EYFS Planning

[cloud9]

can anyone help i have been on 1 course when the talk of the EYFS became official. It was a 2 hour evening course. But im confused now do i need to go on another one? I've always done planning for activities and i have a contact book for the children but i think i now need more. Has anyone got any observation sheets in place and if you have is there any chance i could have a peek at it. Im utterly confused now about what i'm meant to do.

I also have one mindee who i am the main carer for and he starts school next september am i supposed to have some sort of official assessment sheet that i pass onto the parent to give to the school? or because when he starts he will be 4 and 4 months will the school be responsible for doing it?

the website states the following:
The EYFS Profile is a way of summing up each child's development and learning achievements at the end of the EYFS. It is based on practitioners' ongoing observation and assessments in all six areas of Learning and Development. Each child's level of development must be recorded against the 13 assessment scales derived from the early learning goals. Judgements against these scales, which are set out in Appendix 1 of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, should be made from observation of consistent and independent behaviour, predominantly children's self-initiated activities.

Some children will have experienced a range of settings during the final year of the EYFS and may have a number of carers. In these cases the EYFS Profile must be completed by the provider where the child spends the majority of time between 8 am and 6 pm. Providers should take account of all available records and of any formal or informal discussions with the parents and with those involved with children in the previous year.

Thanks for any advice!

[sarah707]

You should be looking to do some more training - the 2 hour course was just an introduction to opening the pack and there should be a series of courses (or a full day) offered by your Local Authority... I would contact your CIS for more information.

As far as what to document, you sound like you are doing the right things now with planning and some observations, so that's not a problem. You will need to link obs back to the eyfs and get to know the learning and development grids so you can work with them.

The child who is 4.4 will have his main obs done in the school, but you will be expected to feed information into them - though how that is going to happen in practice is still a bit uncertain. I can't see class teachers wanting to spend their time asking childminders for information if they have 30 children in their class... we'll wait and see on that one!!

Don't worry though - the eyfs doesn't start until September so you won't be expected to be working within it yet...

Have a look at www.bromleycma.org.uk for some good free stuff on working within eyfs.

Hope this helps!

[MissTinkerbell]

As for report writing - it says 'final year' which for both Foundation Stage and EYFS is actually their Reception year.

As an ex-reception teacher I know that your mindees teacher will spend the first few weeks making her own assessments, so don't get too hung up on making sure that you have something to pass on.

To be brutally honest, the reports that come from pre-schools/nurseries and childminders are often filed away at the back of the cupboard after a quick glance. Most teachers prefer to make their own judgements about a child - although not wishing to put down these profiles as worthless - they just don't want to come in with preconceived ideas about a particular child.

As a teacher, my personal preference was to receive something that filled me in on the child's interests; their friends; their likes and dislikes. A brief report about the whole child would be more beneficial than an 'educational' report.

Well that's my opinion anyway - hope it helps.

[sarah707]

Ahhh Melanie, while I agree with you in theory, in practice Ofsted are telling us that teachers will be asking us for our input...

[MissTinkerbell]

Like teachers will get the time to do that!!!! and it will still sit in the back of the cupboard, very much like the Early Years Profiles do in Y1 teacher's cupboards.

[Cammie Doodle]

Melanie the reception teacher at our village school agrees with you . She would like to know childs interest etc and when I recently asked her what she would like me as a Childminder to do to help children joining her class, her reply was get the children talking (she wont have a prob with my mindees they never stop lol) she says that she is amazed that children come to school and are not be able to convey their wants and needs !!!!! She says if a child cant talk it can hold back other areas of learning So I have been working on this for the mindees starting in Sept

[miffy]

Think this is something that will depend on the individuals involved - some teachers will work with us (like the one at June's school) and some won't!

Not much different to now really

miffy xx