daily paperwork what do you think??

[Fairy Tanya]

Hi all,
Long time since I've been on here with being so busy with my mindees.
I'm still having trouble trying to fit all this paperwork in per child, it
does seem quite impossible sometimes.
so I have just done a new style of daily diary, if you could have a look and see what you all think.

I seem to need to have all the paperwork with me at all times for me to remember to actually do the paperwork. so have devised this bit of paperwork.

But if you think there could also be something missing, can you let me know.
I have on this sheet,
Child's name, date, meals and times, Notes e.g medication taken that day, naps, nappy changes box, what i did today section, observation (with categories of eyfs), next steps and photo here slot.

is there anything else I need for the eyfs that could go on here.
apart from the assessments every few months or so.

I'm just trying to make my life easier with this paperwork.
please let me know what you think. if it can be improved
5851

Thanks
Tanya

[dette]

If this is to go home with mindee every day perhaps you could add a box for parents to contribute .ofsted like this and does help if its a quick handover in the morning for parents to keep you up to date with what they are doing/had for breakfast/had a poo etc at home with them.

[Fairy Tanya]

Hi, yes
I did think about adding that, which I will - after I have juggled the page around a bit.
what else do you think it would need to see that all the paperwork for the support of the eyfs is done.
I've even thought about using a white board, with the same format on it for writing down during day. then transfering to the proper book.
I'm sure thereare some more things that is missing from the overall eyfs paperwork.
I would like to make life so much easier than what we have been taught, or little we have been taught. It would have been nice if we had set paperwork books with everything in one area, and this is what I'm trying to do.
I have my finances paperwork sorted, that is a doddle, compared to matching this all up. I'm even re - organisng the practice guidence for the eyfs learning and development cards.
Tho they are sorted into areas, you have to look through pages and pages of the book, to get to the right age group.
So I have been typing it all up into age groups rather than learning areas. which has made my life so much easier and quicker.
I will be posting those on here at some point too, when I have finished all of them.

Please let me know if there is anything else that could be put on here on the word doc on the first page of this thread.

Tanya

[Fairy Tanya]

Have re done the other sheet.
if you could take a look now, and see if there is anything missing.
Thanks
Tanya

5852

[loocyloo]

looks good. :)

there is or was, somewhere on the forum a set of pages where someone has put all the bits into the age categories, making it easier to follow, but i can't think who or where! ( or what to even look for! )

[Katiekoo]

I may be wrong but it looks like you plan to do a formal written observation every day. That is a lot more than I would do, I tend to do one every month/six weeks - again maybe I should be doing more! :blush:
Maybe you could make your life easier by cutting back on long observations, and doing brief post it ones instead.

[miffy]

looks good. :)

there is or was, somewhere on the forum a set of pages where someone has put all the bits into the age categories, making it easier to follow, but i can't think who or where! ( or what to even look for! )

Try free resources (free downloads) at the top of the page

Miffy xx

[Fairy Tanya]

Hi all,
Yes had a look at the free resources months ago, have got the age grouped learning and development sheets, they are all laminated, but what I wanted was my next steps style of sheets along with the learning & development, so am typing the one out of the guidence for eyfs book.

the word doc I left on here has now got a space for parents to comment.
even tho also I had been doing a daily diary and sending it home, the parents have not even written in it, after me mentioning several times that they could volunteer info and comments. they haven't done so. This I cannot resolve even after explaining that ofsted would love to see feedback from the parents. hey ho can't have everything.

The observations are optional, but at least it's there for me to fill in, rather than a seperate book. also, with this method, I can email it to the parents too, (just have to save it as a template). so then I can become paper efficient and save more trees.

anyway. do you think it deserves the thumbs up, is it spot on for what we do??? or is there something else that could improve it???
please let me know.
I really don't like re -- inventing the wheel, but everyone's inventions seem too full of things, where as I like my life to be simple and easy to use, and also quick to use, as we shouldn't be spending all our spare time doing paperwork, I want to have fun with the kids, not write continually write about it, whilst filling in this book then the next book , then another book etc.

Thanks for listening to my rant.
Hugs to all
Tanya

[miffy]

If parents don't write their comments down I do it for them, so anything they say about child's interests, development etc I just jot down.

