KST

But should have said, if you feel your children need it more and you can plan for their particular needs then its fine to it how you are. You know your children and their needs.

Are you reception? In my reception class I currently do 1 circle time a week which is PSED activity based on feelings etc. We follow the SEAL programme for it. I do a very brief plan which has the learning objective and overview of what is to be discussed, plus we usually play a game or two. I may do an additional circle time if something in particular comes up that is concerning the children.

As for general speaking and listening/general discussions, I just do ad hock when they arise and don't plan them. May scribble something on my plan if I think there are relevant next steps.

KST x

I don't really have structured play activities. What I do is to go through what is out in the continuous provision for the day (they can choose anything) but I highlight new things and suggest ways to use it but the children don't have to do these activities and often they don't. If children do then choose do one of those activities I generally consider it to be child initated in terms of the evidence gathered for the profile.

I have been setting 1 challenge a week which I expect all children to do over the week, I model it on the carpet and throughout the week remind children do it, praising those who have so this is a more structures play activity I guess. My adult led activities are play-based and this is structured.

Hope that makes sense, not sure it totally answers your question but this is just what I do! x

Thanks Kariana - this sounds great! Really useful to hear how it works!

Thanks Jennywreny! Love that someone is so like-minded!! Yes would be interested to hear what your year 1 teacher does.

Good luck for next year Gina05. I went on a course this week called taking the learning journey into year 1. They suggested that it would be useful to begin year 1 exactly as Reception, using their timetable and planning format and as others have said on here, gradually become more formal throughout the year.

From what I've heard from others, and what would seem like a good follow on from Reception is to do a literacy and numeracy carpet session daily but children don't need to do focussed lit and num activities every day. 2 a week for each seems fair to me, with extra challenges as the year progresses. And the rest of the subjects being taught through topic and plenty CI time. But organising it is hard, I guess you just have to go and try and then you'll find out what works for you! xxx

Sounds great LouLou. You can only do the best you can in the situation you have. Sounds like you have a good balance. x

When I am doing the focussed activity I do it for all the children, but I think if I were to run the activity all day I would do it half the day and get my TA to do half. It currently works more like this for us at the moment...

Monday morning - guided writing session, Monday afternoon - outdoor PE and library (I usually have 1 writing group left to work with too in the afternoon)

Tuesday morning - PSRN focussed activity, Tuesday afternoon (finish maths groups) and start creative/topic activity

Wednesday morning - PE (dance or gym) and circle time, wed afternoon - continue creative/topic activity

Thurs morning - PSRN focussed activity, thurs afternoon - topic/finish maths

Friday - Morning - guided reading, afternoon - music session (half an hour) and finish guided reading groups

Does this sound about right? I don't currently do individual reading as can't fit it in. I do sometimes do phonic reading activities in the afternoon. I think I will have to review the way I work next year as I will loose an adult. I currently have 31 children.

I'm lucky to have 2 TAs this year as one child has pupil specific funding so it means I can have 1 adult doing focussed task, 1 adult inside making observations, extending learning etc and 1 outside doing the same. Children have free flow access to outdoors all day. Children access CI continuous provision all day except when doing their focussed tasks.

With regards to next steps - I write next steps next to observations of children in their learning story. I then do PLODs which are basically their core next steps for each area based on observations and gaps in the profile. I will choose a theme (context for learning) based on something I feel most/a lot of children are interested in. The theme will run for 2,3 or 4 weeks it just depends how into it the children are. If they loose interest and another interest emerges I will change it to that. So far though, all children have become engrossed in the themes. I based my adult tasks around the theme and on next steps that I know broadly lots of children share.

I also find it very hard to ensure you meet every childs interest, what I have been doing and would be interested on feedback on this is - having a 5 focus children a week. I ensure I get a longer obs of the children during the week they are a focus child and I enhance my provision to meet the needs specifically for those children. So by the end of a half term each child has been catered for. I will enhance the provision on a daily basis on observations of all children as and when they occur.

