Planning

[Guest]

Sorry everyone, need to get this straight in my head! Am trying to plan ahead and trial new style plannning for september.

 

At the moment when I write my planning I include the following:

 

Focus activitiy e.g leaf printing.

 

Name of staff member who is involved and for how long and where ( outside/in)

The resources needed (for staff info at set up time)

The ELG

Evaluation issues for future

Target children

 

 

 

My question is, because we are aiming to allow far more child initiated learning do we actually write on the planning the ELG. At the moment we have an intended aim/goal but the direction taken by the children is often very different, meaning that the ELG is often quite pointless.

 

Please help, in a a right confuddle this end!

[AnonyMouse_3735]

we have begun to just put in an area of learning which was the aim and in evaluation write in the goals or aspects children took the activity to.. seems to be working better for us that way.

 

Inge

[Guest]

I would put the intended outcome/goal/objective/whatever on if it is an adult focused activity, as presumably there are certain things that you want the learning experience to focus on. As you say, as the children engage in the activity, learning may well move off into an 'unexpected' direction, which is fine and notes can always be made about this if needed. But that's just my opinion...!

[Guest]

we have begun to just put in an area of learning which was the aim and in evaluation write in the goals or aspects children took the activity to.. seems to be working better for us that way.

 

Inge

 

Thanks for replying . We have quite a lot of children at this setting so the potential for a variety of goals/aspects is high. Would you put them all on?

[AnonyMouse_3735]

just noticed forum its in, sorry my mistake , forget what i said!!

 

Inge

Edited April 14, 2008 by Inge

[AnonyMouse_79]

Goose if you are in a school setting, your plans may look very different to a preschool/day care facility.

You need to detail your intended focus goals/aims/learning intentions. You can evaluate against other learning that takes place. If you have a focus activity you will have a purpose to the activity(the learning intention) although it may also be meeting other goals.

[Guest]

Goose if you are in a school setting, your plans may look very different to a preschool/day care facility.

You need to detail your intended focus goals/aims/learning intentions. You can evaluate against other learning that takes place. If you have a focus activity you will have a purpose to the activity(the learning intention) although it may also be meeting other goals.

 

Thanks Susan, we are a Pre-school.

 

Just as a very simple example. In the old days (fs) if we set up "still life" painting we would probably list the aims as

 

looking closely at similarities/patterns

explore colour texture in 2d

 

But knowing that the children would cover lots of PSE and KUW too. In practice the children can often cover a whole spectrum of learning which is totally unplanned for. I guess I am unclear if we are supposed to put in the ELGs on the planning now that it is so child lead.

[AnonyMouse_4544]

Thanks Susan, we are a Pre-school.

 

Just as a very simple example. In the old days (fs) if we set up "still life" painting we would probably list the aims as

 

looking closely at similarities/patterns

explore colour texture in 2d

 

 

 

I plan that way for reception as many of the ELGs are too broad for a single activity.

 

I would n't put ELGs for CIL just note what has been learnt.

[AnonyMouse_3735]

In that case goose, as a pre-school we would put in our main focus area of learning , and often this is two areas , and then in evaluation state where the children took it. evaluation is often more detailed than the plans were to begin with.

 

we are still in a trial period, but feel this shows that while we may have an aim the children have led us to include or cover....

 

Make sense .. probably not but seems to be working for us at moment, of course as all things as they develop...

 

took some inspiration from the plans supplied with EYFS which only had a tick box for which area was to be covered. Cannot remember where I found it now but it was part of one of the examples give, and no room for more detail

 

Inge

[AnonyMouse_79]

Moving this into preschool planning.

 

Inge, the post you edited was really interesting! Sorry.

[Guest]

In that case goose, as a pre-school we would put in our main focus area of learning , and often this is two areas , and then in evaluation state where the children took it. evaluation is often more detailed than the plans were to begin with.

 

we are still in a trial period, but feel this shows that while we may have an aim the children have led us to include or cover....

 

Make sense .. probably not but seems to be working for us at moment, of course as all things as they develop...

 

took some inspiration from the plans supplied with EYFS which only had a tick box for which area was to be covered. Cannot remember where I found it now but it was part of one of the examples give, and no room for more detail

 

Inge

 

Thanks Inge. Have to say my team have been as frustrated as me when it comes to refinding something on the EYFS disc and i haven't come accorss wone with a tick section as yet. Just to clarify then, are you saying that we can just tick which area of learning the activitiy applies to rather than specific ELG/aim

[AnonyMouse_3735]

that was one on there we found so must assume this is Ok its what we are doing anyway, we may ad more later perhaps an aspect but not at the moment.. as long as we can show that children are leaning and progressing in all areas using their play

 

Thats Ok Susan, think I said it again ,

 

Inge

[Guest]

Can I join in here as I am always worried about planning!!

