their time in the setting, and then only a couple of visits to be assessed during the year, we didn’t even get the normal record of activities/expectations that you sign to say have been observed with the last one, I give them set tasks on arrival/end of day as part of our rota or you spend all your time trying to find them something to do, I give them a keychild with parent agreement and with me overseeing, as they become more familiar I expect them to cover tasks staff would have been on rota to do and think about preparing certain activities, I don’t have a plan as such for tasks, it’s more a ‘I’d like you to cover so and so’s whatever duty next week’, I do have a sheet of my expectations of them whilst in the setting e.g not to spend all your time with one ‘favorite’ child ( a real bug bear of mine), when sitting with chn position yourself so that you can also supervise the room/area, if there are no children still at an activity/resource you don’t need to still be there playing with it by yourself.....stating the obvious things really :-/ 

[FSFRebecca]

It's difficult isn't it? We have the same issue. I have found that (particularly in the baby room) the students want to just 'sit' and aren't very proactive. We have 'buddied' them up with other staff and this can be helpful. Then they basically shadow them - whatever that member of staff is doing, they do too (pretty much). We ask the member of staff to explain what they are doing and why - this helps on several levels: the student learns what the job is actually like and the member of staff has to think about what they are doing and why, which is good for their reflective practice. If the student can buddy two different people in a day they get to see how different people work or how the demands change with different ages (and it's also not too overwhelming for the staff)

[Stargrower]

We find this too.  It is hard when we're really busy to focus on what students need to do if they haven't been set tasks from college.  At the end of the day, I often find lovely pictures drawn and coloured by students and this drives me mad!  I also get annoyed with myself that they had so much time on their hands that they could sit and draw, when I (or my team) should have been finding them things to do!

Sorry, not a very constructive reply!

[Mouseketeer]

Lol I forgot about the beautifully drawn pictures ....and what’s worse is when they try and convince you the two and half year old they’ve been sat with for 3hrs did it themselves.

[Karen Weller]

Thank you for your support, I am thinking of making a students document up, I will share it on the forum once I have completed it.