AnonyMouse_4869 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Hi, I just wanted to run this by you all, as we are due ofsted and being moderated this year. The children are very settled with this routine,but i have questioned it since having two new children start in the past two weeks and dont seem to be any where near able to do what the majority of my class are doing. 8:55 - 9:20 come in self register then collective worship in class or whole school. 9:20 - 10:20 - adult input whole class, adult directed activities and phonics in 2 groups. 10:20 - 10:45 - fruit and school playtime. 10:45 - 11:45 - adut whole class input and adult directed activities. 11:45 - 1:00 wash hands, story and lunch time. 1 - 1:20 adult input whole class 1:20 - 2:30 CIP (during this time both me and TA spend time with the children in the environment. 2:30 - 2:45 quiet activities - to incorporate guided reading (2 groups per day) 2:45- 3:05 story, and getting ready for home. Im currently running rolling activities monday to wednesday for directed activities, then thursday and friday myself and TA work with small groups on 'focussed activities', which are things that we have identified from previous weeks planning as needing reinforcing, might be phonics or number or anything that has cropped up. Like I say the children i have had since september have worked up to this level of directed time and can stay engaged with a task ,but having these new children in has made me question my practice, they have come from different schools not too far away and moved through parental choice but they seem like they have done nothing in their time in reception and i'm wondering if my practice is very different to others? although head is quite happy with it. I am open to harsh criticism lol! PS if anyone is teaching reception in a catholic school how much time do you spend on RE? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 You seem to be spending the bulk of your time on adult directed activities. The foundation stage profile assessments should be based on 80% child intitiated activities. How will do this based on your current time split? You should think about giving the children more space to use the concepts you are trying to teach them and allowing them to show you want they can do unsupported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_79 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 But if your children are copimg and attainment is good re your new comers and appropriate, I would be worried about tweaking too much and going backwards. what do your children do when they are not engaged with you in whole class inputs or adult directed activities? You may actually have some CI time there that you are not accounting for? Can you move your guided reading to another time to free up some more afternoon? Remember that you do need to do some teaching, so many children are loosing this input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4869 Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 I don't understand - ''Remember that you do need to do some teaching, so many children are loosing this input'' sorry Susan do you mean don't take the teaching out or am i not doing enough? think i have my wording wrong. it should read 'adult initiated' , (where i have put adult directed) this might be a challenge in the construction or playing a game or using the role play -i direct some children to places that thye don't access during CIP, the children do these independently for about 10/15mins then go on to child initiated. me and TA are directing a group in this time so the children have unsupported cip when they have finished their given activity. whereas in the afternoon our time is spent completely with them. i know that the old teacher used to pull groups all day and not spend time with the children in the environment so i am kinda encouraging the TA to do this as she isnt used to it and wants to stand about with a clipboard. attainment is good. its just these new children seem to think its ok to get up and wander off from the carpet or leave an adult led activity after 2 seconds, which is not how we work and just wondered what others expectations were. i am trying to have a balance of adult led/adult initated/child initiated within the day. My obs in profile books are majority from child initiated, i refuse to write down every little thing just because it is happening, i only write down or photograph things that i didn't know a child could do or that i want to expand on/develop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_73 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Hi Lucie, I would also say that your day looks very adult directed with what looks like just an hour of free play and always in the afternoon, when children are more likely to be more tired. It might depend a lot on what is happening in those morning slots, as presumably, you aren't with the whole group all of that time? (or are you expecting them to do a set activity even if they are not working with an adult..which is a much more KS 1 approach) Androyd makes a good point about evidence for the profile coming from 80% CI, this will be difficult to achieve with just that one slot each day, and making it always in the afternoons when children are less fresh, could suggest that it's less important than direct teaching when actually, enabling children to demonstrate their skills in play is often where you really see that learning is taking place. Dont get me wrong, Susan is also right in that you do need to do some teaching, but personally I would make it