Help Moderation Meeting Looming

[Guest]

Hello

 

I have Recieved an email (that i kind of knew would be coming) from our LEA telling us of a FSP moderation meeting for all schools in our Pyramid. they have asked us to bring with us examples of evidence to support the following FSP points:

 

KUW - Point 2 - observes, selects and manipulates objects and materials. identifies simple featuresof signifcant personal events.

 

KUW - Point 6 - finds out about past and present events in own life and in those of family members and other people she/he knows. begins to know about own belieifs and cultures and those of others.

 

PSE - point 3 - expressese neds and feelings in appropriate ways

Point - has developing respect for own beliefs and cultres and those of othe people.

 

WHAT DO I TAKE?

 

I feel that i may have been a bit lapse in collecting eveidence but my thoughts are that I KNOW the children in my class, what they can do and i would prefer to be there to support them right when thy need it rather than making little notes on post its or whereever just so i have some evidence for these meetings.

 

i have been collecting evidence in terms of BASIC SKILLS - sounds, numbers, words they know etc, examples of good team work, sharing etc through post it notes, photographs but not on the scale that i feel others may have done.

 

I was just wondering what others are doing??

 

i have finished my MTplannig for next term now and have a wee bit f time to try and sort this out before next wed.

any ideas would be greatly appreciated

 

Thank You

A very worried Sarah

[hali]

hi

 

Have you got a digital camera or any come to think of it any camera that you can take a few photos of these.

 

I supervise a pre school but have to do the FSP profiles and most of my evidence if not in my head is with photosi take as this seems the easiest way of recording, i then stick them in a book and put the profile with it.

[Guest]

Hi Sarah

I am in much the same position, and have a moderation meeting at the beginning of May. They have not asked for evidence of any particular area but have asked us to bring in all we have! I also feel I am not good at recording. I have very few Reception children in a Year 1 class, without a classroom assistant and simply haven't had the opportunity to collect the required 'evidence' However I am going back armed with digital camera and will make sure I take photos of absolutely everything at the beginning of term.

You are lucky to have got all your mid-term planning done and dusted!

Nicki

[Helen]

Hi Sarah,

Have you been asked to provide evidence for all these points for one child (or three children, as was last year's system in my area), or can the evidence be from a variety of different children?

[Susan]

hi Nicki and welcome in.

 

I htink we're all very nervous of this moderation business. I know I feel the same way. I am the trained moderator in my school and am still waiting to find out if we are to be one of the 50 % of settings who gets a visit from a moderator or whether we will attend a meeting with other settings. What I do know is that

K & U and PSE are the areas to moderated nationally. (The cycle is at the back of the profile handbook) and that it was emphasised that you needed evidence but not for every point. We have to chose 3 profiles, however big the total sample, at random and look at the profiles with evidence and then observe the children, making notes on what we see to see/assess if the picture we get of the child is the same as that on paper.

 

It is easy to observe the literacy/ numeracy skills you describe but less easy to see those for K&U & PSE. the 2 most tricky together! In my school I have to use the profile points for lit & num. to track progress and show value added -so guess where our emphasis must be! I have complained about this to no avail as I feel it is both an unintended use of the profile and skews your provision. But my head thinks it ok to have a handle on all 13 scales together! Its about time she came and had a go but thats another story.

 

Anyway I would concentrate on getting some evidence or recording what you know already about your children into/onto profile formats and good luck! (Thats my next job!).

 

Susan

[Guest]

Thanks for your speedy replies!

 

Helen - we have been asked to provide evidence only for these points - apparently these are the only points they are moderating this year! they have not said that it needs to be from 1 child so i am assuming just a seleection of examples from the whole class?????

I have got loads of evidence for Literacy and Numeracy - examples of the children's work, reading records, words kown etc. but this other stuff is a bit harder to evidence.

 

i am quite lucky in the fact that i have voiced my opinions (quite loudly!) to my headteacher about knowing the children in my class and she - being an ex EY teacher - agrees that having to evidence all these other points is time consuming and in the majority of cases unnesscary.

 

Is there any legal requirements to provide this evidence? or are the LEA just wanting the levels at the end of the year again like last year?

 

well i suppose i best get back to ticking circles!!

 

Sarah xx

[JacquieL]

Moderation is statutory to support judgments being equal across settings. LEAs must moderate in the two learning areas previously mentioned in 50% of settings. They must then meet with another LEA using examples to check that each LEA is agreeing judgements. It is expected that 4 children will be chosen, 3 different abilities and one SEN. The first areas to be moderated have been chosen to send out the message that FS is about more than language and number skills. All areas of learning have equal weight.

There is no need to keep observations as evidence for every profile statement. An observation on one well chosen activity can provide evidence in several areas at once. A group activity such as model making can give evidence of social skills, communication, choice and use of tools and equipment, ability to plan, discuss and modify work, ability to concentrate on a task etc.

We all know so much about our children, but it can be amazing what just watching and recording what is said and done can reveal. There is a super book about observing for the Pupil Profile by Vicky Hutchin. I think we probably all have a lot to learn from our nursery colleagues about observation and assessment for learning.

[Guest]

The new foundation profile contains 117 statements multiply that by 30 children gives you 3,510 statements to record an impossible task. We have also been told we only need to keep a selection of examples for the group as a moderation of our ability to assess. When planning activities we also look for suitable assessment possibilities and try to record the evidence during the activity. I use my digital camera as well as written notes but I do some times feel like the Jim Carey character in Bruce Almighty where he gets covered in post it notes. Has any one else seen it.

[Susan]

And my head says I should have regard to all of them all of the time!

 

Susan

[mundia]

nice explanation there JacquieL. Susan your LEA are very late letting you know arent they. We knew in October that we would get a visit this year, and had ours in January, so all done and dusted. and perhaps you should ask your Head to do it for a term and see if she can remebers everythings all the time???

 

Sarah, we only needed to show the type of evidence we were collecting, and specifics for 3 children of different abilities (much as jacquie said). The rest is down to your proffessional judgemnet. At the end of the year the LEA only wants the scores, we have to use te eprofile so that is all they will get.

 

Mimi Yes Im with you on the Bruce Almighty, my room feels like that sometimes

[Guest]

Hi, I have been to one of these moderation meetings and was also asked to take evidence. I took some bits but nothing much really. They seemed quite happy that much of it is through observation and carried in our heads. Some points are easy to have evidence for but others are not. I wouldnt worry too much. Our advisor people seemed to realise just how much work these profiles are. especially when you have 30 in a class!

[Guest]

How did your moderation meeting go Sarah? What evidence did you eventually take - and what sort of things had others taken. We've not been moderated yet - but I too am panicing. We have loads of photos of all different areas of learning, but we keep these in termly files rather than specifically an 'evidence' file. Perhaps I need to look at re-organising this?

 

Any advice gratefully received.