AnonyMouse_25084 Posted May 23, 2011 Posted May 23, 2011 Hi all, I'm sorry if this a daft question but I am thinking about September already, as being moved to year 2 from foundation stage so big chance. My school has been very QCA led in the past which is just not my cup of tea. I want to continue a creative curriculum much like foundation stage. Just wondered what you put on your long term plan - my school currently have the QCA unit names - should I replace this with objectives from national curriculum or be briefer? Thanks!
Guest tinkerbell Posted May 23, 2011 Posted May 23, 2011 You sound to be excited and good look in your move to year2. As far as long term planning I think you should discuss this with the rest of the staff as each year group will have to 'cover' certain areas and objectives,once you know this you will be able to put your 'creative'spin on it. Tinkerbell
AnonyMouse_25084 Posted May 23, 2011 Author Posted May 23, 2011 I have been told what I need to cover - well in terms of QCA units! I have been told I need to cover e.g. Science - electricty, materials, History - Great Fire of London, Geography - contrasting locations, seaside and town etc etc. I plan on looking for the best fit to link them into a topic, just wasn't sure if I should replace the QCA unit names with something else as I won't be using them. Hope that makes sense. Yes I'm very excited about the move (very nervous too!!) I don't do long term planning for EYFS, I go with children's interests so planning a year in advance like this feel quite mind blowing and some what restrictive. But my head wants me to shake things up a bit so i have been given the go ahead to make it more creative.
Guest Posted May 24, 2011 Posted May 24, 2011 I think what you need to do is go back to the original national curriculum document and have a good read of that and take it back to the objectives that you have to teach. What you will find is that if you strip away QCA and look at the objectives, then you will see that you have much more freedom. We use the Chris Quigly skills for a creative curriculum and that gives us even more freedom. My favourite topic in Y2 was 'yummy chocolate!' the literacy was inspired by charlie and the chocolate facory and all my DT (designing packaging for chocs) Science (changing materials) and Geography (Ghana) and art came from that topic the children loved it-as did I! As I was new into Y2 last year I paid a small fee to the hamilton trust (save our sundays) which has amazing ideas for cross curricular topics and on there you can track the objectives over the year to make sure that you have covered everything. In the summer term I did do seaside holidays in the past and called it 'I do like to be beside the seaside' but put an edwardian spin on it. I used the edwardian country lady diary as a starting point for us to observe, draw and classify minibeasts. Because we are so far away from the seaside we had an Edwardian seaside day where we pretended to be going to the sea. We all dressed up, had a punch and judy show, promenaded around the school making small talk about the weather in posh voices. We played the games like they would have played on the beach in Edwardian times. We paired each boy with a girl and they had to pull out their chair for their lady and open doors for them all day and call them maam (they loved it!) The day ended with us all taking high tea (which they had made earlier in the day) all with cups and saucers and little fingers stuck out. They learned far more about what it was like in Edwardian times this way than completing worksheet after worksheet from QCA. The D and T for that term was designing and making puppets and I had linked in with literacy-playscripts. When I first began teaching we would chop up copies of the NC and move around the bits of paper to see what went with what and I think that's a really good way of refreshing how things are taught by putting objectives together from different subjects that wouldn't normally be put together and seeing what that topics come from this. good luck! am sure you will come up with some fab ideas Deb
AnonyMouse_25084 Posted May 24, 2011 Author Posted May 24, 2011 Thanks Deb - really useful post. Thank you so much for sharing your ideas. I agree that if you look at the NC then it feel much freer. I may well print out all the objectives and put them together. I really like both your topic ideas. I'm excited about doing one on castles! Actually you've got me really inspired now - it'll be fun to really get my teeth into a topic and go into more depth than I do in reception. x
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