more of a balance, and this could explain why your new children are finding the structure hard. But, the other issue to consider is that you know your children best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4869 Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 Thanks Mundia, thats helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_73 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 sorry our posts crossed and you'd answered my questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 hi just to stay we are timetabled here 1 hour a week of RE ( Here I am) a week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_3307 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 Can I just correct - the balance of evidence for EYFSP is 80:20 Independent application vs adult directed activity outcomes, coming from a curriculum offer that is a balance (50:50) of AI/CI activity. Cx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4869 Posted February 21, 2011 Author Share Posted February 21, 2011 rebeccas mum - i was told i had to do 10% of the week on RE - also here i am - but im struggling so much to fit it in and therefore am neglecting other areas of the curriculum. how do you use your time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 rebeccas mum - i was told i had to do 10% of the week on RE - also here i am - but im struggling so much to fit it in and therefore am neglecting other areas of the curriculum. how do you use your time? Hmmm In a Catholic School - supposed to do 2hrs 10 mins a week (not counting whole school assembly, key stage assembly, celebrations assembly and collective prayer and worship). Have to say that I can't fit this in - not that I don't think it's important - but already struggle with daily phonics, guided reading, pushing my higher ability group to get Point 9 by doing 10-15 mins a day on guided writing (school issue in writing and personal target for my Performance Management) and having free flow ... not to mention giving equal weighting to all areas of learning! I think that if I'm covering all the things I'm supposed to in the syllabus ... plus so much of RE in reception is about PHSE and valuing others, with Jesus as the model ... that I'm doing the best I can. And although assemblies etc aren't supposed to count towards the time, they're getting extra teaching so why not! Of course, if we were being inspected for RE my timetable would probably show more RE sessions (SORRY I know this is lying!) Don't know how else I can possibly fit things in. PLEASE don't tell anyone (wish I could add this post anonymously) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LornaW Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Got me thinking too so did a little detective work and found this interesting document http://www.cesew.org.uk/uploads/documents/index.html a little old I think but none the less interesting! Lorna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_25084 Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I think your day sounds a little adult driven as you have adult initiated activities happening in the morning when the others are doing group activities. I would consider making this child initiated time, but obviously enhance the provision with things and suggest children use them. Have you thought about having a rolling snack bar and no playtimes if you are able to do free flow as it gives children longer to engage in child intitiated learning. I tried to work my morning with my TA and I both doing adult led activities but didn't feel it worked as well so now I have gone back to having 1 adult work with a group and 1 adult support play and make obs. the children are called to their activity. I keep my cartpet sessions short but my children are expected to stay on the carpet. And they are expected to stay with the group task for 20 minutes or so, unless they have SEN and struggle with focus, then I do a couple of shorter bursts. As you say, your class have gradually built up to this so they are able to cope, but other children may find this shock if their previous school was less structured. It may be that your new children are stuggling with the change in general and may settle into this, but as long as you offer a balance of adult led and child intitated learning then you're doing the right thing. can't help on RE front as not a church school, I'm lucky and just cover RE through festivals that occur throughout the year. K x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 As our ofsted is imminent (already??) I am being encouraged by my early years consultant to change to an hour CI play, supported by myself and my TA for an hour each day after registration time. We have stopped going to assembly 3 days, only attending celebration assembly on friday and being part of small family group assembly on a thursday ( years 6 to reception split into a family with class teachers). We still have playtime with KS 1 as that is our access to climbing equipment. She then suggests another whole class session followed by small group time where one of us 'teaches' a group of about 6 and the other adult teaches by supporting play with the other 24. Similar format in the afternoon - whole class then one adult with groups, the other supporting and extending play. Going to experiment when we go back - will find it very scary allowing that much CI time. On paper it is a much better balance than I currently have though. But when will we 'hear the readers'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4869 Posted February 22, 2011 Author Share Posted February 