Guest Posted July 19, 2012 Posted July 19, 2012 Hi-i'm new to Reception starting 2012 and was wondering what do people put in their learning journeys? The current reception teacher only does long observations of the children and puts work in separate folders. Here is what I am thinking of including: A page of information completed at home by parents called All About Me-to include children's interests, families, likes, dislikes etc. Then any short observations, photo evidence, lengthier observations and any indepedent work completed by the child. In other words a portfolio of what the child has done over the year. At the beginning of each term I want to include a summary of where the child is up to in relation to Development Matters. Any advice on Learning Journeys and examples will be much appreciated.
Guest Posted July 19, 2012 Posted July 19, 2012 Our learning journeys are called wow books and they're scrap book type books. Everything that is child initiated is put in there so photos, work samples, short obs, long obs we also put milestone type things in there so a photo of first day at school, writing their name at the start of the year, photo of them in a costume for world book day, Xmas play etc. they are a massive undertaking ( and the bane of my life) and you need systems in place to make sure that you don't get behind with them. I have filing boxes with a section for each child and at the end of each day or as we go we put evidence directly in each Section. I had a gran this year who glued in everything each week to all 30 books. I took them all home every fortnight and annotated the lot and used them to plan next steps and work out what evidence we needed to collect. We have bought in the scrapbooks to do again this year but we will be using target tracker so I think that our learning journeys will move towards being more electronic as we can apparently upload obs and photos done on iPad and link to DM and then the parent will receive a file on a disc at the end of the year.
Guest Posted July 20, 2012 Posted July 20, 2012 Our reception class use A4 folders and poly pockets to house the learning journey evidence in. They would put in all of the above that swilde1977 mentions but they include (as do we in nursery) lots of photographs. This is for several reasons. One is so that the child can access and enjoy their learning journey One is so that the parents with EAL can also enjoy the children's books and Then because sometimes a photograph really can say more than a thousand words. No one member of staff has to do all of the books, the staff do the books for their key children.
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted July 20, 2012 Posted July 20, 2012 Hi Swilde1977, welcome to The Forum. We use poly pockets in ring binders for all the child's artwork, photographs, bus tickets, twigs etc - in fact anything they want in there! We encourage parents to bring in pictures from home of friends and family too, so it's a good resource for chatting - and occasionally for recognising Aunty Sue when she comes to collect Jimmy! Key staff have their colour group folders which contain long obs and progress monitoring tools, and these go into the file when the child leaves. We keep them separate so we can lock that information away - there are other key holders to our building and we like to maintain security with children's information. The children's files are in their trays so that they, and family, can access them at any time they wish. Having the developmental paperwork separate also means that it's easier to find when it's needed, rather than flicking through a folder of other things. I think it's possibly about making a system that works for you, and not making a rod for your own back, as others have found. Keep it workable!
Guest Posted July 20, 2012 Posted July 20, 2012 (edited) on look at me i also ask for favourite song/story/tv program to use at daily rhyme time or story time and tv program is good for finding out interests. a quiet boy this year loves doctor who, so this was very useful to know. except when he asked me to make him a tardis from metal which is bigger on the inside............!!!!!! we are nursery by the way. we also put as posts above. we use A4 folder and add work cumulatively, jotting areas covered on it, as one post-it/annotated photo covers 2 or more areas. we then tick and date on tracker below, so we can ensure all areas/aspects are observes enough and none much more than others. as each staff member should be a key worker, they are responsible for their own children's folders. we each lay out folders and pop work on top, then add as and when. preferably within a week so that we are keeping up with interests and achievements and can use to plan in activities to move children on using this info. we sit and add things in as children play sometimes, as it's nice for them to remember what they've done, and they usually ask can they have a look after and lie on floor showing friends. ah!! my staff are all paid for half an hour after the session, so we really use this time as much as we can, and no one takes stuff home. the job is tiring enough without that!! LJ tracker portrait.docx Edited July 20, 2012 by sooty99
Guest Posted July 20, 2012 Posted July 20, 2012 We put everything the children have done indepedently when working in the areas. This includes post it notes for observations, long observations, photographs and work. It then creates a portfolio of what the child has done throughout the year. We put these into presentation books that are colour coded for each term - pink for on entry, ornage for autumn, green for spring and yellow for summer. The photographs we download straight onto the computer into a wor document with an explanation of what the children have been doing then print this out every term. We find this much easier than printing them out, cutting them up, sticking them in and annotating them.
Guest Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 do you only put in CI work then or would you also put in any guided writing or adult led work?
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 I put in anything that children do. So this could be something tied to a current project, so for example, we might be enjoying 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' and I have asked children to paint me a picture of a bear, that would go in when it comes down from the wall display.
Guest Posted July 21, 2012 Posted July 21, 2012 Learning journeys are wonderful, children can reflect on their own learning & discuss with their peers what they have done. In my setting a lovely child got out her learning journey when the ofsted inspector came and discussed what she was doing in the photographs = parents had also added their observations and photogrpahs as well. Why not add all information and send home to parents to add their story from home. We do this and it works OK, but parents can also write comments on post its and put in a WOW box in class to add to add to learing journeys if you dont want to send the home. New EYFS wants to see a stronger partnership with parents so worth thinking about.
Guest Posted July 22, 2012 Posted July 22, 2012 A HUGE thank you to everyone who has replied to my post. You have all confirmed what I thought needs to go in-from post it obs to long obs; from photos to paintings; from child initiated work to work from home. Why this teacher only put lengthier obs in I don't know. The only prob is the school have ordered my A3 ring binders as they thought I would be carrying on the same system as the current teacher so I'll have to find some way of working with them-perhaps stick the photos etc to coloured paper and then put into poly pockets???-but then this won't be very cost effective!!! I like Bow 691 idea of a different workbook for each term including on entry. The whole organisation, up keep of them and where to file the obs and work before they get transferred into the journeys will need looking at so it becomes manageable-there is only myself and a TA (who doesn't work Fri pm!) I like the idea of box files. Thanks again everyone. PS: Busybeedeb-let me know how the electronic version works out for you because I like the sound of that-I've read somewhere parents can access it home too-as a working parent I would like this as I rarely get to pick my daughter up and therefore haven't had the opportunity to see her learning journey.
Guest Posted July 22, 2012 Posted July 22, 2012 A HUGE thank you to everyone who has replied to my post. You have all confirmed what I thought needs to go in-from post it obs to long obs; from photos to paintings; from child initiated work to work from home. Why this teacher only put lengthier obs in I don't know. The only prob is the school have ordered my A3 ring binders as they thought I would be carrying on the same system as the current teacher so I'll have to find some way of working with them-perhaps stick the photos etc to coloured paper and then put into poly pockets???-but then this won't be very cost effective!!! I like Bow 691 idea of a different workbook for each term including on entry. The whole organisation, up keep of them and where to file the obs and work before they get transferred into the journeys will need looking at so it becomes manageable-there is only myself and a TA (who doesn't work Fri pm!) I like the idea of box files. Thanks again everyone. PS: Busybeedeb-let me know how the electronic version works out for you because I like the sound of that-I've read somewhere parents can access it home too-as a working parent I would like this as I rarely get to pick my daughter up and therefore haven't had the opportunity to see her learning journey.
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