Planning For The Individual

[lynnlyn]

Please help I am going round and round in circles and cannot stop spinning!!! I have been trying to organise planning for the individual but am finding this very difficult. . We chart the childrens interests each day ( on a wall chart) and the staff follow this up with the necessary resources etc. BUT there is no planning for each childs learning ..... basically equipment is provided,staff make observations by photo or written record and then nothing more is done besie adding these to the childs records. How can I make sure that apporpriate learning is being covered? We have a focus activity each day but this is geared to our medium/long term plans and not to the individual. I would welcome any ideas - please help!

[Guest]

We're in exactly the same boat also, and this is something that I am hoping to tackle soon.

 

Having come from teaching where the MAIN point to observations and assessments is so that you can plan for the children's next steps - it seems crazy that this isn't happening.

 

I think that I am going to look at this in a staff meeting and during team planning meetings. I want the staff to ensure that they are using their observations and knowledge of their children to differentiate their activities, and I am going to ask them to identify this on their planning, by naming how an activity will be extended or varied for certain children. E.g. If they are doing some ball skills in the garden and 1 child can competently throw and catch a middle sized ball, I want them to actually state on the plan that with this child they will introduce a smaller ball, etc; or if a child isn't crawling yet, I want them to plan activities to promote this.

 

I'm so used to doing it myself that it seems simple, but I am sure that when I come to implement it, it will be a whole lot more difficult than I anticipate.

 

Will keep in touch!

[lynnlyn]

We're in exactly the same boat also, and this is something that I am hoping to tackle soon.

 

Having come from teaching where the MAIN point to observations and assessments is so that you can plan for the children's next steps - it seems crazy that this isn't happening.

 

I think that I am going to look at this in a staff meeting and during team planning meetings.  I want the staff to ensure that they are using their observations and knowledge of their children to differentiate their activities, and I am going to ask them to identify this on their planning, by naming how an activity will be extended or varied for certain children.  E.g. If they are doing some ball skills in the garden and 1 child can competently throw and catch a middle sized ball, I want them to actually state on the plan that with this child they will introduce a smaller ball, etc; or if a child isn't crawling yet, I want them to plan activities to promote this.

 

I'm so used to doing it myself that it seems simple, but I am sure that

when I come to implement it, it will be a whole lot more difficult than I anticipate.

Will keep in touch!

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Thanks for your speedy reply. I think we are both in the same boat. I too am from a teaching background and feel just like you - its seems so simple! But persuading others to do it is so difficult. I get a lot of moaning and saying 'theres no time' even though they all have non contact time to write up their observations etc. I am worried about what the children actually get out of coming to my nursery ( apart from play etc) and also worried about the dreaded ofsted and the fact that we have no written learning dvelopments - what would they say????

[Guest]

My sentiments exactly. Keep in touch and let me know if you have any developments, and I'll do likewise!

 

Shelley

[rosepetal]

Hi Willow,

 

Having just been through an Ofsted inspection, i can tell you Ofsted will look for individual learning for each child. At the nursery i work at as a Senior Nursery Officer, this is what we do, we have a Long term, Medium Term and a Short Term plan. The Short Term Planning is a weekly plan, in this we have a sheet with Mon - Fri on it, we have a section for, the ELG,S, activity, adult role, differientiation and what language we will use or questions we will ask. In the section headed "Differientiation" this is where we would put the initials of the child/children the activity is aimed at, all children can take part in the activity but we have specific activities aimed at specific aims of learning, we just do the childrens intials to keep within our Child Protection Policy. We then have evaluation sheets which we fill in at the end of each day based on the set activities, we will write the childs name or intials and what they learnt, and if the child had their own ideas on how to use the activity, how we could extend the activity for further learning and if the activity worked well or not and if not how can we make it work next time. Through out the day the children are being observed in adult led activities and in childs own choice of activities. I particulary enjoy observing children when they decide upon their own intentions, i would write an evaluation sheet on a child who for example: while in the garden doing physical activities such as riding on the bikes, suddenly discovered a ladybird, i would evaluate what they did when they saw the ladybird etc, i would also in the following weeks planning try to add an activity to extend learning about Ladybirds to continue with the childs own discovery.

