Guest Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 Ok, now I'm no mastermind but I do credit myself with some brain!!!I just can't get my head around planning. When Ofsted came in February everything was GOOD, but she commented on my planning not showing how I plan for child led play etc for foundation stage....been on a course which was titled 'Foundation stage planning' this really only went over the new framework due to come out next September. We have a Sure start mentor who has been promising to visit and help with my planning but keep coming up with different excuses and hasn't yet been......I'm a person that if something has to be done than I want to get on with it asap. Just wondering if anyone would be willing to share their planning and/or explain to me about how you plan. Very confused and impatient please help.....thanks mrsb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 In my setting, the Foundation Stage children are divided into 3 groups. As there are 3 rooms in the nursery which they have access to, we each take a group for observing interests or specific achievements. This helps us to plan for the following week. All the children have a focus every week, just in different rooms, depending on which room is observing them. We then plan the focus, write up the details of it, take photos and then write a few comments about how it went. We then put all this information on a target sheet for each child and this helps us fill in any gaps we might have. Hope this helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 What a question! Please don't get me goining . . . We have had a week of the P word in our setting (just to give you some idea of our setting - we are a Sessional Pre School - rent local church hall for 5 mornings and 2 afternoons, 51 children all part time, 6 staff all part time and we have to clear away every day) We eventually came to the conclusion last week, that no-one actually knows how to plan in the way Ofsted wants to see it????? We have tried and tried to get it onto paper in a really easy, logical way, whilst trying to include everything which they are looking for - and we still are never happy with it! A few years ago when we weren't too sure whether our planning was ok, we asked for some advice. Our Sure Start advisory teachers had us going round in circles only to come back to suggesting an idea which was what we were already doing and had showed them when they arrived!? What a time waster! We haven't bothered asking them again. We wondered why there has never been a pro forma published to show us what planning should look like for different types of setting? - perhaps because no-one actually knows really !! I have been given all day Monday to type up the 'Planning' for next half term - and yes we have changed the way we are presenting it yet again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. We had an outstanding Ofsted, however, the Inspector did mention our particular format of planning wasn't easy for her to understand and show her "at a glance" where each child was at developmentally - so can you win? Soooooooo . . . . now we are trying to have everything included 'at a glance' - (ha ha!) I think our planning layout for the whole half term might end up as a wall display (only joking) - so if anyone needs to see it 'at a glance' they won't need to look very far! Sorry - this didn't really help, just had a bit of a week swimming through honey as far as planning is concerned. (ps If anyone knows of workable, Ofsted proof pro formas - please post them) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreamay Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 im sorry I cant post it cos its not on this computer (keep meaning to put it on)but i did get the idea off someone on here.basically at the end of our daily sheet of what resources /activiites we put out we have a TO INFORM PLANNING box of which we would put childs initials and the staff would look at this the next session/day to help them.So for instance a we may of noticed that a child was really interested in a something , a group of children are mad on being dogs at mo so we made a note of it in box and the staff put the vet role play out the next day which helped with enc a particular child to pick a pencil up. We also have a summery sheet TO INFORM PLANNING whcih helps us plan for adult led activiites or if we need to have scissors out more often,or we need to change the way we deliver somtihg at grouptime etc I keep a TO INFORM PLANNING file which has all this info in with any targetted assessments and obs done which helps us plan for the following term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 Mrsb. We are working through very similar issues as a sessional pre-school who have recently moved to freeflow child initiated play. It is definitely a process or journey and I feel our planning needs to 'evolve' based on the group set up (tidying away daily, staffing, layout, number of younger children etc). My advisor sent me a useful document this following a visit this week which I will try to post. It does mention Plan Do Review which we specifically moved away from some time ago but I can see that in this context it would provide quite useful evidence for the big 'O'. This afternoon I have been playing with a kind of brainstorm plan for each child loosely based on PDR and am wondering how best to use it. I am thinking the first page would either be a low key planning sheet for a child with space on the back (2nd page) to add review, obs and PLOD's (possible lines of development). What do you think? I am very aware of anything we implement needing to be easily adapted to EYFS from Sept 08. I have looked through the new pack and this seems to fit the bill... I hope! Any comments gratefully received. BLANK_KEYWORKER_BRAINSTORM_PDR.doc NS_Planning_within_the_FS.