Exactly How Many Plans?

[Guest]

Hi,

How many plans do you have?

I currently have

 

* long term overview which shows festivals and school/sommunity events or important times.

* medium term plan for topic and topic web for child initiated topics

* I currently have a weekly CLL and PSRN plan ( I want to change this: dont like it at all)

* Phonics weekly plan

* Focus adult led session plans

 

Anyone have any sugestions how to make it easier or more child friendly?

 

Thank you

[Guest]

I have a topic CLL and PSRN plan rather than weekly, but then I'm in year one so there is more structure to be followed with regards to this. When you say you have an adult focus plan is this activities other than CLL and PSRN or do your CLL and PSRN plans only include the carpet whole class activities? The only other way I can think of doing it is perhaps daily? What is it exactly that you don't like about doing it weekly, that might help with suggestions for other ways to do it?

Edited August 24, 2010 by Guest

[AnonyMouse_32166]

I have long term plans for each area of the classroom, laminated and displayed in the corrisponding area e.g water, sand, role play. These include objectsive and resources i have in these areas all year round, i have one blank column where i write things i have added, any special resorces or if i changed anything e.g. writing area i might add christmas cards, easter cards ect...

 

I don't do medium term plans as it is not a requiremnet of the EYFS so my head says i don't have to do them.

 

I have a weekly plan for phonics as i do it everyday.

 

Then i have adult lead activity plans for each day of the week, which includes boxes for am and pm adult lead activity and whole class teacher lead imput. At the bottom of these plans i have a box for each area of the classroom and i write in these child initated activties, that i have observed, they either indicate resources that need getting out or something that i could cover in an adult lead activity.

 

I aslo fill in an evaluation sheet every day of how the day went and this includes my next steps.

 

I spent most of last year changing and playing with my planning until it was mangable. I think planning is a personal thing and you have to do it the way that suits you. I even had the advisers in to help. I think i have it almost sorted, i tend to pre plan the begining of the week and pick up on child initiated by the end of the week other wise you are re-planning. I tend to use a topic to get me started each term and then see where/ what direction the children take it.

 

Hope that helps

Em

[Guest]

Can anyone share their weekly phonics plan please?

 

Also am looking at Islington EYFS planning which looks good - could do with looking at a completed EYFS phonics plan as not sure how it should look from the blank document.

 

Thanks for help!

[Guest]

Can anyone share their weekly phonics plan please?

 

Also am looking at Islington EYFS planning which looks good - could do with looking at a completed EYFS phonics plan as not sure how it should look from the blank document.

 

Thanks for help!

 

I like the look of the islington plans too but I wasn't sure where or if they put learning objectives on their plans?! I like the weekly plan because you can easily see how the planning comes from the observations.

[AnonyMouse_5892]

I also like the Islington weekly plan. I would leave the 6 areas blank at the beginning of the week and fill them in to tie in with the children's interests or needs. With regards to the learning objectives, I will put a letter/number reference after e.g. PSE (SD 6).

 

In addition to the weekly plan, I will create a few more detailed Focus Activity Plans for adult led activities, example: focus_activity_shapes.doc these will outline specific learning objectives. These focus activities will be based on the interests/needs of the previous week's target children.

 

I am planning to enlarge the Islington weekly plan to an A3 document, so there is more space to write things in. On the back, I will have an evaluation chart for each day which will inform the next day's planning.

 

I hope this makes sense!

 

I have a phonics plan for each phase of L&S, here's phase 2 Phase2_1_.doc I didn't follow them religiously as they made each session too long........in my new school I have to teach Jolly Phonics, so they are of no use to me anymore!

 

My medium term plan is quite different to most I have seen. medium_plan_summer_2_2010.doc If you are confused, I can explain!

 

As others are doing, long term plans will be continous provision around the classroom (copies within a folder as recommended by Islington LEA). I might add references to the EYFS themes and principles as well as the 6 areas of learning.

 

I don't have a weekly CLL/PSRN plan, these probably stemmed from the literacy/numeracy hour requirement a few years back. I think they can be incorporated into the general weekly plan.

 

I think the phonics and whole class session planning will go on the weekly plan. Nothing too detailed.

 

That's what I am hoping to do, but it could all change!

 

Emma

[Guest]

I have masses of plans, and all bar two of them my Head has asked me for!

Here they are:

A two year rolling programme for Literacy, Numeracy, RE and Topic - which has the NC links.

