cinderella1

I have been appalled by some of the items within the lunch boxes, some stale and mouldy sandwiches, some with only a cracker, some with loads of chocolate. We actually now purchase a few items ourselves to substitute for some. I feel so sorry for the children who gaze longingly at others with wonderful lunches.

I give new parents pictures of what an ideal lunch might look like, just I say to give them ideas of what to pack. We take pictures of other children's nice healthy lunches. This often makes no difference to the quality or quantity though, but at least we have tried. Some parents I think are just paying for an extra hour and dont really want to provide lunch.

We have only twice had a child who actually barely eats anything as they just want there sweet stuff first, one child I actually alowed to eat their cake before their sandwich, they did then finshed eating everything else in their lunch box, which previously they barely touched. I had a sister who was the same, hense I thought I would try this. I have another child this year who I have taken a similar approach and they now eat all their lunch. So I suppose you just may have to judge where this might infact be beneficial to the child. We dont have a lunch time policy.. but our parents pay extra for the hour session, so it is not part of their grant.

I do a daily phonics session following letters and sounds phase 1 at the moment, i plan for a different aspect each week. I do this at the moment as a whole class activity after snack. As more children join after christmas I will repeat from aspect 1 to 7. At Easter if like last year many of my nursery children were within phase 2 then i will also include them in the phase one activities and plan also for a seperate small group using phase 2. We also have other literacy activitie within the day, but although they will teach phonics and other litereacy areas they are not specific letters and sounds activities. I like the way we do it, and it works well, I find the children love the activities and I am impressed with the progression already.

Hi there was some great stories in nursery world 2yrs ago with activities and ideas to support global citizenship, we covered these in mini topics within our nursery and have continued to use stories from around the world to support development and early global citizenship within our setting. Do a goggle as there are a few great sites full of resources. It sounds like a really interesting dissertation. What I would find interesting is how this supports further development as the children move up the School, does it make any difference?

oral story telling using first stories from around the world from tribes and other cultures before books existed or were accessable. Our children loved sitting in a circle with a pretend fire in the middle listening to oral stories and learning about tradtions/and/ in other cultures incidently

I cant believe I have spent ages on the ofsted site reading various forms, I then spent ages on the sefs, this I felt could do with some improvement as they lump the eyfs altogether. I think they should have separate spaces for nursery and reception classes, as what if one of them is outstanding and one at a different level, it means you have to give an overall judgement, which is not really fair. So then when they come in and use the sef it is not actually correct information. Also both classes may end up having to improve or change something that already works excellently. Has anyone else commented on this?

I know this is in the nursery, pre school etc etc section but the heading will draw many in and I would like to caution all - there is a clear link on the ofsted front page to their guidance for registered provision - for the schools guidance you appear to have to track your way into their schools inspection guidance and the EYFS notes are part of the long list of additional documents found there. It took me about 1/2 an hour this week to locate it and it was very frustrating. Why they can't put it in with ALL the Early Years docs defeats me.

CX

Yes wish I had read yr post before searching, School nursery classes and reception classes still get inspected under the section 5 inspections so although have to meet the criteria in the ey inspection we still get the 2 days notice

Hi all I was just wondering if any of you had an ideas about what information i sghould put in the isnet i have to plan for the wek afdter half term. There is so muuch to do with the EYFS that i dont want upper key stage 2 staff to be bored and think its irrelevant to their situation. But i dont want it just to be loads olf deatil about the principles and commitiments. I want them to have an understanding as to how the youngest children in school start their learning .Any ideas would be gratefully receved.

thanks in anticipation

jo

You could also make it interactive so that they wont get bored (god and we know how that feels sitting through all those staff meetings tht are more like KS2 meetings where they plan and discuss there issues, tht the rest of us do in kstage meetings)

Anyway to get them familiar with the EYFS why not get them to plan activities get them to work in groups of 2 and each group plan for an area of learning, or do mini topic web with cll objectives etc... they have to find the objectives for different age ranges, they can use the document to give themselves ideas.

Give them questions such as can they find what the ratio is etc... using the other document and other questions for them to use the document to find the answers too, I always find you learn far more doing this then listening.

But msz you are a specilist in the early years, lets face it there is not much you dont know about current issues and ey is there? If I want to know something on tes I will ask you, as do others. So therefore you are a ey specialist. Most of the advisors I have met dont really seem to understand or know too much, they just quote either there own opinions or what they are told to say and believe they are always right..

Hi - any fantastic ideas for bonfire night activities (Reception) would be gratelly recieved - we are having our inspection that week so could do with some whizz bang (pardon the pun) ideas for both fociused teaching / adult led activities. We talked to the chdn last week to find out what they alraedy knew - hoping to use this as a starting point - but not much response!!!! so the world our lobster as they say. thnaks guys xxxx

Hi you could: get children to build a bonfire with different hot coloured materials on black, the think of words to describe the sound of fireworks going of in the nightsky, whizz, bang, crackle , zoooooooooom, you could link to letters and sounds and ask children if long sounds or short sounds, at the same time I would link all my activities on offer to fireworks giving the children the chance to make 3D fireworks out of junk modelling and decorate talk about shape, sound ext... covers both KUW and maths as well as creative and cll.

sing: 10 little fireworks standing in a line 1 zoomed off and then there were ?