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 planning not showing how I plan for child led play etc for foundation stage..... OFSTED visited us at the end of March we received a good overall report and the inspector said that our planning was very clear. For Child led planning we have an activity in a box eg wet sand and then we have the six boxes with the learning areas ie CLL, K&U etc and in them we write the steps they might achieve from playing with that activity. We have one of these for every different activity we do on a regular basis, and there are loads, sand play dough role play construction circle time toilet time anything that you might do we have a child led sheet for. The good thinng is you only have to do them once and then they just stay sat in the folder. We then have next steps planning to concentrate on a particular child and ensure they are moving through the steps we do each child once per half term. We have adult led planning - for our focussed activities then we have group led planning where we look at how the group has behaved were they running around? did little jonny come in crying and could only be distracted with the dinosaurs etc This is where we get toys out to make sure the group runs smoothly. Hope that helps - we too are sessional, 9 sessions per week in a church hall - but we don't have to pack away everyday Deb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narnia Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 Deb, can we see a sample please???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 Deb, can we see a sample please???? Hi Narnia DO you want a sample of the child led stuff? I think you must because I sent you all of the other bits and pieces I hope you got them all. I will have to contact a colleague as some of them are hand written and at pre-school so I might need to collect them tomorrow and scan them, but some of them are on her PC so she might be able to send them to me. Depending on what I can get hold of will depend on the timescale... Deb Edit Here she has sent it to me have a look at this Role_Play_spidergram.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 hi Deb, thanks for the info, your system sounds really good - in what format do you 'present' your Next Steps page? Is it a page per individual child? are the Next Steps kept in a file somewhere or is it available on view at every session? Do the staff record/ write on them? If so, is it time consuming? The idea of the Child led planning with the activity in a box and the 6 areas around looks brill. How do you decide which stepping stones to include for each area as so many of the stepping stones can be used in so many different activities we offer. Sorry - loads of questions - would be keen to see how you put each type of planning onto paper - is it hand written? Do you have loads of files? We are trying to condense ours and after reading your post I feel a little ray of light at the end of the tunnel. Feel free to PM me if it is easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 hi Deb, thanks for the info, your system sounds really good - in what format do you 'present' your Next Steps page? Is it a page per individual child? are the Next Steps kept in a file somewhere or is it available on view at every session? Do the staff record/ write on them? If so, is it time consuming? The idea of the Child led planning with the activity in a box and the 6 areas around looks brill. How do you decide which stepping stones to include for each area as so many of the stepping stones can be used in so many different activities we offer. Sorry - loads of questions - would be keen to see how you put each type of planning onto paper - is it hand written? Do you have loads of files? We are trying to condense ours and after reading your post I feel a little ray of light at the end of the tunnel. Feel free to PM me if it is easier. Hello Each child has a next steps sheet that is done once per half term. We have four keyworker groups and each keyworker focusses on one child from their group per week. The keyworker decides what activities they want to do with their child and if any other children in the group need it as well we just ask them to make sure these children are done aswell so we are kind of splitting it all between us if you know what I mean. Next step sheets are kept with the children's assessment sheets in their files, please let me know if you would like to see the assessment sheets (these are my own). next step sheets are not time consuming at all one is filled out per week for the child you are focussing on, they take around 10 mins to complete less once you get used to them. For the child led sheets we did these a couple of years ago and have left them since. You just try to decide what steps best fit the activity and leave it at that. If you ever do a focussed activity then you can the stepping stones to different ones you want to focus on and put it on the adult led sheets. These sheets are called Child Led Long term plans. They sit next to our adult led long term plans. They never change and we don't do a lot with them it is just paperwork that OFSTED like to see and I think it keeps them happy. This is all for foundation stage I have other stuff for birth to three which we use for the time being but I suppose that will change when the SYFS comes in. I will attach all of my planning stuff for you I warn you there is a fair bit. We have one ring binder planning file and then each child has their own file with their bits and pieces in. If you want to know anymore please let me know. I will say again - as I have said in past posts a fair bit of this has been pinched and adapted from on here so I am not claiming this all as my own work or ideas . If it is yours please feel free to take credit DEbs A_competent_learning_link_to_FS.doc A_Healthy_Child_Link_to_FS.doc A_skillful_communicator_link_to_FS.doc A_strong_child_link_to_FS.doc Long_Term_Planning.doc Mid_Term_Planning.doc Next_Steps_Planning.doc Weekly_Planning.doc Adult_led_planning_sheet.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 Thank you for sharing all that Debs! Got a bit of reading to do now.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 13, 2007 Share Posted May 13, 2007 Hi ya We are also a sessional pre-school and have changed the way we do our planning soooo many time! Thanks Deb for all that information it looks great. I wish we could just all work to the same format, then we would know we were doing it right. We are still working topic based so any help with the new child initiated planning would be fantastic, as we really need some help! Carol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 14, 2007 Share Posted May 14, 2007 Thanks Deb - your format seems so easy to use. Looking forward to adapting. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 Thanks Debs. Beautifully produced, user-friendly paperwork. Rosie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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