Spontaneous or planned?

[Mrs M]

Should observations be wow moments that just happen, planned or a mixture of the two?
I do a rough weekly plan which consists of toddler groups, home/free play, activities. I have never planned my observations though, they just happen and then I link them. However, I know of childminders who plan the activity and observation together, therefore making things a lot easier. You then know which areas you are covering.
When I had my NVQ assessor here watching me observe the children, she expected me to have already decided which areas of the learning and development we would be covering whereas I waited to see which areas the children covered.
Sorry, this is a bit waffly really but I was just interested to hear how others do things.

[sarah707]

I do a mixture of the 2.

As the Eyfs is play based even if you plan to observe something, you will often find that children's interests take you elsewhere anyway

[sonia ann]

i do a mixture of the two....some will be spontaneous " gosh look what xxxx did " others will be comments on an activity either planned by me or a child led activity / play situation...i then just link them to to the 6 areas of learning and make a note of next steps I can use to encourage them further in their play/ development and interests. Very few of my observations are planned though, i mean i don't say " I am going to observe xxx do xxx today" they just happen and i make a note of it, if you understand me

[Mrs M]

Thank you for your replies.

[Mollymop]

I do mostly sponstaneous and I was pulled up about this with my inspector last November, nicely though. She asked me whether I planned my obs, as Planning should be the start of the observation, part of the next steps, etc. I told her the truth that, no, I just go with the flow. She was ok with this, but I got the impression that "they" or at least my Inspector liked obs this way.

[sarah707]

I do mostly sponstaneous and I was pulled up about this with my inspector last November, nicely though. She asked me whether I planned my obs, as Planning should be the start of the observation, part of the next steps, etc. I told her the truth that, no, I just go with the flow. She was ok with this, but I got the impression that "they" or at least my Inspector liked obs this way.

How strange... I have always felt from reading the Eyfs that observation is the start of planning...

How can you plan unless you know what the child likes / wants / needs etc?

I do wish they could agree with each other

[TheBTeam]

We were told on our obs and planning for eyfs course that most activities should be freeplay/non adult led and that our observations should come from the non adult led activities.

Then our planning should come from the obs. A max of 20% of time should be spent on planned adult led activities.

[Chatterbox Childcare]

Bit of both

If I want to see how a child is doing in an area that I haven't moved on in for a while then I would do an activity to help

I did one this week where the little ones had building blocks and my 4 year old stacked, counted and coloured them. He has a speech problem and it was great to observe and record.

[ORKSIE]

Mine are usually spontanious (Sp)

[sparkibobs]

I also just go with the flow and had the same response at my inspection as Mollymop.
Also my Network coordinator loves what I do (when I've got children lol)
xx

[SandCastles]

I do a mix of the two, I plan especially when I realised that i have not got anything formally documented for a certain area of learning, so to obtain their starting point I will plan an activity and see what happens, but it is mostly child led (my inspector liked the mix)

[The Juggler]

How strange... I have always felt from reading the Eyfs that observation is the start of planning...

How can you plan unless you know what the child likes / wants / needs etc?

I do wish they could agree with each other

just what i was going to say! planning starts with the unique child and you can't plan for them unless you observe them first!