What are the tracker books & LJ Inserts? R they worth using?

[Leelee]

Just wondered what these were and where I can look at them to see if I want to use them?

[huggableshelly]

Ofsted do not like tracker books, most have tick boxes with no room to write up evidence.

LJ's make your own - get some cheap scrapbooks, post it notes and a digital camera. take pics, pop EYFS links onto the post it notes and job done!

written obs - I do 6 a month per child though they are combined onto 2 sheets of paper with notes on each of the 6 sections of EYFS so short brief but enough to show that I know what stage the child is at.

[The Juggler]

I think that checklists are not great and they are huge to have one for each child if you have lots of part-timers.

however, if you have one, they are a nice easy reference guide to the age/range criteria by learning area when you're doing the next steps rather than ploughing through the huge EYFS document. I keep one by my files just to look up what they are already doing/what age range it's in/what's needing to be planned for next. Then just write up my own evidence of that in the LJ.

[venus89]

I had the tracker recommended to me, bought on, and decided they weren't for me at all. Like huggableshelley says they're basically ticklicts with a tiny space to write in. No room for hpotos, ad hoc obs and so on. So you'd have to do a learning journal on top of that, plus they're expensive - I was told you could buy one and photocopy it but a) it's copywritten and b) there are loads of pages!

But, like juggler says, having one to hand can't hurt you when you are stuck on things to look out for. I'll be referring to mine, just not using it as a tool in itself

[CHUNKY MONKEY]

All good to know :clapping: