How on top of your paperwork are you?

[EmmaReed84]

As the title says really...

Are you always on top of your paperwork, or do you find you slack a bit now and then...

Would you say you are 'always inspection ready'

I have had so much going on lately, I have really been so naughty, but last night spent several hours, updating one child's scrapbook and getting getting another child's LJ up to date (only had him since Dec, so plan on making sure I keep on top of it now)

Also, I have one child who is only 14mths old, I only have her one day a week, in the beginning I did quite a lot of "getting to know you" obs but I haven't done many since as there is not much more to write... how would you do this?

I know I am not due an inspection for another year yet, but I want to try and get back in to good habits!

[mrs robbie williams]

with working ten hr days and doing my level 3 i am behind on cm paperwork :( theres just not enough hours in the day plus been floored by this cold/flu for two weeks - hopefully ofsted wont call :panic::panic::blush::blush:

[bunyip]

Stuff like reviewing RAs and policies I'm ok with cos I do one a week with a 'rolling reminder' system in my diary. Not a burden if I keep up with these little and often.

LJs are different. As I'm a bit of a 'visual thinker' I'm fine if I stick the photos in and date the entry to fill in the detail later. Means I'm usually 2-3 weeks behind on at least 1 of the children's entries. I actually prefer this, cos sitting down to catch up 2-3 weeks of obs on 1 child helps me concentrate and possibly see patterns IYSWIM. Works for me cos the picture reminds me of the observation. OTOH, I'm not convinced that an inspector would see it that way. :(

As for my SEF - er -what is a SEF?

[hectors house]

Actually managed to get one LJ completely up to date yesterday, shame about the other 6 though! I agree with Bunyip though that doing LJ's a couple of weeks behind (or in my case a couple of months) does help you see the whole picture better.

[EmmaReed84]

The thing with me, although I can write down an observation from an activity, I don't feel it truly shows how well I know the child.

I have one minded child who I have had for 2.5 years, she as very out going, we went to groups and she was not very shy at all. Her brother was the shy one, but with all the work we all did, he is now so confident and at school, being the first to put his hand up to answer questions...

However, since he left us in Sept to start school, his younger sister has become terribly shy, I mean, painfully shy, if someone comes near her she does not know, she literally freezes to the spot! She is at playgroup for her funded hours and I am in regular contact with her keyworker. We chat at least every week. Anyway, I decided to talk to Mum and see about taking her out one day to start with the group she used to love so much, this was agreed and we are no 3 weeks in to the new plan...

Now how the heck to I get that all down in an observation? This all happens over time and various conversation. If Ofsted came out and asked me any question about any of my children, I could answer them right away, without thought, I know where they all are, I know what all their next steps are, I know what my plans are... but they are just not written down!

[bunyip]

Now how the heck to I get that all down in an observation? This all happens over time and various conversation. If Ofsted came out and asked me any question about any of my children, I could answer them right away, without thought, I know where they all are, I know what all their next steps are, I know what my plans are... but they are just not written down!

So, it doesn't have to be a single 'observation' - there are many ways of writing up a child's L&D issues. Just use your obs book (or attach a separate sheet, if that gives you more space) to write a review and agreed action plan for this particular matter. If I were Mrs O, I'd then look at that and think "here's a CM who is putting the child first, not just trying to make the child fit the system."

The plain fact is that you know the child, the situation and your plans of how to deal with it - that's what Ofsted seem to want to know these days. Getting it down on paper will merely be the icing on the cake (and we all like iced cake. :rolleyes: )

[FloraDora]

My LO's sleep at the same time, so I love that I have an hour or more every day to do assement and obs reflection, planning and diaries, the electronic system for me, aids this too.
What I don't get done then I do as soon as last one has left - usually just for half an hour - mainly photo uploading, but since one of my hobbies is photography I don't feel like this is work.
My DH tidies and starts our evening meal.

It's early days for me but my routine is established with about an hours more worth of reflection early on Sunday morning, before Andrew Marr starts, before family are around and about, or visiting friends get up.

The key is to find a time that suits your family life and stick to it - as if it is your job, you always do your reflections and evaluations then, everyone knows this and family life can be planned around it.

[Simona]

As the title says really...

Are you always on top of your paperwork, or do you find you slack a bit now and then...

