Guest Posted October 17, 2006 Posted October 17, 2006 Hi I was just wondering if anyone could help us? We opened a new foundation stage unit in September but it is not working aswell as we wanted it to. Our unit consisits of 2 rooms one larger that the other, we have 33 reception children 26 am nursery children and 16 afternoon nursery children. 2 teachers 1 full time nursery nurse and 2 TA3's who share their time in the morning with us and the rest and the school and no TA in the afternoon, but a support assistant who we could utilise. Our problem is we can't have 33 children doing whole class sessions in reception class so we are thinking of mixing some of the recpetion children with nursery children and having 3 groups rotating around literacy, numeracy and outdoor keyworker times through the sessions and rooms. then having 2 half an hour free play sessions breaking up the keyworker sessions which will involve adult led sessions. Does this sound ok for the situation we are in or does anyone have any other ideas to help us. Sorry it all sounds very confusing, i'm just as confused, and concered the nursery and reception children are going to miss out on a quality education. Thank you
Guest Posted October 18, 2006 Posted October 18, 2006 Oh my goodness - 33 reception and 26 nursery children with 3 regular staff! How much time do the TA's actually spend with you? That would be my first thought and secondly two half hour 'free play' sessions does not sound very much for the nursery children. You have a lot f needs to meet here with so few staff. Sorry not much help beyond that. Good luck
Marion Posted October 18, 2006 Posted October 18, 2006 (edited) I guess by your description you are not an integrated unit. Are the 2 rooms connected or seperate? How do your reception children work? At this time of the year there should be little difference between nursery and recpetion organisation with a big emphasis on child initiated activities. Your 2 half hour 'free play' sessions doesnt comply with the suggested 60% child initiated time recommended. And as Chill said the staffing levels dont seem enough. Sorry not much help and appologies for sounding negative Ive added the link to Annes article as it might help http://www.foundation-stage.info/newfsf/ar...Article_113.php Edited October 18, 2006 by Marion
Guest Posted October 18, 2006 Posted October 18, 2006 Hi I agree not enough staff I have 31 Reception children but always have a TA to support carpet sessions, Nursery also have teacher and TA to support carpet sessions, then one adult from both Nursery and Reception will do focus activities with small groups over a morning or afternoon, and two adults within the unit are supporting child initiated activities one indoors one outdoors We aim to work on a ratio of 1:13 in Nursery and Reception will be a little bit more flexible. Hope this makes sense.
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