Planning Yet Again

[sharonash]

Our eydcp mentor says we need to get rid of our planning and start again!!!!!!!

 

Our plans show the following

Long term plan - topics events festivals - she says we need to remove all topics

Medium termplan- covers areas of learning and stepping stones we intend to cover each term- she says should now show all stepping stones and all areas of learning and we should highlight off when we have covered them

We then have a weekly/daily plan- showing toys we intend to get out but we use this as a working document and change in according to the childs choices. We use it mainly as a guideline so that all the toys are used in the nursery as we found that we have so many part time staff the same toys were being got out over and over again- she says we dont use this at all now

 

Apparently all these changes are new and line with the children having free choice and us not planning for their play

Can anyone share a copy of their plans with me- Im desperate and feeling very low? I would appreciate any help and advice I feel as though Im starting all over again .

I have to get some documents ready for our weekly planning meeting monday night so if anyone can help asap I would really appreciate it

I have read the articles on continous provision and printed some of those off but its actuall working plans that I am stuck with

 

 

Oh forgot! She said 1 focus activity a week covering l Foundation stage and BTTM areas?

So I take it that we can choose which areas of earning to cover in this as adult led?

We have 2 rooms, 3-5yrs 2-3yrs however all the children do come together for free flow play after the first hour in the morning.

 

thanks x

[Rea]

First off, dont take it to heart, she is there in an advisory role only, if using topics on your planning sheet helps you then keep to it. I can see what she's saying about getting rid of topics but it doesnt happen over night and all staff have to be on board for it to work. I always found it very helpful to have a list of festivals that we might cover during the year so I personnaly would keep that too. Sue R has a blog which is addressing non topic based planning, you can read it here.

Displaying all the s/s and ELG's is a good idea but again is dependent on all staff understanding planning without topics. Observations are the key to non topic based planning and thats where I'd start with regards to staff. I'd keep the weekly/daily plan too, I worked out of a church hall and if we didnt have a guide to what equipment we were to use each day/week some stuff wouldnt have seen the light of day for months. You can always add equipment or change it as you see the need or the children ask for other things. I dont have to do planning anymore but I do remember there being no ideal format and no ideal way to plan. It's individual to each setting so long as you can show how your obs have informed planning and how childrens development needs are being met, providing challenges and opportunities for reinforcing what they have been doing. Dont get stressed about it, you'll just tie yourself up in knots.

[Guest]

i would go with no planning on themes for the younger group as planning for individual development is much more favoured

 

for example if you are doing autum - what use is this to 2/3 yr olds who are only just beginning to understand what a leaf is

 

also children are all developing at different rates - older children doing a cutting/scissor activity will all be at different stages

some will be able to cut out while others are only just learning to snip - so the activity does need to be dofferentiated as they all do to a point in order to include all chidlren in the activities.

[Guest]

Planned_activity_BT_.docPlanned_activity_FS.docPlanned_activity_weekly.docour early years advisor recently commented on our planning too.

we have now changed it to highlight children's choice and staff choice and to have a different planned activity sheet ( i will attach them all here)

We used to do a long term plan that focused on the stepping stones we would cover in a year, then a medium term plan which focused on the stepping stones we would cover in the month and then a weekly plan which focused on the stepping stones for the week and was also a toy plan (took a long time to complete and did not refelct children's choice) Hence my reasons for wanting to change it.

We now let children choose toys they want (and record who choose which toy and how well they engaged in the toy/activity), and staff balance the selection out with their choices (i.e if children have chosen all construction staff may choose small world) If children want the same toy out all day then that is fine... we had one little one who wanted dressing up all day and she loved having the chance to say that was what she wanted and to have her request honoured.

We do a planned activity daily (but sometimes we may carry it over if children show interest in continuing it) the planned activity can be anything, most recently we have had making tea, and washing pots as a planned activity..., when we do a planned activity we observe the children at that activity (children have free choice whether they want to participate)... we also observe the children on post it notes and attatched those in their individual files (and use these observations to fill out their development files)

anyhow have attatched our sheets...

 

Dawn

[Guest]

Hello, there was a conversation quite a while back about planning etc (isn't there always!) and at the nursery I was working in at the time, the booklets mentioned were very useful. We ended up using them for both long and medium term plans. You can find the thread here.

 

Hope this helps!