Would you say you are 'always inspection ready'

I have had so much going on lately, I have really been so naughty, but last night spent several hours, updating one child's scrapbook and getting getting another child's LJ up to date (only had him since Dec, so plan on making sure I keep on top of it now)

Also, I have one child who is only 14mths old, I only have her one day a week, in the beginning I did quite a lot of "getting to know you" obs but I haven't done many since as there is not much more to write... how would you do this?

I know I am not due an inspection for another year yet, but I want to try and get back in to good habits!

Unfortunately no one can say 'my inspection' is due in another year....if Ofsted receive a complaint the inspection will happen immediately.

[AgentTink]

I am lucky currently as my mindees sleep for 2 hours every afternoon, which gives me plenty of time to do work. I am not behind on anything and i love the feeling of being on top of paperwork. I also do accounts weekly and that helps immensely.

However even when my mindees didnt sleep together i still completed paper work when they were free playing once a week. I have kept to hand written obs and incidental obs (wow moments) as i can them completly them sitting on the floor whilst still interacting with the kids. And my tracking is hand written, as well as accounts, etc. The only thing typed regularly is the daily diary which is typed straight into a facebook status on a private group for each family. These status include what we have done that day any thing the child has said/done new or differently. These form my incidental obs. I can have up to 7 of these a week. I can fit 4 onto a a4 sheet with the areas of development under each box so i just have to circle which area. This gives you an idea of how small they are.

My big ob I do once a month. I try to bullet point it as it keeps it straight to the point. Ofsted are not looking for essay's just that you have noticed something new or a change and have recorded it somehow

[JueQ]

I'm not on top of things. Last year I did my level 3. With working full time doing 10 hr days and having a family of my own I got so behind. Managed to catch up with my accounts and some paperwork but still behind. Haven't touched my Sef and what about this RAG form? If ofsted came now I am behind! Good points my children love to come. They are learning and both children and parents are happy.

[Jelly Baby]

I thought I was but seems not as well as I thought!

I have an inspection looming and as it would be EVERYTHING I wasn't worrying about seems to have gone missing!

I am usually very good but do slack at times and shouldn't its just so hard.

I do work from 6am-6pm 5 days a week & some Saturdays so find it v hard!

[joannes]

I've been following this post with interest to be honest because I've just quit teaching, mainly due to the (in my humble opinion :p) extent of unnecessary paperwork. When I was a teacher I got quite strict with taking every bit of paper and asking "is this for my benefit? is it for the children's benefit?" if the answer to both those questions was no then I didn't prioritise it. Unfortunately management teams didn't quite share the same view and suddenly EVERYTHING became a priority, except actually interacting with the children. What annoyed me the most was the sheer lack of respect or acknowledgement of my own professional judgement or memory; I could easily tell anyone in management, Local authority or Ofsted where each and every one of my 30 pupils were, what their next steps were and what interventions I'd put in place for them. But management in schools don't tend to like to ask or speak to people and find their opinions, it's much more convenient to have a piece of paper with it all on. Which often meant producing reams and reams of paper that may or may not be looked at. (As a bit of a tree hugger I also objected to that waste too!) Moving on to childminding I felt that it should be much easier as I will literally only be doing paperwork that benefits me as a practitioner and business manager, or the children in terms of planning next steps/activities, reflecting. I'm coming towards the end of registration and I'll be honest apart from writing down a few bullet points of things I'd like to do over the next few weeks to link in with themes or times of the year and children's interests/stages, and then jotting these down in my diary after we've done them as a record I hadn't really felt I'd need to do masses of planning. Same goes for observations, I always hated the long observations as a teacher because they were very time consuming for what you actually got out of them. Was always much more effective to have photos or ad hoc notes. I found this article which I found a very interesting read on the matter: http://****************************/2012/08/29/observations-for-eyfs-2012/ I guess people work in different ways and find a way to suit them but I've got quite a good memory for who said what etc. and I've learnt the hard way that trying to get too much down on paper, drowning in admin and not being able to cut out unnecessary stuff only makes you stressed, ill and resentful, not to mention the impact it has on "family time".

[joannes]

ah didn't realise it won't let me post a link. basically it was a childminder blog called Penny's Place and she wrote a blog about observations. She's also written one on planning too but it basically unpicks the EYFS and looks at what's actually compulsory and what's been added on as "this would be nice! Other people are doing this you should do this" type thinking lol. If you google it it comes up.