Individual/ Group Targets

[Guest]

Just wanted to ask the above and what peoples opnions are/ what the expectations are for target setting in the FS in your experiences.

[Guest]

That is an interesting question.

I have just filled out targets for parent consulations for nursery and reception did too.

[Guest]

I can't see the point in setting individual targets for children in Nursery - what would you want them to achieve beyond the learning objectives you've already set? Apart from those with SEN or those on gifted and talented? Ditto for Reception I think. We have enough to be going on with in completing the FSP, which is full of targets.

What do the rest of you think?

J

[Guest]

We had a staff meeting where the pressure seems to be that you need to know where the children are and where they are going.

 

Although not so much pressure for nursery mainly reception saying that they need to level them on p scales or on NC so the year 1 teachers know where they are.

 

 

 

Do you think parents should be given targets for their children so that they can help them through play at home?

Edited February 26, 2007 by Guest

[Guest]

Our nursery and reception children have individual targets - often have groups of children with same or similar targets but they are set individually.

These are verbally shared with parents at parents meetings.

 

I strongly resisted use of p scales in reception - to my understanding this is not what they were designed for. year 1 teachers should not need this to know where children are - that is what the FSP is for - year 1 teachers need to make themselves better aware of this document not expect you to complete it and level children on a different system.

[Guest]

We were told by our LEA that p scales were only supposed to be used for SEN children not children below level 1. We use stepping stones which follow though into Y1 for the teachers to track from.

[Rea]

Can I get on my soap box for a minute?? (Oh well I'm going to anyway, I cant help myself)

 

I feel the fury rising when I hear about targets for 3 and 4 year olds. This fury isnt directed at any individuals I hasten to add. Rather at our whole school system. As a parent I would hate to be told that my 3 year old had a target.

So long as he was happy and enthusiastic I was happy. I didnt need to know he couldnt sit for more than 2 minutes, or that he couldnt hold a pencil. As his mom I knew that. Giving him a target of being able to sit for 5 minutes or hold a pencil 'correctly' were silly.

 

'Richard keeps daydreaming'- 'Yes he's got a lovely imagination for a 6yr old'

'Sam must work as well as play you know?' -'No I dont know. He's 4'.

 

And what about the parent who see's a target as a failure? They are the ones who rush out to buy the latest SATS handbooks and similar and ban little Tommy from life until he's got a tick in all the boxes at the next parents evening.

 

I bet you're glad you havent got me at your parents evening. Probably as much as the teachers at my lads primary school were glad to see the back of me

 

DOWN WITH HOMEWORK !!!!!

[Guest cathy m]

Well said Rea, I agree with you and am in the fortunate position as a childminder to have autonomy on observations, assessments and learning opportunities for pre-school children. I do not follow the foundation stage curriculm but I am fully aware of it. I believe in constucting knowledge with children providing activities that suit their individual needs, that are not prescriptive.

 

Yes I have files full of planning, assessments, policies, statements etc but I certainly don't fret if I haven't followed plans or done written observations for a few weeks. I believe in spontaneous learning opportunities, being able to drop everything and go out for the day. I can focus on what the children actually want to do rather than what a plan says and by focussing on the holistic development of children, I know their social & emotional development benefits enormously. This in turn makes them more likely to be ready and willing for more formal education when they are at school.

 

Now I'll jump off the soapbox

 

Cathy

[Rea]

Soap boxes should be a mandatory part of every EY workers basic kit

[Susan]

Dont disagree with you Rea, but we have to do as we are told!!

[mac20]

Yep we have to set targets as well, but in FS we have managed to move away from having several "layered targets" that the rest of the school have to do - eg. every year group having a differentiated target for a specific aspect of reading/writing/numeracy etc, and are now setting our own individual tagets which we share with parents on parents eve. Takes a while but the children have been very chuffed at feeling they have achieved a target - we also linked it with our SEALs work on "Going for Goals"

[Guest Wolfie]

Move up Rea, is there room for me on that soap box?!?!

[Guest]

Well done Rea! I totally agree. I don't set any targets in my reception class - what a complete and utter waste of time - and I am against homework for primary children too (all it does is upset and disrupt home life)

 

We are having a cluster meeting soon and I think it is about target setting. Unless I suddently 'see the light' about setting targets for little children I still WILL NOT do it and I just don't care.

 

By the way, I have found over the years that if you can say why you don't do something with good educational/emotional reasons etc, things are always OK.

[Guest]

We have to set targets for reception in my school, as part of the whole school initiative to improve standards in literacy and numeracy. Nursery are lucky, they get away with it. I completely agree with comments others have made, they are mainly ridiculous, out of context and meaningless. I feel that as my classes teacher I know what their individual targets are, and I hope that I manage to share these with them and their parents and they are far more important than targets handed down to us by literacy/numeracy coordinators with very little experience of foundation stage!

For example our last set of targets for numeracy were all about counting in 2's, 5's and 10's - when around a 1/3 of my class can't count to 10!

 

Oh for enlightened senior management!

 

Amanda

[Marion]

Can I get on my soap box for a minute?? (Oh well I'm going to anyway, I cant help myself)

 

I feel the fury rising when I hear about targets for 3 and 4 year olds. This fury isnt directed at any individuals I hasten to add. Rather at our whole school system. As a parent I would hate to be told that my 3 year old had a target.

So long as he was happy and enthusiastic I was happy. I didnt need to know he couldnt sit for more than 2 minutes, or that he couldnt hold a pencil. As his mom I knew that. Giving him a target of being able to sit for 5 minutes or hold a pencil 'correctly' were silly.

 

'Richard keeps daydreaming'- 'Yes he's got a lovely imagination for a 6yr old'

'Sam must work as well as play you know?' -'No I dont know. He's 4'.

 

And what about the parent who see's a target as a failure? They are the ones who rush out to buy the latest SATS handbooks and similar and ban little Tommy from life until he's got a tick in all the boxes at the next parents evening.

 

I bet you're glad you havent got me at your parents evening. Probably as much as the teachers at my lads primary school were glad to see the back of me

 

DOWN WITH HOMEWORK !!!!!

 

 

We do set targets for both nursery and reception BUT............our nursery targets are usually along the lines of .......Learn to put on and fasten their own coat/ hang their coat on their peg etc

more important skills than writing their own name at this stage.

 

And yes Rea can I sign the petition

[Guest]

I agree with Rea's sentiments.

 

I think the 'have to' is more about performance evidence rather than benefiting the children.

 

As professionals in our field we ALL have individual targets for individual children IN OUR HEADS. This is the whole essence of teaching, is it not?

 

However, if these targets are in our heads, and not written down, they are not measurable or assessable ( is that a word?) by external people. IE: our performance as teachers is not measurable.

 

I personally feel that targets are identified in our daily planning to whichever curriculum steps or goals we are following.

 

PEPs (featured in another post) is a prime example of target setting, however in the case of LAC these are not formally reviewed for 6 months, so basically what is happening is a set of learning targets are decided which are a re-write of BTTM / FSC and would if the BTTM guidance or FSC curriculum is being followed be achieved anyway.

 

How does targets fit in with child led learning?

 

If I have a child who is behind on developmental milestones then the teaching is set at where he/she is and progress developed from there ( same as all children actually)

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Peggy, very well put, I think the way targets are being asked to be done is more to do with the political need to measure improvement fo the governments benefit. When measurements are done in this way it actually proves nothing. People just learn to give them what they want and everything becomes skewed. This is what happens with SATS. As far as I can see booster classes do nothing except get them to pass a test and then the secondary schools have to reassess them!!!

I think they are actually interfering with progress if anything as they have become an immense monster of machinery that sucks money in that could well be spent on improving much needed resources and staffing, to improve the environment -now that would make a difference.

I'm not saying no to assessment or use of statistics or observations. They are important. They should be in perspective and I think this is well and truly lost at the moment,

[Marion]

I find it is the parent's who are asking for targets (maybe because they have older children or because they hear other parents discussing it ) which is why we try to stick with targets that help the children to become more independent.

[mundia]

I have just written targets for writing and yes it is partly because its my performance management this year. I have also found it helpful as a number of different people teach the class, and they need to know where we are going with each child. Im not a big fan of targets, but I was concerned (as I know my line manager would be) that some children hadn't moved on in their writing since October and this was concerning me. I have a reasonably sizable group of children who form letter correctly most of the time but are not yet writing any correct sounds for words. I also have a group still very much at the mark making stage. the targets which are for groups of children remind we and others what we are working towards, as I am unable to hold all that info in my head about 30 children.

 

I do think that when targets are forced upon us its to measure our performance and not the children's, and since writing is the hot topic in school I can kill two birds with one stone so to speak.