Whole School Inset On Fs

[Guest]

Hi I am running a whole school (TA's included) training session on the FS (only a hour and a half slot!!). The reason for this is that there has been increasing unhappiness among the rest of the school with what the FS are doing the Year 1 teacher is the most put -out - I guess she feels pressured by KS1 SATS). I know I have been accused of not teaching them anything!! My head's solution is for me to run training as she feels the comments being made are due to a lack of understanding of what is appropriate Early years education. Anyway, that's the background - has anyone any ideas on what activities I can do? I have a powerpoint presentation to show the staff (its one I show parents) but I wanted to make it more fun - I wanted them to play perhaps!! When I said that to the deputy head (year 5) - he was struck with fear!! Considering the background above, I am very nervous about the whole thing. Any ideas or details of things that you have done would be most welcome! Thank you.

[mundia]

hi there. Know the feeling, we have had to do this too, but we used the video that originally came with the guidance and showeed how we used observations to show what children were learning.

The idea of playing is much better but we didnt have the time to plan that. Ill come back when Ive had some thougts on that- how long have you got to prepare it?

[Magenta]

Hi Vickijane,

 

Not a very exciting one this, but one school I know asked staff to put the 'stepping stones' into order, they then matched the highest level to N.C. Level 1 - most of the statements are virtually the same. From this they could see that the F.S. Curriculum does prepare chn. v. well for N.C.

 

I think getting them to play and match stepping stones to activites would be a great idea!

 

Let us know how it goes.

 

Tracey

[Guest]

Thanks for your ideas, Mundia and Tracey. I quite like the idea of putting the stepping stones in order and matching to level 1 of curriculum as that might show that the FS is not in direct oppostion with the NC!! Perhaps I could link matching stepping stones to a play activity and then order the stepping stones with Year 1 objectives (kind of as a plenary!) Thank you for being so positive about my idea to 'play'. Mundia - I have about 3 weeks to prepare this, I've known about it a lot longer but left it to the Easter hols! Best not to panic too early! I do have the training video (the original one for the initial foundation stage training) which I will watch over the holiday - perhaps that would make a good intro. Thanks for mulling over ideas for me, I appreciate it.

[JacquieL]

Why not set them a problem solving activity using a choice of materials , construction, found materials etc. Perhaps a cage for a pet they are given - keep it simple. Tell them to get into small groups and work on their cage. Then afterwards get them to annalyse which area of the ELGs they have met. Or you could set them something your children have done - get them to do it and when they have analysed the ELGs show them what your children did , what they learnt and where they will go next,

[Guest]

Thank you everyone for your ideas - I've now done the staff meeting and feel a sense of relief!! I think it went quite well, in the end I gave staff a choice of activities (playdough, role play, maths equipment) and several sheets of the stepping stones, ELG's etc, so that they could approach the activity as grown-ups(!) and analyse the learning opportunities. I think they got a sense of how open-ended activities can be and lead to lots of different learning, but I must admit, they did hide behind their papers rather than get hands on!! I've had lots of good feedback so thank you for you help.

[Susan]

Well done Vicki. Sounds good!

Don't forget to make sure its in your professional development portfolio.

[mundia]

. Glad it went down well Vickyjane, and especially that you had good feedback- I was terrrified the first time I did whole school INSET