Whilst I do themes (at the moment we are doing mini beasts) I also have a group of girls really into princesses so I have got a fairy tayle castle outside and lots of provisions to support this. I also share concerns about boys writing!! Although I bought some ben 10 pencils and lightning mcqueen pens the other day and that seems to have interested lots of boys this week!

Hope I've answered all your questions - not saying my way is the right way, i'm still learning!

KST xx

On our school trip for reception we have a ratio of 1 to 4. But for a local walk maybe your risk assessment will help you decide, depending on types of roads or what your children are like.

I have actually never heard of the 70/30% split you are talking about - have I missed something major?! As far as am i aware the EYFS states that we should provide a balance of adult led and child initiated learning. It is the assessment of their learning that needs to be 80% from their child initiated learning and only 20% adult led.

From what you describe, it sounds to me that you are doing a great job! I currently do it similar, although I have been aiming to do 2 adult led tasks a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but one of these may be PE or a music session. I do find it hard to get through 2 adult led tasks each day so sometimes just do 1. like you, I place a huge amount of emphasis on the importance of child initiated learning, if you know you are meeting the needs of your children well through this I wouldnt change things. It allows me to tailor learning to the individual child much better than through adult led tasks.

that sounds alot like what we do Lorna, I like home visiting but boy do I HAVE to have a big cup of tea at the end!x

Ditto! They are great but exhausting!! x

I do home visits too, I allow 30 minutes between each one with travelling. I don't fill any forms in but use it more of an informal chat with the parents and the children love to show you their toys or bedroom! I took some photos of the classroom and made it into a little book, it was a good starting point as some parents can be very quiet! I think it gives parents the opportunity to ask any questions that they wouldn't normally. I think home visits are such a valuable thing!

Looks interesting! Its good to see how all the points link/relate to other points.

In terms of the delivery of my sessions they will not change in the summer term, only that they are getting more advanced as children's levels do, I am starting to get children to work a bit more independently and will get my high ability children to work for a bit longer in their group if they are able to cope with that. As you have probably read else where, it is not about getting reception children ready for year 1 but year 1 teachers need to get ready for reception children! I deliver a carpet session on Monday morning (usually shared reading or writing) which sets up the learning which will be delivered in adult led groups - I then have 1 group work with an adult at a time which runs all morning (each group works for about 20 minutes in their group). By the end of the morning or often the day (as I have 5 ability groups its hard to get through all 5 groups in a morning) all children will have a done their activity. For my planning I have a timetable style weekly plan which has the carpet sessions on and then have individual activity plans for the group tasks which have all the differentiation on. Hope that makes sense!

This is the one I use if its any use? x

EYFS_Profile_Scales_points.doc

We have just started mixing reception, year 1 and 2 up for phonics into the phases so we can plan for the differentiation more effectively. I currently have about half my class doing phase 3, 10 children doing phase 4 and 6 (bright children) doing phase 5 in my reception class. Not sure what people think of doing this?

We have phonics everyday and they love it! I do one guided writing a week, the differentiation is huge, my top group are writing up to 3 sentences, with some using simple punctuation, most children are writing 1 sentence using their phonic knowledge, my low ability children are still mark making but putting initial sounds for words. I also do 1 guided reading a week. Children have lots of opportunity to read and write in their CI time which lots of children use (although boys need that extra push to!)

Just wanted to add that I completely agree with all of you! I was in a similar situation earlier this year when my head asked me to keep our profile scores down to help KS1. But I explained how wrong this was and if the progress in KS1 is not satisfactory then this is what needs to be addressed. With lots of persuading I have managed to convince them to take FS ethos into year 1 next year which I hope will prove that results will rise by end of KS1 - so fingers crossed!!

We did a competitive sports day last year which was fantastic! All children from reception to yeatr 2 were split into colour teams, and children who came 1st, 2nd or 3rd got a sticker and points or their teams. All children competed in 3 races each so they were all involved lots and they loved cheering their team mates on. We had a mum's race, dad's race and toddlers race and all parents were very enthusiatic about it! We did running races, egg and spoon, sack race, obsticle course.

