Tracking Progress

[Susan]

How?

 

 

This may seem like a stupid question, it certainly feels like it in asking but this has arisen today and I'd like a consensus of opinion please so that I can judge what to do next.

[Helen]

Hi Susan,

Until I had a visit from an advisor two or three years ago, we didn't track children through the stepping stones. We kept observations and maintained a book for each child with observations, photos and examples of the children's work (we call it the Special Book). But this visit got me thinking, and for a year or so, I made up a Foundation Stage Record, listing all the stepping stones, and every time we added something to the child's special book, we dated the stepping stone too, so that the evidence could be found easily in the Special Book. But.......

1) This took ages to do

2) We didn't use it for anything

3) The schools didn't want them...just a short report from nursery was all a reception teacher needed or wanted!

 

 

So....we abandoned them, and we don't track anymore. I still feel as though we should, but I can't decide what to do

[Marion]

We use the Durham Flying Start 2 scheme for tracking children through the FS. We also use a phonics tracking sheet to track this in line with the new guidance.

[Guest]

we track the children, simply by highlighting the stepping stones they have achieved or that we have evidence for. i them plan based on the next stepping sytones or gaps the children have.

[hali]

thats what we do clare

[Susan]

Uuum thanks. Ofsted have said that is insufficient today, hence my query!

[Guest Wolfie]

And did they give you any guidance as to what IS sufficient?!

Edited March 6, 2007 by Wolfie

[hali]

more paperwork no doubt

[Guest]

Have you read the newspapers today, about how nursery children are arriving at school 'not ready for learning'? Some children are not ready for school when they arrive from home, are they?

[Guest]

I was Ofteded this week and a key issue on the Inspection briefing was levels on entry and how these were verified, and how did I know as FS coordinator how much progress was made.

I said pre-school 'Plotting for Progress' was discounted because in My authority 1. It isn't moderated,( my children come from more than 10 settings)2. Many Independent and Private settings say ALL children have achieved ALL Stepping Stones with NO evidence provided.

3. We obseve children for 2 weeks on entry and from these plot the children ourselves. (Which is a real pain as we HAVE to do PIPs too). By October half term I have my own 'Baseline' which we use. Although it isn't their entry level, Hmi were well inpressed and gave 'Outstanding'. also by the way planning was scribbled all over according to children's interests and progress, and the way it was one weekly plan changed by annotation day by day according to observation and evaluation.

[Guest Wolfie]

I think that the whole issue of transferring information on levels of children's progress and development between settings - and particularly between pre-school settings and reception classes - is a very contentious one. In the authority where I work, maintained nurseries use a standard entry profile assessment and re-do it when a child leaves but the use of this scheme isn't moderated. The private, voluntary and independent settings use a whole range of assessment and record keeping schemes, with no single scheme recommended by the early years advisory team, and again nothing is moderated.

 

When records are transferred to schools, many practitioners from the pre-school settings complain that their efforts are not appreciated by the school staff and that their written transition records are hardly looked at; however, I can see that if none of the pre-school assessments are moderated in any way, and children transfer to school from a number of different pre-school settings, then the reception staff may feel that the only way to get a true picture is to do their own initial assessments! I know that some staff from private settings in our authority have asked if they can use the same entry profile paperwork as the maintained nurseries but have been told that they can't?! And yet we shoud be aiming to deliver the same quality of nursery education to a child wherever they attend?

[Susan]

Hi jomargep and welcome.

 

I'm still not sure what our inspector wanted to know exactly which bothers me a bit but I can no longer remember the content of the questions except that he did not want to know that we used the profile to track or measure progress. He did not ask about attainment from previous settings and was interested in the measurement/ tracking of progress in school.

Either way done and dusted I suppose and Im neither the FS coord or in a permanent position, so not my headache I suppose although for my own satisfaction I wish I could have answered him to his satisfaction--or perhaps we did as we're not still being grilled!!!

[Guest]

I agree totally with Wolfie's post - we are a pre-school and in the past have felt that the hours we put in to tracking children's progress (on an LEA model) have not been valued. We do now have an excellent relationship with the receiving school and wherever possible I try to pass on the records to the teacher and have a quick chat with her about them but it is hard to find time in one another's diaries. She also pops into pre-school to meet the children before they start their visits. I hope this will still be sufficient for Ofsted. When will we stop having to jumpt through hoops??!

[hali]

i agree with wolfie too, its such a nightmare

[Marion]

I feel it is much easier in my LA where we still baseline children on entry but all FS settings Pre schools / Day Nurseries or school nurseries use the same assessment materials which are moderated .