 

Do you just have your continuous planning for all areas as per EYFS disc eg dinosaurs in sand (for childx). Then only go into real details ELG, resources etc with the focused activity?

 

If this is right, which is how I'm thinking it should be done, then I can relax!!

[Guest]

Can I join in here as I am always worried about planning!!

 

Do you just have your continuous planning for all areas as per EYFS disc eg dinosaurs in sand (for childx). Then only go into real details ELG, resources etc with the focused activity?

 

If this is right, which is how I'm thinking it should be done, then I can relax!!

 

 

Yes, as I understand it the continuous planning is fairly easy with lots of opportunity for the childrens leraning to dart off all over the place. The focus however, is a more aimed activity (otherwise how to we ever get to stretch thioe children who want to find out more /need support etc) . this is what we were told on out recent training anyhow!?

 

Oh golly, hope i have this right it seems to me I am not the only one " all at sea!"

[AnonyMouse_834]

Can I just ask how long you would run that focus activity for, we are full day care and have been told to do two a week one inside and one outside. We used to change our focus activity each day?

 

Are you focus activities prechosen/preplanned therefore coming from the adult?

 

Also have you split the elgs across a period of time to ensure equal coverage?

 

 

thanks

 

sharon

x

[Guest]

Can I just ask how long you would run that focus activity for, we are full day care and have been told to do two a week one inside and one outside. We used to change our focus activity each day?

 

Are you focus activities prechosen/preplanned therefore coming from the adult?

 

Also have you split the elgs across a period of time to ensure equal coverage?

 

 

thanks

 

sharon

x

 

It kind of depends on where the children take the idea for the focus really. Up until now we have started with a planned idea and then taken the lead from the children. As I see it the EYFS isn't that different from this.

 

With regard to how many focussssesss! That, i feel, depends on when the task runs out of steam. sometimes we don't get opportunity to reach a second planned focus at all and have to ditch it purely because of the reason abve. the ELGs are covered through this method and the continuous provision planning.

 

I feel now it might be better to have a plan of 2 focus actvities per week(1 - in, 1- out ) with a CLL aim for phonics/sound work each day. plus room for following child ideas for a second spontaneious focus... But as before it will more than likely.......change.

 

 

My main issue with is child initiated /responsive planning is that as a pre-school we cannot simply put our hands on all the resources needed to fully support a particular interest. I feel sure I am not the only one to have a garage stuffed with resource boxes due to lack of space at the setting!

[AnonyMouse_3735]

we too take focus from children's activities, and this can be 1 a day to 1 a week depending on where it leads or runs out of steam, tends to overlap in and outdoor , at present all they want outdoors is to let off steam !!

Find all goals tend to be covered with continuous planning, in some way,

we have been advised to write a continuous plan for our daily routine and show how / what areas are covered . also that our long term plan should be the EYFS themes and commitments (on back of first card) along with a list of events and celebrations we may cover during the year. Makes life easy!

 

Inge

[Guest]

Thanks I love threads like this, all of my concerns seem normal!! My planning isn't quite as rubbish as I thought it was. And if we only need 2 or so focused activities per week (this would suit us fine as most of our children come 3 days per week) I seem to be going in the right direction.

 

With the continuous planning would it be alright to have the continuous planning sheets found in resources in your planning file which we have personalised to our setting?

 

Inge love your new owl, I just don't have enough IT knowledge to find anything decent myself.

[Guest]

Just wanted to add..... I put the elgs on the plans - they stay the same for the week and we altered resources to follow childrens interests throughout the week - Ofsted really liked seeing the elgs - I think my idea was to offer the children opportunities to work towards meeting these goals and then assess each week whether they were achieveable for some and maybe not for others and set up individual plans accordingly to promote individual learning or identify strengths or weaknesses.

An evaluation of the weeeks events i.e. the childrens main interests, had they met any elgs, where there specific elgs needed to be repeated or introduced would inform the next weeks elgs.

 

One or two focus activity's a week - depending on the children and where it goes - flexibility - and of course unplanned opportunities are always in abundance with little ones - with all that going on how can anyone say that children don't learn through play and not value their early experiences.

 

With all planning I find the evaluations and observations the most informative way to plan.

 

When Ofsted visited me, I had the typed up plan out for them to see, but I had changed most of it that morning (ignorant of their arrival) - they seemed to like the fact that I could say why I had changed it and we could be flexible, in fact the plans for the first day they came weren't really worth the paper they were typed on!!

 

Guess it depends on the inspector of course, same old, same old..