How woud you work around this?

[Helcatt]

My Network Co-ordinator suggested that seeing as I am worried about observations, that I should book on to a course - all makes sense

Observation , assessment & planning

Problem is, every course is always on a week day, thursday morning, for three mornings, 9:15 to 12:15

How do you work around that? I couldn't get there on time if I did the school run, but have to get my DD to school so might aswell do the other school age kids.

Then, what do I do with the others? Would you try to organise that they went to a known minder for the session? Or should I just tell parents that I can't have their kids? Still leaves me with my DD to worry about though

Or should I just assume that the DHC unit 5 will give me more detail anyway, and seeing as I am about to start on that, not worry about these little sessions run the the FIS

Help

Don't know what to think

Hx

[CHEEKY BEE]

in my area they arrange courses in the evening as i think most childminders would find it difficult.

would the fis who run the course not arrange an evening to do the course if u could get a group of u together who would be interested in having this training.

maybe its worth suggesting to ur coordinator and see if that's a possibility.

[Pipsqueak]

How about seeing if Sarah has any e-books on the subject - think she has
then asking us any top up questions.

thats my biggest bug bear - putting training on during the daytime. All well and great for places which can get cover for their settings - WE loose a days work, disturb the kids continuity, hassle for our own kids, rush about to get here and there.

Next - campaign your council to be INCLUSIVE and put on some of this training at a suitable time for ALL settings - ie weekends or evenings.

Get friendly with other minders and ask to look at how they do their planning/obs etc. Do you have support minders in your area?

Your CDO should be able to sit down with you for an extended period of time and guide you through it.

[The Juggler]

that's really annoying isn't it? i would ask if there are going to be any saturday courses at any point. Or visit your local children's centre and have a chat with the manager about observations, perhaps she could guide you if you do an obs at one of the sessions there. Or attend a drop in to chat with other minders about what they do hon.

Is there a support minder your development officer could recommend so you could perhaps visit her/him and she could advice on how she does her obs.

At the end of the day hon don't worry too much. You write down what you see as you see it. Underneath, explain what you think that means (what learning you have seen/what they were doing) then link it to one or more areas of the EYFS. If you have a trackers plus book at home these are great to use just as a quick reference guide when planning next steps.

i.e. say you see a child counting stairs as he climbs. Write down what you saw. Then you'd explain x seems to be showing he understands numbers are used for counting out objects. Then you can look up PSRN, then look through to the trackers book to see if it's calculating or using numbers as labels, then quickly see which age range what you observed might link to. i.e. you would write down PSRN, calculating (24-36 months). You will see then from the info what other skills are listed here and plan activities to support developign those skills.

You can obviously use the EYFS booklet too but I find it much more wieldy to plough your way through to find the info you need.

A good way to do it is have pre-designed sheets like a spidergram, where you write your obs in teh middle and you interpretation of what you think that means and all the areas of learning around it. Then you can simply tick or draw lines to the relevant areas of learning. Then have a bubble underneath for next steps and what you might plan for that.

then just plan one or two activities to build next steps in for the child. I would be happy to share my form if you PM me.

[Helcatt]

worth a try - thanks

I was wondering about evening or weekend

They keep saying minders don't want to go at weekends, but that course is SOOOO set up for people who work in nurseries and can easily be spared for a few hours. But if I go during a week day, starting it at 9:15 meaNS i WILL PROB MISS TEH FIRST 45 mins anyway

Though that still leaves me with the problem of my two if its a weekend or evening - no family near by and hubby does shifts so would never manage all three sessions

Hx

[sarah707]

What bits of observations are you concerned about?

Is there anything we can help you with? :D

[Bitsy Beans]

I am lucky as my local Council put on the Early Years conferences on a Saturday morning. I went to one a couple of weeks ago but it was disappointing to see that from over 200 CM's only 38 of us put ourselves down for this course. it's free and you usually get some great free resources thrown in - why wouldn't anyone not want to go when it's just for the morning. If attendance is consistently low then they've threatened to stop it all together for CM's :(

[grindal]

My council and network do all their childminder training on a sat am - great - except DH works Sat mornings and DS1 and 2 go swimming. So does not work for me - even with free resources and lunch!