[Guest Wolfie]

I have to say that sounds like something all local authorities should be working towards, Marion - the ideal solution, which seems like common sense to me!

[Guest]

I agree with Marion, and Durham does using Flying Start across Private settings as well. However there is almost always an issue of judgements we don't agree on!

We track with Flying Start

We track children's progress on the server at school for Maths and Literacy

We track on 'Target ladders' for Maths, Literacy and PSE

Here is an example of the ladder:

Blank_Template_Target_Groups_Beginning_of_Autumn_2006.doc

[Susan]

Thanks for that Beckyann.

 

How did you determine the on track level?

[Guest]

Advised by the LA who produced the guidelines for tracking

[Susan]

Thanks Beckyann.

[Marion]

We use the ladders that Becky posted but also use more detailed phonics and writing tracking.

writing_ros_wilson_towards_L1.doc

Phonic_Progress_Tracking_Sheet__2006.doc

[Susan]

thanks Marion.

 

however, Im not convinced even this would have satisfied ofsted. We have some tracking systems in place but they did not suffice---unless we completely misunderstood one another!

[Guest]

Hi

Thanks to Marion also, we track phonics as well like you.

My sheet is prob the same as yours:

Phonics_Training_7.3.07.doc

Example_grids_to_Track_PSE.doc

[Guest]

Hi there,

we track using a simple system given to us by advisor. Basically a grid using the colour codes in FSC document / one grid for each area of learning/ columns for each term. *we don't list all for a tick list as that is already done on FSP document!

Using the FSC & FSP criteria plot children into colour area you think they are/ best fit. Interesting to compare with the scales and probrably more honest at establishing progression/ children's ability or areas needed to address in teaching etc. Good quick overview etc. to help imform next steps in practise.

Hope this helps

[Guest Wolfie]

Have you noticed that the colour coded stepping stones have disappeared in the new EYFS, replaced by subtle tones of yellow and orange? I think that's a shame!

[Guest]

The Stepping Stones have gone and have been replaced with age development levels that overlap

[Guest]

umm... I was going to start a new topic to ask about this anyway so here goes:

 

for the past four months I've been working on a program to assess, track and show progression in the new phases of phonics and sound aquisition (initial sounds, clusters, long vowels etc), it compares boys against girls, classes against each other... offers groupings of children for various focuses, highlights to gaps for you to focus your children etc etc. As I show people at school, they keep saying "wow! that's brill, but can you just make it do this and that!"

 

which is good, as it means I'm tailoring to exactly what's needed in schools! Oh, and it tracks from entry to Reception through to Year 3 too... as most trackers don't seem too and I think the Y2/Y3 changeover is vital and many children seem to get lost there!

 

Anyhow, it has taken a lot of my own time (not schools) and so I'm hoping to market it as shareware (possibly)... it's not quite ready yet... I'm still making last minute changes and adjustments, but should be ready soon after Easter.

 

anyhow, to get to the point, I was wondering how much of an interest people would show in it? how useful would something like this prove to you? I know the management in my school have found it's already proving critical in tracking and proving progress (something we can't unfortunately escape from )

 

anyhow, if anyone's interested could you let me know... you can email me an paulparkie@gmail.com and I can send you some screenshots. I would like some input as to what you might like adding if I haven't already mentioned it.

 

I'd be glad to hear from you ~ Porl

[dreamgirl]

I was Ofteded this week and a key issue on the Inspection briefing was levels on entry and how these were verified, and how did I know as FS coordinator how much progress was made.

I said pre-school 'Plotting for Progress' was discounted because in My authority 1. It isn't moderated,( my children come from more than 10 settings)2. Many Independent and Private settings say ALL children have achieved ALL Stepping Stones with NO evidence provided.

3. We obseve children for 2 weeks on entry and from these plot the children ourselves. (Which is a real pain as we HAVE to do PIPs too). By October half term I have my own 'Baseline' which we use. Although it isn't their entry level, Hmi were well inpressed and gave 'Outstanding'. also by the way planning was scribbled all over according to children's interests and progress, and the way it was one weekly plan changed by annotation day by day according to observation and evaluation.

thi

[dreamgirl]

thi

this is my first ever reply. i will be amazed if it reaches you. could you let me see a copy of your baseline assessment you mentioned?

[Guest Wolfie]

None...welcome to the forum! I didn't want you to creep into a discussion without being noticed!!