Guest Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Can't remember if this link has been posted before but it looks great for BTTM info http://worcestershire.whub.org.uk/home/edu-webtexta.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippy Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 thats great kermit21 thankyou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 Kermit21 That site is absolutely brilliant, thank you for sharing - I'm sooooo rubbish at making forms. Patricia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolly Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 that a great site thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Thanks from me too!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 The lady who (I think) wrote that (B. Skilton) is actually a member of the forum. Think her username is Worcestershire. There is a post from her in the BTTM forum although I can't totally remember what it is about. Oh and hi Jolly and welcome. Don't think I've said hi yet! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Thanks for sharing that. Brilliant site, and good timing for me as I'm intending to have a training session on the importance and benefits of observations. The other day, a member of staff who is half way through studying for her NVQ3, was sitting with a 2 year old child who was threading large beads (1:1), as i walked by I asked her whether she had made any written observations - she said "no, she's not doing anything special" !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Oh dear Sam . Your story sounds vaguely familiar to something I am experiencing at work at the moment too. In the baby unit where I work, we are fortunate enough to have 3 qualified level 3 staff and one who is training for her level 3. Up until January, the unit was following the FS way of planning, using the ELGs rather than BTTM, so they were forewarned that this would be changing, and I reiterated that it was a reccomendation of Ofsted in the last inspection that we do this. Thankfully, the girls all use the planning relatively well and we have not had too many problems arising from this. However, I informed the girls that they needed to keep up to date on their observations (I set a target of 2 per week per child) so as we could begin to use them to inform our planning. At the moment, they are simply writing activities on the sheet with no rhyme or reason for them being there. The observation thing has become a real issue though and they are not getting done. I spoke to them all about it last week, in depth, and tried to push home the importance of observations. One colleague, who has severe reading and writing difficulties has since come up with the required amount, although they are poorly written (taking out of the equation her reading and writing issue). They talk about different children and they all say the same thing, 'X has good grip and good concentration', regardless of the 'thing' that is being observed. I did a long observation on one of the toddlers last week as part of my FD assessment in the Play module and my colleague asked me if she could have a copy of it for the child's file (she is his keyworker). I sid she could but I wanted her to try and do the same observation and see what we came up with. She told me she had forgotten how to do 'proper observations' and that she was going to use mine to save her the trouble of having to do one herself . Needless to say, my concerns about observations have been taken to my manager now, who probably won't do anything about it, but I feel I have done all I can now. I hope you can get this sorted with your staff member. There is no excuse for a training level 3 not to use such opportunities to practice their observational skills. Apart from anything else, that observation could have meant one less she needed to find for her portfolio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacquieL Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Wonderful document and very well laid out and with examples too. Thanks for the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 you think thats bad sam, one of my members of staff qual level 3 for 3 years and been with us for 5 yrs, didnt understand what i meant by observing the child to take child to next stage of development - she thought as long as she was teaching the child to write his name - that was her job done...as you can imagine i pulled my hair out!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 I feel there are those people who really want to learn all they can about child care and development and read and research all they can, in order to reflect upon their practice, improve and take their settings forward for the benefit of children, like the people who use this forum. But there are still many people in child care who simply see it as a job - they feel that as long as the children are kept company, kept safe and fed and watered, then they are doing a good job! :wacko: I'm fed up with the priority being to write lesson plans for adult led activities, showing a stepping stone from each area of learning with a Birth to 3 differentiation thrown in for good measure, which follows a 'Topic' which may, or may not be something the children in our care are actually currently interested in, so there is something on file to show Ofsted! As the activity is not evaluated with regard to each child individually - i see it as ' a paper exercise ' with little use other than to see that "the children enjoyed this activity" Am I right in getting the feeling that many regular uses of this Forum are joining the 'move away' from Topic based planning, to plan based on child observations/interests/schemas? I have certainly been gleaning all i can from Sue R's blog and her Motivational Planning article - I haven't quite 'sussed' out how to 'put it all into practice' yet, but I hope I soon will - i can't wait to put my ideas forward at a staff meeting and to put it into practice...... In fact, i have been secretly 'experimenting' by observing children's interests/ways of doing things - and providing materials, activities that match.....My God, they've been having fun and so have I I just need to record what happened, Evaluate it, link to applicable stepping stones in each Areas of Learning, and then plan PLOD..... Is that right? Sorry to rant on.....deep breath......I just had to get that out of my system......feel much better now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beau Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 I think once you have ironed out the problems of how to manage it effectively and record it in a sensible way, you'll find that it works really well. I always felt that topic planning got in the way of everything else and it's quite a relief to leave it behind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 Hi, I'm relatively new to the forum & have just discovered this thread. The link to the Birth to Three Matters site is absolutely fantastic. Does anyone know of something similar for the Foundation Stage? Ours is a Montessori nursery so we have always 'followed the child', observing & planning retrospectively. We have new owners who are steering us towards topic based planning. Scarey, after reading what you have to say. Rosie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alis2son Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 Thats a good point, ive seen lots of links to great resources of info for running with B23 but nothing similar for FS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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