Formal Planning?

[Boris]

Do we have to do formal written planning? I much prefer to see how the day pans out. I have an idea of what we might do in my head but quite often it goes out of the window when the children arrive and we something totally different. I do activites around the festivals etc and I plan for individual children based on their interests and needs. Is that enough?

[mrs robbie williams]

im so fed up with planning :angry::angry: i plan, what i plan doesnt always happen, something else happens so have wasted my time planning in the first place so am thinking should i do retrospective planning on a friday and just go over the week that we have just had? the other thing is everything has to be planned for a reason, every activity needs a lesson plan type of thing to show why the child is doing the activity? had enough tbh sorry for hijacking your post with a moan lol xx

[FussyElmo]

I spontaneuosly plan for most of the time. But I do plan for their next steps thats my formal planning.

However I dont think there is anything wrong if your weekly plan is crossed out and something else is put in its place. Thats shows you are following the children interest.

So say last week you planned to do dinosaurs this week but then the snow came of course you should do snow avtivites.

I suppose it depends on how many children you have because thats when your group planning comes in :thumbsup:

I certainly dont have a lesson plan for every activity :D

[Boris]

I don't do a lesson plan for each activity either. I know what the children will get out of an activity without writing it down and wasting trees! I think I have resigned myself to getting a satisfactory at my next inspection. I would love to get a good again but really do refuse to spend all my time doing paperwork for the sake of it. My parents think it's ridiculous too.

I don't understand why Ofsted would want to see a lesson plan for everything either, we do playdough a lot at the moment because they LO's love it. Would one planning sheet be enough or would they expect me to do one each time I had it out? Obviously different children get different things out of it depending on their age and interest, I know that but don't always write it down!

[sarah707]

If an inspector asked you - why is this child involved in playdough / what is this child getting out of playdough? Could you answer confidently?

New style inspections are more about being able to explain why you are doing things, the ways they benefit the children, the types of activities you plan depending on each child's age and interests... things like that.

Planning must be useful - if you don't find it useful then don't do it!!

This is my planning for the group - I have 4 after school plus a pre-schooler who get involved - they pretty much wrote it I just typed it up to share with parents -

http://www.childmindinghelp.co.uk/forum/activity-ideas/112861-chinese-new-year-feb-week-1-planning.html

My individual planning is on my play plan.

Hth :D

[Boris]

Thanks for that Sarah. :thumbsup: