Recording Children's Attainment

[Guest]

_{Thanks everyone, I am new to the forum and currently doing a foundation degree, this module is on the EYFS! Which we have only just begun to implement and have had no training. I have the pack, it sounds really good in theory, but the planning both short, medium and long term have me pannicking.}

 

_{Have I lost the plot? How can you do long term and medium term planning when you are following the child's interest and have a high turnover of children, very little budget and few permanent staff who are not even given time out to plan.}

 

_{Is there a quick method, I know nothing about that works and is easy to document!}

 

_{Anyway in my midst of pannick you have all made me smile with your advice and concerns}

[Beau]

Welcome to the forum. There are a couple of more recent threads about planning for EYFS which you may find useful to read too. I am not in England so am not fully familiar with it myself. However, I would try to think about separating out in your mind those things we would like the children to achieve - lets say count up to 5 - from how you are going to help them achieve it. You can use number rhymes but choose ones that reflect the interests of the children at the time for instance. Yes, this is more work and means you are constantly having to think on your feet and be more flexible but the benefits to the children and their learning make this worthwhile. I hope you will get more guidance from those in the know!

[Helen]

Welcome from me, too

I agree: I don't think you can do long, medium and short-term planning any more. It just doesn't sit well with the EYFS and child-initiated play, does it? We omit the medium term planning in our setting (and I know lots of other settings who have chosen to do the same). Our long term plans are really aims over the whole time a child is with us, and the statements are taken from the old desirable learning outcomes, the ELGs and stepping stones, and ones that we made up ourselves. Examples are:

 

Children will be given opportunities to:

* feel valued and grow to value themselves

*tackle new experiences in a safe and supportive environment

* encounter interesting and challenging experiences which give them plenty to talk about

*sustain attentive listening

* experience the excitement of discovery

*move imaginatively, showing an awareness of space

* represent their ideas and feelings through a range of media

 

 

etc etc!

Our short term plans are for a fortnight, based on observations of the children, their current interests, and a very loose "topic/theme" which could last anything from a week to a month. Hope this relieves the panic a little

[Guest Wolfie]

I was on some EYFS training yesetrday and it was suggested that long term plans should consist of a vision statement and a statement describing how the four principles(themes? commitments?) underly your practice.

[hali]

thats interesting Wolfie will have to reflect on that one!

[Guest]

Hello, I am currently trying to work out the best way of recording childrens development. At the moment the previous owner left with what was a list of the development matters in every childs folder to be ticked off as they were completed. I myself don't like this way. I find it boring to fill out and not very representational of the children. We have already began using the learning journeys and taking lots of photos which the parents seem really thrilled about. I had one parent comment how nice it was to see what her little boy does at nursery rather than read through a load of pages that mean nothing to her. Which I think is a key issue in the parents as partners they are trying to promote. I am seeing our EYAT tomorrow to devise a much simpler and parent friendly way of recording their development. In the meantime how is everyone else doing? I'm hoping to have it all up and running through the summer hols so we can iron out the kinks.

[Helen]

Hi Karen,

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for making your first post.

There seems to be a great deal of activity in this area in every LA in the country, with everyone trying to get the balance right between an attractive, meaningful record that the child has contributed to, and a succinct record that can be viewed to show the child's achievements at certain points in his/her time in your setting, and also the summative record that you pass onto the next setting. I'm involved with designing something along these lines in East Sussex, and we have a couple of meetings coming up in the next month or so.

 

Like you, I don't like to use the development matters as a ticklist, but in our setting last year, we used the children's specal books (like your learning jouneys) to evidence the development matters statements. I've uploaded these EYFS record sheets in the Resource library, if you wanted to have a look. Basically, we looked through the child's book regularly, and ringed the bullet point next to the appropriate statement on the record, and dated the column next to it. This way, we had both the lovely record that the family could treasure, and a useful guide to where the child was at, at any given time. It also gave us information about which children didn't access parts of the curriculum, or which areas of the curriculum we could develop and improve.

 

I'd really like to hear what other people are planning to do in September.

[Guest]

Well I spoke to our EYAT today and she's given me loads of ideas. So I'm planning on making a mock up this weekend and then I'll post pictures to see what you all think.

[Guest]

So interesting to read everyone's ideas about how to implement the EYFS. i will be in nursery in sept and having never taught nursery before and asking for this opportunity I am really keen to do things well. We have 52 children half in morning and half in afternoon between myself and my level 3 TA. I look forward to gaining more ideas on planning, observing and assessing from this forum. Also a quick question should nursery children experience a similar continuous provision indoors and outside as is expected in reception? I thought so but have received mixed messages from my school

[Helen]

I think it is good practice to have areas for different activities (I'm careful not to say areas of learning !), eg a role play/creative area, construction, sand/water/mud, graphics, books, investigative/nature area etc.

[Shiny]

Well I spoke to our EYAT today and she's given me loads of ideas. So I'm planning on making a mock up this weekend and then I'll post pictures to see what you all think.

Oooo. Would love to see them Karen!!

[Deb]

Me too!

[Guest]

Hi All re - continuous provision inside and outside and your question Rach2 - I attended a course on outdoors play by a really wonderful speaker, she spoke about not planning specifically for "outside", but to understand that the planning should be for the whole learning environment, ie whats inside can be done outside and so forth.

