2and A Half -3 Years

[Guest]

we take children from 2.6 months and have been told that we should be planning for bttm for 6 moths??

obviously a lot of it is not relevant

what does every one else do??

how do you plan and show evidence

[Sue R]

If you are inspected, and you take children from 2.6, then you need to use BTTM.

 

It is not proscriptive and will help you slot your children in beautifully when they reach FS - why is it not relevant? You need to know where the children are and how to move them forwards - we use the philosophy in our FS planning and so far it's just great!!

[hali]

i agree with Sue we take children from 2 1/2 and use the BTTM framework with them

[Guest]

when i said not relevant what i meant was the guidelines regarding babies etc.

 

I have not been trained on this yet but have applied.

 

Any advice as to how to link this into my setting.

starting at 2 1/2 yr olds??

 

Being a bit thick but until now tended to just concetrate on settling them in teaching them to socialise, share, go to the toilet, wash hands, listen without too many interuptions to a story, play alongside others, snack time and eating/trying healthy food etc.

 

we always have pens puzzles, paints etc available and we monitor mark making etc.and they can mix with older group

But not following the bttm framework.

Can anyone give me some pointers as to how to go about it

[Running Bunny]

There have been lots of discussions about Birth to Three Matters - I've found some, but you could always try a search as well.

 

Try supporting 2-3 year olds or general bttm help or planning formats

 

Hope these help for a start!

[Guest]

With 2.6 year olds you have a staffing ratio of 1:4. It is not unreasonable to expect keyworkers to identify the learning priorities for these children and record them. All that BTTM means is that you look at the whole child - emotional, health, physical as well as 'learning'. So a target might well be 'to begin toilet training'. It sounds like you are doing many of the right things for that age of child, but the focus is to move at the child's pace rather than trying to get them to fit into expectations for older children. SO smaller story groups with more props to enable them to learn to sit and listen. Activities which develop their current interests.

 

You don't have to write out planning in advance so much as record what the individual have achieved over the previous week. You can't predict what a 2yo will find interesting except by knowing what interested them last week and seeking to develop that. Put the focus on recording what they have done and staff should then realise what their current interests are likely to be and provide appropriate support.

[Guest DeborahF]

Featherstone Education do a very good chart that shows how the four aspects from BTTM feed into the areas of learning in the Foundation Stage - might be useful to you to help get your head round the links when you are planning activities - the website is www.featherstone.uk.com. In fact there are a few publications on that site that you might find useful. I think you'll probably find that you are already meeting the needs of these youngest children already in your daily routines, activities and provision and hat it's just a case of getting your head round the BTTM terminology and way of thinking - remember that BTTM is a framework to help you meet the needs of the children, not a curriculum to be followed like the Foundation Stage.