Miffy xx

[sarah707]

I find it difficult to get comments from most of my parents - so I don't have a box on the forms or I would be setting myself up for a fall.

Instead like Miffy I jot things down when they are mentioned :D

[VeggieSausage]

I jot down what parents say on the doorstep but also put in sometimes what we are doing tomorrow - eg will be going to do water play tomorrow so please coudl you make sure there is wellies in the bag - then I write thanks for the wellies - shows parents are reading and responding if they don't put any comments in.....I think your sheets have everything on there, but some of the boxes for meals for example may be too small.... I am in the process of making my life easier with regards to paperwork too :)

[rosebud]

This is exactly what I do Tanya. My diary sheets look very much like yours, I print them on A5 paper with the diary section on the front and the observations, next steps and parents comments on the back. I have been doing it since January and its working perfectly. Some parents comment more than others but all have commented at some point and they all return them the next day, I file them in the childs learning journey and hey presto my paperwork is done! I make sure to complete the back about once a week and am about to buy a pogo printer so that I can add photos daily too. I plan just to do a formal observation every couple of months so that I can evidence using the wording from the EYFS.
The thing I like most is that its all much more meaningful, I find that because the next steps go home immediately parents are acting on them much more and telling me what they have done, so the child benefits. I have much more evidence to show that I am working with parents too.
I have shared mine with all the childminders at my local group and they are trialling them too. Good luck

[Fairy Tanya]

Thanks all,
for you help in this.
It has made my life easier do it like that.
and as you all know we all get pretty busy, with looking after the kids, never mind paperwork on top.
What I would like to do also with this is to turn it from a template form or print off, into a form form, that gets emailed to the parent, rather than an attachment. I know ******** as a system that you just fill in and it sends it to the parents automatically, which is great, but trying to cut down on expenses etc, and finding something personal to yourself would be great.
so from all your responses - it's a thumbs up.
now just have to figure what else I can make simpler.
so on this sheet, I have a daily diary with observations, next steps, parents comments, - what other bits of paperwork could I add to this??
Assessments get done every so often, so don't need that on there.
Sarah I know your an expert on this. can you think of anything else I can put on to it as part of the daily work we do with children.
I know when ofsted did its first marked assessment, she suggested doing a peak chart of how the child is progressing. to be honest, I thought that was now getting ridiculous, as we have enough paperwork as it is.
Also, I have heard that they are changing stuff from september paperwork or something side. does anyone know about this?? is it going to be easier or harder??

Thank you
Tanya

[rosebud]

I went on a briefing about the changes to EYFS last week and was told that the focus was to move away from paperwork - YAY!!! Our trainer was of the opinion that it wasn't the EYFS that was at fault in relation to the amount of paperwork we have to do but rather that its a misinterpretation of the guidelines - including by local authorities and Ofsted! The main changes relate to the areas of learning and doing a summative assessment at age 2-3. Theres a thread on here about it somewhere that will explain it much better than me.

[ladders]

Hi there

I'm not saying that technology is the answer to all your problems, but I am linked up to Baby's Days which, if you haven't already heard of it is a fabulous database system with the sole aim of helping childminders with reducing paperwork and achieving good ratings with Ofsted. Being new to Childminding, perhaps it is less daunting for me as I am starting from scratch, but its definately worth a look.

Holly x

[Fairy Tanya]

Hi Holly
yes I was looking at the Baby days site the other day, and to be honest I know you only need to write it once and it finds it right place on all pages. but there were a lot of things on there that I would really use.
I have made my own excel spread sheet which works well for me.
Then there were all these other pages on there too. As I need to write things down immediately, and I can't carry my computer around with me - think it would be down to health and safety reasons, just in case it got dropped on top of a kid or something, never mind if it gets broken)
So now have done a little bit more to my thing.
See what you think.
(you may be able to tell, from all the stuff I put on, that I seem to love creating things)

5862 daily diary
and
5863 obs and next steps form

and this sheet for obs to carry about (well I hang mine in a clip board on the wall with a copy of the diary sheet and a pencil attatched to it, I then transfre all the info to the computer and add pictures and either print it off or email it to the parent).

So all - see what you think of these, is this making the paperwork smaller do you think.

thanks
Tanya