 

Dot

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply Dot. I agree what you do inside should be transferable outside so plan for whole learning environment x

[emmajess]

in our setting last year, we used the children's specal books (like your learning jouneys) to evidence the development matters statements. I've uploaded these EYFS record sheets in the Resource library, if you wanted to have a look. Basically, we looked through the child's book regularly, and ringed the bullet point next to the appropriate statement on the record, and dated the column next to it. This way, we had both the lovely record that the family could treasure, and a useful guide to where the child was at, at any given time.

 

What do people include in children's special books? Do you put children's post-its / observation sheets in there or do they have to be written up neatly? Do all your observations and photos go in there, or just ones that the children choose as being significant for them, or just things that are kind of representative of the whole? If I use these in my reception class next year, could I have them as the books children do their recording for PSRN and any writing straight into? Then they would be like a kind of scrapbook picture of the whole year - a real record of their learning journey - but I was just concerned that people might think this was a bit scrappy looking rather than a memento to treasure! What do you think?

[Guest]

Hi Emmajess - we create a scrap book which contains pictures of them and their friends, their paintings, their pictures, notes they may write to us, sticking, anything that can go in, does go in. Staff sometimes type up their observations, sometimes they are written - we encourage the children to stick our obs in their, also use the hole punch to put their pictures in as well. After a year or so, they are "looking a bit tatty", however they are the childrens work, and they have created it - I feel that parents really value this, because it clearly shows their development and is their own creation and not us creating something "glam". If the children are adding to it, then I feel it really shows that they "have a voice" Dot

[Deb]

That's exactly what I would like to propose Dot - a kind of scrapbook. The children and parents can contribute to the file, raising children's self-esteem, encouraging parents and seeing how the whole child is developing.

[emmajess]

Thanks for your reply, Dot - they sound great - just what i'm hoping to do! Just a couple more questions....! Do you put everything you can in or do the children choose pieces that are significant for them? And how big are your books? Would you use them in reception as the children's 'work books' (for want of a better phrase!) for the work they do in adult-directed sessions too? What do you do about paintings that are bigger than your books or are your books HUGE! In my previous school I used to do folders so that all the big paintings and things could go in (a big sheet of sugar paper in half and stapled) but it didn't look very special. Parents loved it though and I'm hoping to do something similar from Sept but just wondered the best, tried and tested format!

[Guest]

I haven't a clue what to do about Learning Journeys - really confused and looking for inspiration on that front!

 

But ... for last few years, their big folders (for paintings and other 'creations' too big for their workbooks - which I am hoping to scrap completely and use some kind of folder/learning journey instead but as I said, don't know what) have een made from card as it's stronger than sugar paper and they get quite full. The children decorate the front in Sept and we stick an 'on-entry' photo on top by their name. At end of year, we stick an end-of-year photo the other side of their name (little pasport-sized ones) and it's amazing to see how much they have all changed - the parents have commented how much they like them.

[emmajess]

I haven't a clue what to do about Learning Journeys - really confused and looking for inspiration on that front!

 

But ... for last few years, their big folders (for paintings and other 'creations' too big for their workbooks - which I am hoping to scrap completely and use some kind of folder/learning journey instead but as I said, don't know what) have een made from card as it's stronger than sugar paper and they get quite full. The children decorate the front in Sept and we stick an 'on-entry' photo on top by their name. At end of year, we stick an end-of-year photo the other side of their name (little pasport-sized ones) and it's amazing to see how much they have all changed - the parents have commented how much they like them.

 

In my search to find the perfect method, I have to ask what your workbooks are like, why you're scrapping them and how they're different to what you intend to do in your folders or learning journey things! I love this way of getting to virtually test out a whole load of different ideas and benefit from everyone else's experiences so you can know that your first attempt will already be tried and tested!

[Guest]

The workbooks they have at the moment are one for CLL, one for MD and one for KUW - hardly anything in MD one but others in school decided they should have one for recording (!), sequencing and writing (or pictures before they got to the witing stage) in CLL book, and any A4 sheets for KUW stuck into 3rd book (such as a design sheet for their farm building, or a farm map) - used to just put anything other than CLL and MD into big folders, but was moaned at because art person thought they shouldn't be in with art stuff - argh!!!!! Anyway, I have considered just having one book for 'topic work' - so ALL stuff would be in the one book (CLL, MD, the lot) apart from big stuff obviously. As a lot of stuff covers more than more area, is sometimes difficult to decide whether to use CLL or KUW books for example.

But then I wanted to do more of a learning journey thing and thought a folder (ringbinder type affair) might be better - but I really don't know!!

[Guest]

Sorry about the delay but the upshot of my meeting with our EYAT was that she suggested a learning journey in the form of a scrapbook. It will contain an initial page about the child the parents fill in and then in further pages it will contain photographs with observations, pictures, incidental obs, comments from parents, parents will be encouraged to bring in photos of things their child does at home etc and these will all be in a chronological order with reference to the tracking sheet on the last page. I've included a copy of the one we will be using in the other topic about ticklists. Hopefully this will build up into something the children and parents will cherish in time to come.