It was soooooo lovely to see children who are not academic do really well! Whilst we made a big point of saying that its the taking part that counts and to enjoy it I think a bit of competition is healthy in a fun way.

retell stories with finger puppets. Phonics games, like tricky word bingo or buried treasure game from letters and sounds. um... will keep thinking!

Thanks Kariana, that sounds great and really sounds like it would build on from what we do in reception. I have started doing 1 independent challenge a week in reception which children have to complete so maybe I can build up to do a couple more by the end of the summer term to ease the transition into year 1. How many challenges do you in year 1? Do you model them all to the children at the beginning of the week? How are they displayed to the children so they remember what they are? Sorry for all the questions! really excited about this! x

Thanks Susan. So how many adult led literacy and numeracy group tasks do you deliver each week? When children do independent tasks have you modelled them first? Are children told when to do the independent activities or do they choose to do them during CI time? Looking forward to seeing your timetable. KST x

My school is gearing up for making year 1 and 2 less structured and more FS! I'm the reception teacher so am really really pleased as my current children would really struggle to cope with a structured environment after a lovely year of free flow and lots of CI time. What the teachers are KS1 are worried about is ensuring they teach enough hours of literacy and numeracy a week - do they need to be doing lit and numeracy every day? The way I structure my day which I think works well in reception is to have a literacy morning or numeracy morning, so on a literacy morning, they are aren't doing numeracy. Would this be ok in year 1 or would you need to ensure you do both every day? Has any one got a time table they would be able to post to have a peak at how everything is fitted in! I have really pushed for this so want to support the KS1 teachers as much as possible.

p-scales are for children in ks1 who are SEN, not children who are working towards level 1. In the past my school has converted EYFSP scores into NC levels which is also wrong. What we are now going to do is to not make a judgement of where children are at NC level until the end of the autumn term in year 1. In the autumn term children will continue to be assessed against the profile if they haven't met enough points, and those children who are ready will start using the national curriculum. After the the autumn term, children who are still working towards ELG will therefore SEN and can be assessed against P-scales.

That's my take on it but interested to see if others agree!! The profile is to inform year 1 teachers so is the best assessment for them to use to aid planning.

My adult led are my guided sessions! I have done a guided CLL session from the beginning which is usually guided writing but can involve role-play, or sequencing pictures of a story etc or writing in role.

I do guided reading once a week for all my children but only did this once they were ready, and 10 of my children were only ready 2 weeks before easter, others came in ready! For the children who weren't ready we did shared reading in groups or phonics games. I do think there is a danger of doing too much adult led - children need time to practise the skills you teach in adult led in their play/CI learning.

I am still trying to get my timetable right! But what I attempt to do is the following:

start the day with a carpet session which usually sets up the learning for that day. Then 1 adult delivers the adult led task with 1 group and then rotates so by the end of the morning (and often into the afternoon) all children will have completed the task. All other children are initiating their own learning (choosing) and usually free flow with inside/outside. The other adult/adults observe, extend, question, model etc the children engaging in CI play. I do phonics before lunch. The afternoons are freer and consist of short topic based carpet session, and then topic activities which are structured in the same way as the morning but may spread over more than one day. I also have 2 PE lessons and 1 cricle time session. I ensure there is a balance of the curriculum areas over the week.

Hope that makes sense! Good luck! I had ofsted in december and they seemed happy with this. xx

I plan using the DM. As I stick things into Learning Journeys, I mark it off on the FSP. At end of each term I collect all the data by inputting it onto the e-profile.

When highlighting the DM statements for entry will you have the 30-50 months and 40-60 months statements on paper to highlight? Will you make this assessment of where they are at the first half term?

 

The only way I can see this working is for the children who are in the 30-50 months it shows they are below entry and therefore is useful to continue using the DM statements until they are on the profile but for children who are already in DM 40-60 months will you stop using them after your on entry and then just use the profile?

 

Does anyone use evidence given to them from pre-school/nursery to highlight the DM statements? x