Am I doing enough?
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  1. #1
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    Default Am I doing enough?

    Hi everyone.
    I'm newly registered, since March. I currently have 2 early years children, who I look after for 2 days each.
    Here's what I'm currently doing for planning and observations - can you lovely people please look at it and tell me if you think this is enough to satisfy Ofsted?

    I currently find that I'm able to do one night a week or less on this and want to keep it that way, whilst still doing 'enough'.
    I do my planning for the week ahead, and just use a notepad with a page for each day. I write which children I have that day, and then list the activity, which child will be taking part, is it child or adult led, and which area of eyfs it relates to.

    For observations I just do shorter, post it note type observations. Are longer ones needed too?

    I note any particular observations as I see them throughout the day, I put on the post it: the date, child's name, what I saw, which area of eyfs it relates to, the characteristics of effective learning, and next step.
    I then stick these directly in to the learning journey.

    The learning journeys are organised into the 7 areas of learning and development, so I put the observation in to the right area.

    I also print off the early years outcomes and each term I highlight which area I think the child has achieved.

    Each term is done in a different colour to show (hopefully) progress.

    How does that sound?

    If you have a child 2 days a week, would you cover all 7 areas each week? We don't.

    I really don't want to do more than necessary, but still show Ofsted I'm doing all they require of me.

    Thoughts and ideas welcome! Thanks
    Last edited by LauraMidd; 19-06-2015 at 12:30 PM.

  2. #2
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    Hi
    I don't think it's a case of satisfying Ofsted. In my opinion it is for you to be able to observe children, plan around their interests and yes monitor their progress. Everyone tends to do it differently but you will know your children, their existing skills and capabilities and share that with parents. By giving parents opportunities to contribute to children's learning via verbal exchanges, diaries comments in files or however you decide means that their involvement supports your planning.

    I personally don't do an observation and put it in a specific area of learning because generally through an observation it is possible to cover all areas of learning (holistic development). Ultimately you need to monitor progress and swiftly identify any emerging gaps in learning, in order to plan more adult-led activities. It's difficult to say how many or what type of observations are preferable. However, sometimes a longer narrative one with photographic evidence can provide a good overview of children's learning and development. It is also important to plan for next steps in learning.

    I think colour coding progress each term is a way to show progress overtime but we need to be careful not to use the statements from early years outcomes as a tick box exercise. Children progress at different rates and sometimes observations don't 'fit' into the age bands and that's fine but they will certainly tell the story of a child's engagement with activities.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by LauraMidd View Post
    Hi everyone.
    I'm newly registered, since March. I currently have 2 early years children, who I look after for 2 days each.
    Here's what I'm currently doing for planning and observations - can you lovely people please look at it and tell me if you think this is enough to satisfy Ofsted?

    I currently find that I'm able to do one night a week or less on this and want to keep it that way, whilst still doing 'enough'.
    I do my planning for the week ahead, and just use a notepad with a page for each day. I write which children I have that day, and then list the activity, which child will be taking part, is it child or adult led, and which area of eyfs it relates to.

    For observations I just do shorter, post it note type observations. Are longer ones needed too?

    I note any particular observations as I see them throughout the day, I put on the post it: the date, child's name, what I saw, which area of eyfs it relates to, the characteristics of effective learning, and next step.
    I then stick these directly in to the learning journey.

    The learning journeys are organised into the 7 areas of learning and development, so I put the observation in to the right area.

    I also print off the early years outcomes and each term I highlight which area I think the child has achieved.

    Each term is done in a different colour to show (hopefully) progress.

    How does that sound?

    If you have a child 2 days a week, would you cover all 7 areas each week? We don't.

    I really don't want to do more than necessary, but still show Ofsted I'm doing all they require of me.

    Thoughts and ideas welcome! Thanks
    Laura, I've seen another setting do something similar to you. I think you're using the post-it notes really well. However, rather than dividing up your folders into EYFS areas, why not divide them into reporting periods?

    You could simply keep your 'outcomes' sheet at the front (or make up a tracker - eg. PSED 1 (MR); PSED 2 (SC&SA) PSED 3 (MF&B); etc across the top of a page for that child; and time periods down the page: so "My starting points"; "Summary date 1/5/15 to 1/9/15"; "Summary date 1/9/15 to 1/1/16" etc.)

    This then gives you a box under each area of learning and aspect on your 'tracker' sheet and a time period corresponding to when these observations happened and what the child had achieved at this point in time.

    In the box, you can write: 8-10 months. Developing etc. (and date from whichever post-it note in that period showed you the child achieving this particular aspect etc.) If you then went to the period, you could see the post-it note. Next to the post-it note you could either write your next step ideas; or show them on your summary report when you're writing it up to share with the parents. (Some settings do this every 3 months; some do every 4 months; some do every 6 months. Just choose a way that works for you and go for it.)

    I think your approach is good, but how would it work if you had 3 full-time early years children 5 days a week; or even a larger number of part-time early years children over the same week?

    While we need to show that the children are making progress, you don't necessarily have to spend as much time as you are doing currently on admin. (Personally, I've probably tried every system there is over the years, and now do something similar to what I've described above as it helps me demonstrate to Ofsted easily - e.g. "this page show...." the progress each child is making during their time with me, from their Starting points onwards.)

    I hope this helps. You'll find the best way that works for you. Ideally, we need to spend as much time 'teaching' the children (and helping them learn through play) and as little time as possible recording it and doing admin.

    There's no point in having great admin if you are shattered and little Johnny breaks his arm the next day because your reactions just weren't quick enough!!!

    Sometimes, less is more.

    Good luck

    L
    Last edited by lollipop kid; 19-06-2015 at 05:36 PM.

  4. #4
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    Thanks for your replies, they're very useful. I'll have a think about your replies and how it might work for me.

    I think I may add in a few longer observations as well.

    Thanks :-)

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by LauraMidd View Post
    Thanks for your replies, they're very useful. I'll have a think about your replies and how it might work for me.

    I think I may add in a few longer observations as well.

    Thanks :-)
    Laura, you might find that one observation allows you to cover several areas of learning at once. Take a game of "What's the time Mr Wolf?" for example. If there is more than one child playing (or if there's even just one playing with you) in the garden, then that's PSED, C&L, PD, Maths, KUW, Being Imaginative - basically, everything apart from Literacy. (Then if you look at the aspects, most of these will be covered in each of these areas as well.) So one observation made during a simple game can 'tick off' several areas on the child's learning journey. It also shows you the child's learning style. This is why I order my observations according to the period when I captured the observation, and not by the area of learning, as I like to look for the other areas of learning at the same time to see what progress my little ones are making.

    I hope this helps.

    Good luck,

    L

 

 

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