A medium term plan for Numeracy

A medium term plan for Literacy

A medium term plan for RE, ICT and TOPIC - with the objectives for each lesson throughout the term

A weekly plan to show how I plan for the different areas of the curriciulm

A weekly plan for phonics

 

And then weekly plans for Literacy and Numeracy (they're mine because thats how I like to plan)

 

I teach Reception and Year 1 - hence the need for NC links.

 

The phonics - i bought some from Nicky Bryne from TES and I love them. I have them for all the phases and they are really easy so both myself, my ta and any supply can follow them without any extra help

 

Emily

[Guest]

I also like the Islington weekly plan. I would leave the 6 areas blank at the beginning of the week and fill them in to tie in with the children's interests or needs. With regards to the learning objectives, I will put a letter/number reference after e.g. PSE (SD 6).

 

In addition to the weekly plan, I will create a few more detailed Focus Activity Plans for adult led activities, example: focus_activity_shapes.doc these will outline specific learning objectives. These focus activities will be based on the interests/needs of the previous week's target children.

 

I am planning to enlarge the Islington weekly plan to an A3 document, so there is more space to write things in. On the back, I will have an evaluation chart for each day which will inform the next day's planning.

 

I hope this makes sense!

 

I have a phonics plan for each phase of L&S, here's phase 2 Phase2_1_.doc I didn't follow them religiously as they made each session too long........in my new school I have to teach Jolly Phonics, so they are of no use to me anymore!

 

My medium term plan is quite different to most I have seen. medium_plan_summer_2_2010.doc If you are confused, I can explain!

 

As others are doing, long term plans will be continous provision around the classroom (copies within a folder as recommended by Islington LEA). I might add references to the EYFS themes and principles as well as the 6 areas of learning.

 

I don't have a weekly CLL/PSRN plan, these probably stemmed from the literacy/numeracy hour requirement a few years back. I think they can be incorporated into the general weekly plan.

 

I think the phonics and whole class session planning will go on the weekly plan. Nothing too detailed.

 

That's what I am hoping to do, but it could all change!

 

Emma

 

 

Hey, thanks for your reply.

 

Just to clarify, with the weekly planning you dont write a learning objective e.g. to recognise 2d shapes, you just write the activity the children are to complete and then the scale point it links to?

 

I like the look of your medium term plan. Could you just explain how it works?

 

Have you written your own long term plans or have you found some on the internet?

 

Thanks

Edited August 25, 2010 by Guest

[AnonyMouse_13789]

Wow, you all seem to do so much. I'm in Reception...

My LTP is the EYFS doc, continuous provision and festivals.

MTP - whatever topic web I do with the children

STP - 2 pages of A4 with my Literacy, phonics, numeracy and topic on - basically everything on it.

 

I can't cope with too much paperwork, I can't see the wood for the trees if I am juggling to many pieces of paper I have to keep it slim.

[Guest]

Hi Rufus,

 

I would love to see your plans if possible? I think that we have way too many sheets of paper and would love to simplify it.

 

Thanks

 

x

[AnonyMouse_13789]

Here is a copy of my planning. Brief plans don't work for everyone but it's whatever works for the individual, that's what I try to get across when I advise to schools.

I have a planning meeting every Wednesday, where we brainstorm and then on friday morning to discuss what I have written for the following week.

week_3_dinosaurs_2010.doc

[AnonyMouse_5892]

Hey, thanks for your reply.

 

Just to clarify, with the weekly planning you dont write a learning objective e.g. to recognise 2d shapes, you just write the activity the children are to complete and then the scale point it links to?

 

I like the look of your medium term plan. Could you just explain how it works?

 

Have you written your own long term plans or have you found some on the internet?

 

Thanks

 

 

This weekly plan is going to be new for me, so will be trial and error at first. I used to write a learning objective (LO) for each of the six areas at the beginning of the week based on the children's overall needs (next steps), then tie the week's activities in with them....however, I found this a bit restricting and would find myself stressing over matching activities to a specific LO (a bit like matching activities to a theme). So my plan will be, initially, to consider the children's interest/needs each day, then think of activities to support these, then match a LO to it. Hence my code for the scale point.

 

A quick change of subject......with regards to scale points, I come from a nursery/pre-school background with no experience of the EYFSP. I moved to reception last school year....I questionned the class teacher (I was training on the GTP) about using the DMs in reception.... she told me that they only focus on the scale points....I thought this ludicrous.....until I got there!!