9 little fireworks standing in a line 1 whizzed of and then there were?

choose whatever words you want to describe how the fireworks shoot off or get children to choose, I would also give children the opportunity to find the number to show how many are left, use children as the fireworks. If you dont have 1-10 firewords laminated then you can download from www.sparklebox.co.uk

Im a little firework short and round, light me up and watch me spin round, arms out spinning ...........tune of im a little tea pot

Im a little tea pots tall and straight light my fuse and watch me bang/whiz, crackle and zoom just change words to meet yr needs

Hi Does anyone have any ideas for songs relating to bonfirenight and fireworks.

 

Thanks

 

lisa

Hiya do you remember the song ;build a bonfire build a bonfire.......... you could sing this whilst using a variety of media to build one outside or inside, change words to meet yr needs

10 little fireworks standing in a line 1 zoomed off and then there were ?

9 little fireworks standing in a line 1 whizzed of and then there were?

choose whatever words you want to describe how the fireworks shoot off or get children to choose, I would also give children the opportunity to find the number to show how many are left, use children as the fireworks. If you dont have 1-10 firewords laminated then you can download from www.sparklebox.co.uk

I attended training delivered by celiae ebrahimi in essex yesterday. I just thought I would let you all know it was fantasic if you ever get the chance to attend any training days delivered by this lady do. I find it quite rare to actually meet a trainer who is so knowledgeable and informative on the early years. Who inspires and knows what they are talking about. As an EY specialist myself I often find that the person delivering the training has there own tunnel vision view and little understanding of ey education and how we support development within our different environments so it was so refreshing to meet and listen to someone who actually knew what they were talking about.

I would not even consider leaving my baby or child in a setting that did not allow me to stay and settle my child and get them used to the setting for as long as it takes.

In our nursery we allow parents to visit as many times as they like and stay as long as they like to support the childs settling in process, in this way we have no tears, happy children, happy parents.

Prehaps you can suggest mum comes in with baby and stays for a period of time then goes with baby for a week or two so that baby is used to others, during this time, prehaps baby could be cared for by other staff and mums skills used in setting

hello I have looked at your planning and it seems very simple, will your staff know what they are meant to be doing? Do they not need to know what type of questions etc... you will want them to use to support diffrentiation/progression?

I use medium term planning to support weekly planning, so inlcude ideas for activities etc... yours looks very easy to fill in, but will this make your weekly planning harder work?

For many of us even with the new eyfs we do not need to change our formats, they are meeting the needs of the children due to us observing them and using this to inform planning for a long time. It seems to me many people are panicing and changing methods that have worked well for them with out any need to.

gosh all the texting I do has made me go through this correcting my grammar and spelling hmmmm

planning from childrens interests........... if you happen to observe a keen interest from a key child, or have a visit from something that catches the childrens imaginations then add this to your planning, quite easy to adapt to, so I shouldnt worry lorraine.

On my planning at the back I have a link for where planning is being made to suit an indivdual/s interests........... this wont happen all the time.

Can anyone suggest how i explain to staff the reasons for not grouping children according to gender? I know we should not be doing this but have been involved in an assignment on difference and diversity but it is such a huge subject that I wondered if there was a short sweet acceptable explanation for staff who continually say "all the boys line up".

 

Thanks x

We sometimes ask ours to go to the cloakroom in this way, at other times girl boy, or sometimes they line up in any order they choose. The reason I sometimes ask only boys or girls is to teach them what gender they are, many are unsure, or dont know. By modelling in this way, they gain knowledge of what they are and also of what the other sex is.

leading teachers are all the thing at the moment, it would involve 3 days a term, either others coming to observe your good practise or you visiting and giving support and advice to others. funding for supply cover for your school when you visit and transport costs for you.

I think the leading teachers are instead of the old specilist teachers (cant think of term at moment but they got 35,000) and of course as a leading teacher you dont actually get any money. Good for your CV though.

If you search your LA site it will have links, the application forms normally ask for 2 A4 of why you think you would be good, then your head has to observe you and a member of EY will visit

I think that you sound like a kind and caring person who has put your concern for the children above money, good for you. If you had put money first then the place for the child who is going to come back with funding may have gone. At least this way you have provided for them.

I do think business wise then it would be sensible if x amount of sessions missed without any form of contact for the child to be removed.........but this would have to apply to your funded children as well, many settings keep the funding even though the child is no longer with them

We share fun days together for which we raise the money through sponsored walks, we may sometimes have singing together....... and watch visiting shows together. Other than this apart from meeting outside then this is all we do. It works well for our classes as the children are at different stages and altogether can be far to big a group for some of the little ones.

How do your reception and nursery teams feel about this input from you are they keen to mix in large groups? Obviously different if you work in a unit, but if two seperate classes they may not be keen

It takes me a good four hours if not longer

by the way teachers get 10 percent which works out at 2.5hrs if we are lucky to plan, assess and prepare. No where near long enough, but if you are only paid for two hours to cover all those areas daily, I would def say no where near long enough. I plan for about the same and outdoor activities plus whole class sessions of an extra 3 a day.

What a waste of valuable time when they could be more involved in their learning. How many times a week are they expected to do this? Is the assembly aimed at their level? if not and they are expected to attend why not?

I do not attend assemblies unless it is a rare and special occasion and there is something that is happening pitched at the kids level.... for example a creative story teller

Could you speak to your head and say how worried you are that is ofsted come in how will you be able to justify this time...it may possible do the trick. Also speak to your EY advisor about your concerns. Maybe after a few have had wet accidents or shout and scream they may change their minds

You could read the big bad wolf and the three little pigs, which is one of the alternative stories from the wolfs point of view. Then maybe plan activites related e.g. a wanted poster for the pigs