22, 2011 lri, i like the sound of that. i don't think I want to upskittle everyones routine this far into the year with regard to changing my 'full' cip time to the morning. so instead i will ease off the directed time in the am slots, have 1 adult working with a group and the other supporting play. then in sep i will do cip in the am with my new class as i can see your point about it seeming like it has less value (although actually it is my favourite time of the day and the time when i feel that the children progress the most) not sure what my head will say - will just have to make sure that my standards don't drop. thanks everyone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Hmmmmm this is really interesting. I've been looking at my timetable (not sure I like that word as it sounds so rigid!) as I need to incorporate some guided reading - until now we've been doing individual reading - and had thought having our adult focus activities would be best first thing, with CI learning in the afternoons - but perhaps I should consider doing it the other way round.....?! Oooh food for thought!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_73 Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Its always interesting when these threads come up because as reflective practitioners, it does make us stop and think.. do we do this well, can we make this better, why do we do it this way? etc etc. Its always been one of my little quirks if you like that if you adult direct in the mornings (usually the reason given for this is that the children are fresher and more able to concentrate), is that actually because its more important to you? Its almost like the 'you can play when you've done your proper work' syndrome, and I think Ive probably batted against that one and so have always spread my CI times across the day and across the week. Imsure we have members who remember Friday afternoon's 'golden times' when chidlren could play, and gosh, even bring in toys from home? Likewise, I never liked tying all adults down to adult led activities and leaving the rest of the class to themselves, again I always felt the message of this was 'working with an adult on their agenda is more important than the childrens' play' (as well as taking away time to observe, support enhance and engage with that play). Of course it didn't help when after my last OFSTED my headteacher said 'Ive always thought playing with the children was a waste of an adult', so it was a bit of an ongoing battle. AT the end of the day, we think about what we do and why, maybe we don't change it, maybe we do, but always good to bring it round for discussion from time to time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 See I spend ages (probably far too much time!!) fiddling around with possible daily routines (and planning formats, etc.... )!!! Very interesting point, mundia, about the adult directed mornings being seen as 'more important' than child led ..... I hadn't thought of it like that. I'd switched some while ago to giving children not working with an adult during adult directed time set activities to do independently as I was finding it tricky to keep an ear/eye on CI play as well as adult activities - and wanted both adults available for CI play - let's face it, it's fun!! I've come up with the following - if anyone has any thoughts please feel free to share. I find that phonics, PE, etc, take up so much time there's no time left for anything else! So on Mon and Tues when we have PE, I've not added in too much extra (I don't think) in the way of adult activities - to try and make sure they have some of adult and some of CI each day ..... oh I don't know!! The colour coding is to make it easy for me to see certain activity types. Oh and where guided reading says '3 with adult, 1 independent' - the independent will be some kind of phonics type or book activity they can do without an adult. Anyway..... Timtetable_Spring_2_2011.docx x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I have lost count of how many times we have changed our timetable this school year in order to 'fit everything in'. We are a 2 form entry with a nursery. In reception at the moment we have adult directed activities with one adult, 1 group of children outdoors and 1 group accessing provision independently (child initiated) and rotate the groups. This is done in the mornings, in the afternoons we cover K&U, RE (Catholic school), Creative. celebration assembly (FS only) and golden time (children choose which resources they would like). It never runs like clockwork. I have spent the whole of this morning trying to plan for Pancake Tuesday - fitting it in to introduce Lent, attend a review and cover PPA and thats just one day. I hope this little bit of info helps - it has certainly helped me reading everyone else's comments. Keep up the good work FS practitioners - we make it look easy hence such negative comments about 'just playing'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LornaW Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 We used to have Golden Time but realsied after a while that with two good sessions a day of CI we didn't need Golden Time and the children never even missed it!!! At CI time I would never have a focussed group I see that time as a time for both adults to play with the children scaffolding and talking with them - they learn just as much and then those doing focussed work don't keep looking over their shoulder wanting to be doing CI. Lorna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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