DMs went out the window (apart from those that were directly linked to the scale points). When we seriously consider it, gathering just one piece of evidence for just 6 scale points in the 13 assessment areas for 30 children: equates to 2340 observations That is 12 observations per day!

 

So if anyone has found the magical way of planning and observing using both the DMs and EYFSP, please do share!

 

Back to the planning subject, the medium term plan I posted was at the end of reception year, so the Focus children & curriculum coverage is where we identify children who were achieving below SP6 then plan to make a conscious effort to observe them with the SP in mind and/or suggest types of activities to support them achieve it.

 

The Daily routines are there as they might change over time, e.g. at the beginning of the school year there would be no guided reading/ whole class PSRN or swimming, but there might be a small group PSE time instead.

 

The Festivals and Events I think are pretty self explanatory, these are things such as whole school special events/ outings/ religious or cultural festivals we would celebrate.

 

Learning Environment/ Changes this is where we have assessed last half term's provision and might make changes to the learning environment based on things such as an area which has not been successful and needs changing or where we might introduce a topic and need to change an area or the children's interests have sparked a new topic where we would develop upon. e.g. a child had brought in some seeds for planting, so we developed a small planting area with tyres in the outdoor area, the MTP sets out the plan to further develop the area.

 

The multi cultural topic was introduced partly because the school was having a multi cultural day, but also because children had low scores on PSE SD 7 & 8.

 

The minibeast topic stemmed from the children's extreme interest in some slugs and in the fact that some were killing insects....so we thought it best to teach the children to respect them!

 

Focus Learning Areas again a review of last term, this is similar to the curriculum coverage, but it focuses more on the gaps found in the planning and observations from the last term and is a general note as to what to focus on in the STP.

 

What I have found is the MTP is a useful tool to refer to, to keep in touch with the overall picture of the progression of the class as a whole because the STP will be very much based on individual children.

 

The long term plans are continuous provision posters found on somewhere on the net, either on this forum or TES resources! I will, however edit and change them to make them my own.

 

I find this works for me so far.......the only pieces of paper I will have are: Long term provision posters for each area of the class, a MTP each half term (A3 sheet), a STP each week (A3 sheet) and Focus activity plans (2 A4 sheets a week), I'm not sure whether I will be required to have separate Phonics planning...I hope not!

 

And that's another lengthy post from me....I hope I haven't confused everyone too much.

 

Emma

[AnonyMouse_25084]

ok so I don't agree that development matters go out of the windows in reception - we should be using the development matters to plan from, children still working in scale points 1-3 will still need planning from the 30-50 months and emerging into 40-60 months, once children are achieving points 4-8 they are now working within the ELGs so will then be working within 40-60 months development matters and these are generally the same as the scale points. The EYFSP scale points are for assessment purposes not planning - although the ELGs are the same. Remember that you don't necessarily need to have written evidence of every scale point. If you are referencing your obs to scale points you'll begin to see gaps for particular children and can focus on them during obs.

 

I also plan activities suited to particular needs/interests and then find a LO to match it. However, I still ensure coverage. I analyse my profiles every half term so if there a particular weakness/gap in the class then I would plan specificially to that scale point or enhance my provision accordingly.

 

Hope that makes sense. x

[AnonyMouse_5892]

Thanks for that KST. It does make sense.

 

I didn't want the DMs to go out the window, but when it came to the reality of planning and assessing and the constant pressures of the LEA asking where our children were on the EYFSP (every term), it got to the point where planning and assessments were purely based on the SPs. This wasn't ideal for me, I just got convinced that it was the ideal!

 

I was told that you cannot give a scale point without any written evidence...in other words if I say a child has achieved a scale point and a moderator asks for evidence, it's not good enough to say 'well I just know from observing'.

 

However, I can now see that planning can still come from the DMs and observations from these can be used as evidence for the SPs. So, I think I will go back to using DMs for planning and work it out from there.

 

Sorry to change the original subject of this thread.....just needed to make sense of the pressures and problems of working with both the DMs and the EYFSP, which don't always run smoothly together....I think I shall go and re-read the EYFSP handbook again

[AnonyMouse_25084]

yes millhill I agree it can be a bit overwhelming at first but i'm sure you'll find a system that works for you. Whilst I always try to ensure I have written evidence of all scale points, I'm pretty sure that during moderation it is ok to say you know the child can do something if you can orally refer to specific examples - maybe someone will clarify. x