Question For Your Reception Teachers

[Guest]

HI

 

I guess this is a question aimed at the reception teachers here.

I work in a pre-school room of a private day nursery, this september we have five pre-school children leaving us to go to full time school, some are going to private schools, others are going to state schools (not that that probably makes any difference whatsoever!)

All of the 5 children that leave us have not received any other pre-school education aside from what they receive with us (so basically they haven't attended a pre-school attatched to their new schools)

 

I was wondering what feedback/information we should be sending home with the parents (as teh child leaves) to pass onto the children's new schools.

 

all our children have developmental files kept on them which cover the FS, but they are incredibly long winded and i can't imagine a reception teacher wanting to sit through them all and read which statements have or have not been checked of.

 

so as reception teachers what type of feedback do you like to receive on the children that are joining you in september?, is there a format that's easier to 'read' for you... ie a profile under the six areas of FS.... which summarises where we feel the children are at in a few sentances for each area of the FS.

then maybe a comment about the child overall, just to give a bit of a picture of the child as an individual (rather than trying to fit them into the 'boxes' of the FS)... ie discusisng likes/dislikes etc..... special 'quirks' associated with the individual child etc....

 

I don't mind preparing a report like that, since i only have 5 children to do it for, but im wondering if reception teachers would find this useful. or should i just stick with sending the FS profile over with the children?

 

~ your thoughts appreciated

 

Dawn

[Guest]

Yeah like you said Dawn... if there's too much we never get around to reading it... or if we do it's always hard to take it all in.

 

Personally, I always have time to go visit my new children from other pre-schools this term... chat to the children and the people at the pre-school to find out about them socially, and as you said... their 'quirks'. I find this so useful, and it's good for the children to see me too... in a setting in which they're comfortable before them arrive at 'big school'.

 

So far as data goes... then aside from what we've mentioned already, then something related to the FSP would certainly be easier to work with. Our nursery, that's attached to our school, last year transfered their assessment from nursery onto the FSP for us during the last few weeks of the summer term... just so that we had a consistent base line for start of reception and we found this worked really well... not sure if it's what we're supposed to do, but until the Gov. bring in a pre-profile then it's definately the best we can do as far as I'm concerned.

 

Hope that all makes sense

[Guest]

Yeah, thanks that makes sense!

 

unfortunatly where we are the teachers do not come round to visit the children in their original pre-school settings (although i think it is an excellent idea)... so i guess i wil go with sending the FS profile over, but producing a short report summarising the FS areas and in particular any areas the child may still be struggiling with (although obviosuly i would word it all appropriatly to be PC correct) or indeed any areas the child may be talented in and then a short summary of the child...

 

im sure that will prove more useful than just the whole FS profile which is simply to much to read and doesn't tell you much about the child as an individual anyway! ~ god i hate the FS profile's.... i don't like fitting children into 'boxes'.... but that's the way it is sadly (anyway a little moan there too for you, LOL)

 

Thanks for your input

 

Dawn

 

 

Yeah like you said Dawn... if there's too much we never get around to reading it... or if we do it's always hard to take it all in.

 

Personally, I always have time to go visit my new children from other pre-schools this term... chat to the children and the people at the pre-school to find out about them socially, and as you said... their 'quirks'. I find this so useful, and it's good for the children to see me too... in a setting in which they're comfortable before them arrive at 'big school'.

 

So far as data goes... then aside from what we've mentioned already, then something related to the FSP would certainly be easier to work with. Our nursery, that's attached to our school, last year transfered their assessment from nursery onto the FSP for us during the last few weeks of the summer term... just so that we had a consistent base line for start of reception and we found this worked really well... not sure if it's what we're supposed to do, but until the Gov. bring in a pre-profile then it's definately the best we can do as far as I'm concerned.

 

Hope that all makes sense 

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Edited May 29, 2006 by Guest

[Guest]

Hi

 

The LEA that I work for (Warwickshire) have a tsandard transfer profile that nursery settings are sopposed to use. As our nursery children ususually transfer to our recpetion class then we tend to use the documentation that we currently have based on the stepping stones at the moment. However there are two children that wil transfer to another setting so I will use the LEA transfer from (which asks for an outline of progress and achivement in the 6 areas). I would also transfer afew of our photo obsevations and the the assessment record based on the stepping stones. But as a nursery/ reception teacher I appreciate that it can hard to work through lots of paper evidence and would love to see the teacher that these children wil be transferring to (especially as they both have IEP's for beahviour +/or develpoment/ speech.

Hopefully the snapshot LEA transfer profile will prompt the new teacher to look at the additional reocrds avaiable to her rather than starting from scratch.

 

Lisa

 

Lisa

[Guest]

BANES (Bath & North East Somerset) are trying out a new transfer sheet this year, which I, in the nursery, don't think is too horrendous for us to add to our existing workload, and which looks quite good, and those in reception think will be a great 'at a glance' document to find out the level of the children. It includes a section for children's formal details, a section for general info, e.g. siblings in school, behavioural/health issues, friendship groups etc. a section for parents comments (we will be sending the sheets home for parents to complete this first), a section for each area of learning and a section for the child to demonstrate their independent skills in drawing and writing - we're just going to ask them to draw a picture of themselves and write their names. The biggest work comes from the AOL, but since this is how we tackle their reports in nursery, I shall simply attach a copy of their report to the transfer sheet. The child's input will be done during nursery sessions anyway, I'll need to complete reports anyway, which means there isn't much to be done beyond that.

Unfortunately they have given us a scrappy paper copy and no electronic version, but I'm sure it would be easy enough for you to rig something up to complete of a similar nature if you felt inclined to do so.

[Inge]

we too have a standardardised transfer document, ours is based on the first 3 profile points used in reception and we also have space for further information on childrens learning in each area, a page for parents comments, information on sessions booked and strarting date at pre-school, relevant medical details. we also have to send an example of childrens markmaking. we have to complete the form and share with the parent allowing them time to write own comments and they have to sign the document before we send it to the school.

 

As we have 25 moving on to school it can take a while to get it all together and share with parents and get it to the school before mid July!

 

Inge

[Guest]

I am not sure if parental consent has to be obtained to pass on any information between a non school nursery and school?

 

I find a drawing the child has done of themselves iand their name writing is useful along with some comments from parents and practioners.

 

Also if you would like the schools to visit you could try contacting them lots of schools and pre-schools are currently looking at transition so they may be keen to try new things.

[Guest]

Try this link dawn, further discussion on this topic and an example blank record of transfer form which is used in kent.

 

more here

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Thanks peggy

 

 

Try this link dawn, further discussion on this topic and an example blank record of transfer form which is used in kent.

 

more here

 

Peggy

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