 

I hope this all makes sense. I will try and send a copy of the short term planning to you and the evaluation sheet. Just have to work out how to send it via the computer

 

Rosepetal

[Smiles]

I'm interested in this theme also - at our recent Ofsted it was one of the thigs that came up - the Inspector wanted to see whaere we planned for indivudual learning in print.

 

Sue

[Guest]

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I too find this difficult. I am trying to address this by noting on my planning if I see something a particular child needs and trying to fit in an activity the following week to support this- even a circle time activity or say' put wooden numbers in the sand 'to help with number recognition etc. I also have started a pre-school diary- I don't write in it every day but if I do make a note if I see a particular child needs support in a particular area. Good to show Ofsted and a good reminder fo my memory which can't hold all the millions of bits of info you have to!! I recognise you might not be covering everybody but hey, we are all doing our best and it shows you are going 'with the child' otherwise the planning could get very mechanical and pre-scribed.

I would love to hear any more thoughts. I know some areas use 'learning stories'. I also find it hard to do observations on each child, you just need one nappy cnange, one phone call and the morning/afternoon has gone!

[millhill]

At the moment, we plan for the individual children every half term.

 

Each key worker collates their children's observations, finds the stepping stones acheived then completes a 'next steps' evaluation sheet.

 

The evaluation sheet details:

 

3 x 'Achievements' (eg. Child A has shown interest in counting objects)

 

Then 3 x 'Learning areas to be extended or implemented' (eg. SS3/MD: Count out six objects from a larger group)

 

Then 3 x 'Suggestions for Curriculum planning' (eg. Resources: 10 compare bears. Count out various amounts from group)

 

All sheets are placed in the planning folder and each week, ideas are taken from them for the short term plans.

 

Our Ofsted inspector was happy with this method.

 

However, we are planning to change it in Sept. as we found the children's interests and development change more frequently than 5 - 7 weeks.

 

I went on an LEA course which suggested ways of planning for the individual child, it was based on the 'Pen Green Centre' method, it seems workable, so we are going to try it.

 

We are now going to observe 3 chosen children per week and ask their parents to observe at home (home/ school sheet).

 

Then at the end of the week, the 3 key workers will collate the 5 x 2min observations and evaluate them.

 

On the following Monday, the keyworker will meet with the parent/carer (during the session time) to share and discuss their observations and the child's interests/schemas etc. (If parent works , then the home/school sheet, a phone conversation and/or email will be used for parent input.)

 

A sheet titled 'Possible Lines for Direction' (PLOD). Will be created. (See attachment)

 

This will detail what the child is interested in (Evaluation of Observations), then what we can do to extend these interests in all learning areas.

 

From the 3 PLODS sheets, we will plan 3 x focused activities for the week Tue-Fri.

 

The PLODS sheets will be put on display on the planning board, staff can use them as ideas for other activities, but do not have to if there isn't time.

 

To make sure this works, we need to:

 

Timetable the 5 focused observations per child and who is to observe.

Continue with spontaneous observations of all children (On post its)

Make time for the key worker to evaluate and meet with parent.

 

It is impossible to plan for every child's interests, every week but in this way, every child will have an individual plan for learning once per term.

PLOD_1.doc

[Guest]

Hi Millhill,

 

You sound like you have really got your act together. I would be interested to know how it all goes, and whether you find it workable.

 

It sounds really inspiring, and I'd be keen to give it a go myself,

 

Shelley

[millhill]

Hi Shelley,

 

Thanks for the positive comments,

I hope it works too.

 

All the staff seem keen to try, I'm quite lucky to have such an understanding team as I do change things quite alot

 

I'll probably post the outcome on here sometime in October after the settling in period.

 

Emma

Edited June 6, 2006 by millhill