Next steps

[It's a small world]

When mrs o came she suggested I place my obs under the 6 areas of the eyfs . I've just realized that when I do an ob and place my next steps down that a Mindee next steps don't follow in order ie:
Making pizza talking about where food comes from ( may 6th) next step growing potatoes . Another ob done (18 may) then potatoes dug up ( June)

My point being does it matter that the next step is not necessarily the next ob done? Doesthat make sense. As I thought next steps should be the next ob but if under different headings obs going to be out of date order anyway. I know it's Saturday night but am I making sense ?

[miffy]

I think I'm with you but we could both end up talking rubbish!

As I see it your next steps are what you plan to do to further the child's development/skills/interests in that area - they don't have to come next in the child's learning journey but you do have to show somehow that you've followed them up.

HTH's

Miffy xx

[Winnie]

When mrs o came she suggested I place my obs under the 6 areas of the eyfs . I've just realized that when I do an ob and place my next steps down that a Mindee next steps don't follow in order ie:
Making pizza talking about where food comes from ( may 6th) next step growing potatoes . Another ob done (18 may) then potatoes dug up ( June)

My point being does it matter that the next step is not necessarily the next ob done? Doesthat make sense. As I thought next steps should be the next ob but if under different headings obs going to be out of date order anyway. I know it's Saturday night but am I making sense ?

A 'next step' in an ob doesn’t need to trigger another ob using that next step.

When i write next step i use it in my (very loose) planning- so i would have maybe visited grocers or planted something (not necessarily potatoes) and that would have been written as a loose planning note in my weekly planning. I possibly wouldn’t use the activity to do an ob, just noted on my planning sheet linking it to KUW or whatever. It is important that next steps appear in the planning but that doesn’t mean it will happen (my planning is very flexible) or that the activity will follow the planned course....it might be that the children are more interested in digging for worms than planting anything but at least my planning shows my intention(s). So after digging for worms i might bury toys in sand, learn 'there's a worm at the bottom of the garden', find out about other insect/animals that live underground, or anything that might trigger their interest and 'move them on' in their learning.

If you always follow an ob doing the next step & then do an ob on that then the chances are you will end up with a series of observations all of one area of L&D

I hope that helps

[It's a small world]

Thanks Winnie and Miffy .

I was told that if you noted 'next steps' on your obs you had to show evidence that this had been done.

To be honest I dont do much planning basically I could plan things and you can guarantee that mindee will not do anything I plan and just go with their own flow. I try to do themes around specila days etc but mindee would rather play with whatever they want and ususally sticks to same toys or just sits looking at books. Sometimes joins in what we are doing but then trots off doing her own thing. Obs for this mindee quite difficult so just go with the flow with them. Had alot of settling in issues but hoping things are improving now..

Thanks for the advice at least i know that they dont need to follow on as long as I can show that they have been followed up.

[sarah707]

Since many obs link to more than one area of learning and development, it's difficult to file them that way.

I always suggest filing by date, so you can see progression

[gegele]

i'll have to agree with sarah on that one! you can link most things with everything so it would be a bit difficult. as long as you show nest steps for each learning surely you can't go wrong