Guest Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Apparently it is "a waste of time, spending an hour outside just getting cold in winter and sun stroke in summer". Well maybe if you got off your a$*e and actually interacted with the children, taking your hands out of your pockets in the process and utilised the training that I sent you on about facilitating children's learning through play instead of sitting / standing about doing sweet all you might not realise you've even been out there for an hour and realise that it is an enjoyable and extremely worthwhile aspect of your job! Rant over!!! Thanks for listening! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Apparently it is "a waste of time, spending an hour outside just getting cold in winter and sun stroke in summer". Well maybe if you got off your a$*e and actually interacted with the children, taking your hands out of your pockets in the process and utilised the training that I sent you on about facilitating children's learning through play instead of sitting / standing about doing sweet all you might not realise you've even been out there for an hour and realise that it is an enjoyable and extremely worthwhile aspect of your job! Rant over!!! Thanks for listening! Couldn't have said it better myself, I wouldn't mind but I seriously enjoy any oppotunity to get out of the sodding office and engage with the children outside. Maybe the 'team members' you've described need a week in managers shoes to really appreciate the oppotunity they have x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Not as much of a waste of time as signing on, I would have thought... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_19920 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 were you talking about some of my staff lol x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 No doubt I'm talking about a lot of people's staff, which is a sad thing to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Our staff have really got into it - the key was giving the person who least loved the idea the responsibility of setting up the outdoor area, she has taken this on with a vengeance. At our setting the parents are often the problem. I got a set of waterproof trousers the other day for staff to use, and a parent on the committee started moaning about how 'their coats are wet all day when you force them outside for two hours in the rain so we should buy a set of coats as well'. I could see my leader about to spit blood! This parent had clearly not understood the notion of 'choice'! (nor the use of radiators!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Well said, Laila. This has been a problem area with a coiuple of our staff but things have improved. I think the main reason for this was that about a month ago we had to fail a student on placement and this very issue was one of the reasons for her failure. I think this made our staff members sit up and take notice much more than the manager or supervisor having to tell them to interact more outdoors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_11396 Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 That did make me chuckle but seriously it really is no laughing matter. I think this should certainly be in bold print in all our job descriptions, but saying that i am fortunate that these staff are most definetly outnumbered in our setting so they stand out like a sore thumb. Now where are those appraisal forms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 It has sparked me to go to our head and ask about TA performance management. Not been done before but is on the cards. Sooner rather than later I hope! I wouldn't be quite so annoyed but I persuaded the head to let me send the worst offenders on a Play Partners course in the Autumn Term and after it they were all 'I can't wait to get back to school and do this.....blah, blah, blah!' Even had a department staff meeting with the speech therapist who said that the best way to develop young children's language is through play and still they block it out and think that it would be better for them to spend all day, every day doing language groups with small groups of children. How motivating for the children! Sitting in a withdrawal room colouring in a picture of Ginger Bear and not even being allowed to choose the colour they use for its clothes! Argh...long battle ahead! Love the idea of getting a student in so they can actually see what it takes to pass a course to become qualified to work with children in the 21st century! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_73 Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Hi Laila, I can see this is something you are finidng frustrating, many of us have been there at some point, and change can be harder for some people than it is for others. One of the challaneges of working in a school system is that TAs are often employed to work across the school, and have the same contracts, and therfore find it hard to (for example)go outside when maybe their colleagues dont have to. It can add to this challenege if as you said there is no performance managemnet in place and chances are, you dont actually line manage your staff. It can add to the challenge even further if the TAs are new to nursery and are being asked to do things they have never done before. (other examples may be learning diaries, planning, key person duties). If this is the case, they may then not have in depth knowledge of he EYFS, and maybe this is at the heart of the problem? Many many staff may still consider outdoors to be 'playtime' ...that 20 min slot on the timetable where they run round and let off steam. Many members here have talked about how they have managed to 'win their colleagues' around, and Im sure they will be able to give you some ideas for you to try. For example, could you reduce the time any one person stays outside at any one time, in order to build up their stamina? Or coud you have a rota for setting up outdoors so that everyone shares that responsibiity say on a different day..they then take responsibility for what is available? Im sure others will have other ideas too good luck with it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_11485 Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 In school, I have found it to be really key, in showing the genuine value of outdoor learning, to make sure the teachers spend equal amounts of time outside as the TAs. This gives the outdoors the same status as indoors - the status it deserves. This also gives good modelling of what working outside should look like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_2732 Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 I have to step in here and say that as a setting our outside time is well valued - we are full daycare and staff we train are given the clear message that 'outdoors' is another room, with all areas and resources covered. We get the children outside as much as possible, focus activities are planned and the weather has to be pretty bad to keep us in! Sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 In school, I have found it to be really key, in showing the genuine value of outdoor learning, to make sure the teachers spend equal amounts of time outside as the TAs. This gives the outdoors the same status as indoors - the status it deserves. This also gives good modelling of what working outside should look like. We (myself and my teacher partner) do spend as much time outside as we expect the NNs and TAs too, I made sure that when I compiled the rota that every member of staff had the same number of outside slots as each other. We are modelling as much as we can do, they've had the opportunity to go on 'play partner' training which used some fantastic metaphors for the expectations of being a good and not so good play partner. But still the moans go on... I don't know what else to do! Especially as its not just that aspect of their practice that is the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Hi Laila, I can see this is something you are finidng frustrating, many of us have been there at some point, and change can be harder for some people than it is for others. One of the challaneges of working in a school system is that TAs are often employed to work across the school, and have the same contracts, and therfore find it hard to (for example)go outside when maybe their colleagues dont have to. It can add to this challenege if as you said there is no performance managemnet in place and chances are, you dont actually line manage your staff. It can add to the challenge even further if the TAs are new to nursery and are being asked to do things they have never done before. (other examples may be learning diaries, planning, key person duties). If this is the case, they may then not have in depth knowledge of he EYFS, and maybe this is at the heart of the problem? Many many staff may still consider outdoors to be 'playtime' ...that 20 min slot on the timetable where they run round and let off steam. Many members here have talked about how they have managed to 'win their colleagues' around, and Im sure they will be able to give you some ideas for you to try. For example, could you reduce the time any one person stays outside at any one time, in order to build up their stamina? Or coud you have a rota for setting up outdoors so that everyone shares that responsibiity say on a different day..they then take responsibility for what is available? Im sure others will have other ideas too good luck with it Thanks for the reply. I wish they were new to this age group at least then I'd be starting from scratch and they might be more open to new ideas, but they aren't, new or open that is. They've been working with this age group for years and as far as they are concerned whatever we (that's me - new coordinator and the other F2 teacher who is new to this age group) do is never going to be as good as what it used to be. On the point of time outside, I have split the morning free-flow session into 2 x 55 minute sessions, which is not, I feel, an unreasonable amount of time to spend outside. I feel that if I split the morning anymore there would be no consistency for the children. You'd just start getting involved in the children's play and it would be time to stop again. I think I may try the idea of getting them to set up a specific aspect of the outdoors to see if that makes any difference. I'm sure then they'll just moan about extra work, but it's worth a try! Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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