Reports.....how Often?

[nicki-k]

I work in a pre-school in Kent. We do a basic report for our non-funded children in the summer term. We do a more indepth report for our funded children in the Autumn and Spring term and then complete the record of transfer in the summer term. All of our reports are similar to the Kent record of transfer i.e. the six early learning areas.

 

These take a lot of time to complete and I am questioning whether we really need to do reports as often. We hold parent consultations every term and whilst the majority of parents do attend these they might be with us for 5 mins! Is it acceptable to complete one report at the end of the year combined with a parent consultation. We have an open door policy year round anyway. The cost involved with staff wages is very high!

 

How often does everyone else complete reports and have parent consultations. Would ofsted frown upon us if they were only once a year.

 

Any advice gratefully received.

[Inge]

also a pre-school......

 

We record childrens progress in Record of achievement books/profile books, which are updated regularly by keyworkers over the year and use these to show childrens progress and next planned steps at any meetings and consultations with the parents which are 3 times a year...we do not do seperate reports for each child, with 40+ children we would be forever doing paperwork.

 

We then use these for completing the transfer documents, and parents get the record of achievement when the child leaves.

 

Ofsted were happy with this, so long as we had records and parents were told they could see them at any time or ask for information and who they had to ask (keyworker).

 

Inge

 

we start these when the child starts with us....but we only take children fom 3yrs...so it may only be 1 term before funding starts.

Edited March 29, 2006 by Inge

[nicki-k]

Hi Inge

 

Are your record of achievement books made up by your pre-school or commercial ones? We also have 40+ children and the amount of paperwork seems very unproductive at the moment.

[Inge]

we made our own , but we can buy them from our early years department who produced some for us.

 

Ours consist of a letter /introduction expalining what we do, and how we record, areas of learning briefly described (about two sentences on each) adn not to expect all children to achieve everything as we do not always see everything they can do...plus they may do things at home but not with us...we only record what we see and have room for parents to add thier own comments.

 

then 2 pages for each area of learning one for brief observations, comments photos annotated and evidence and one to show progress where we have stepping stones which are highlighted when the child has achieved them consistently, these are dated as well.

 

At the end of the book are balnk pages for parents comments further photos extra room for obs if needed....larger obs are slipped into the back of the book

 

Sounds complicated and long but once each child has a book the keyworker finds it easy to open the book and complete it even during session time while observing the child...

 

I am in the process of updating our books and curently they are ina publihing programme so unable to sentd a copy. there are several examples of stepping stones on the forum to make producing a format easier...that is the hard work..once done it saves time and paper.

 

Inge

[nicki-k]

Do other groups do record of achievement books on each child like Inge. I like the sound of this and am looking into doing this from Sept.

 

Would you do this instead of termly/yearly reports or as well as?

 

We do termly reports on funded children at the moment as well as a separate folder where we file their 'work'. (paintings, worksheets etc). I am keen to drop the worksheets altogether and create a record of achievement file which incorporates all observations, photos etc and a summative sheet based on the norfolk one. I would also like to drop the reports as so much work is involved with these. There is also a tendency to focus on the funded children, writing obs for their reports, and forget about doing obs on the non-funded children.

 

I take over as supervisor in September and am trying to look ahead constructively without making change for change sake.

[Inge]

we do not do seperate reports, everything is in one file as you are planning, record of achivement photos are used for evidence etc. NEVER worksheets, (not used them for 18 years!) just childrens own 'work' in several forms, ctraft, drawing painting etc etc becomes quite a fat folder in the end.

 

we ask parents to make an appointment once a term with the childs keyworker and they are shown the folder and given time to look at it, add thier own comments, and then discuss this if they wish. it can take a while for each child but as they make appointments with the keyworkers this can be incorporated into session time.

 

Only report we write is the transfer to school document which parents read, add comments, sign before we send it to school. these are set by our early years team everyone sending children to school does the same one. We just liase woth children who attend two settings as to who would be the best group to send one, usually the one who sees the child the most but not always.

 

I am all for reducing the paperwork if it can be done

 

Inge

[nicki-k]

Thanks so much Inge. All is becoming much clearer now with the direction I want to go in. If I develop a record of achievement book for all staff to use the consistency will be so much better. At the moment the content of the reports varies greatly depending on the individual key worker i.e. a couple of lines under each of the learning areas with some staff to essays from others. As a parent the one who writes less appears to do less. We have a couple of sets of twins who have different key workers and this can be quite difficult when their reports vary so much!

[Guest]

Hi

We are also a pre-school.

We do an end of year report, plus a report for the school for the children that are leaving along with the usual paperwork where we record the goals etc that we send to the school.

We also complete achievement books, these are just exercise books where we put in photos, observations etc that the parents have access to every day if they want to see them. We also have parents evenings twice year and an open door policy.