Helen Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 Hello Johnoy, I hope Jen is able to get the documents to you. If for some reason that's not possible, over the next couple of days, we will be adding to the site downloadable lists of stepping stones which can be printed, laminated and stuck on the walls around your setting, to remind all members of staff what the children are working towards. It will be in the "Gateway to members' documents" section. Hope this helps
Guest Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 Hi Helen, These lists of stepping stones documents sound great, can't wait for them so that I can print some off and laminate them - brilliant!
Guest Posted April 25, 2003 Posted April 25, 2003 Thanks Helen .I havent come across The section you mentioned-Gateways to members.Also ive been looking at the profile and find that many statements dont match the stepping stnes?
Steve Posted April 28, 2003 Posted April 28, 2003 Hi Johnoy - The Gateway forum is just our clumsy way of restricting donated articles and suchlike stuff (policies, observations etc) to members. Since members donate them we feel that they should know who is looking at them We've only put the policies in there at the moment. You can find the page here. Regards, Steve. PS - I saw your post about cornflour and water. That's my favourite stuff!
Steve Posted May 1, 2003 Posted May 1, 2003 Hi Johnoy - A link to the Stepping Stones documents are available here. You need to be logged in as a member to get access to it, as we previously explained. Hope they help. Regards, Steve.
Guest Posted May 1, 2003 Posted May 1, 2003 hi I'm and NQT who is beginning to panic just slightly over the profiles. We have only just received them and all of us (3 reception techers) are at a loss as to getting all this observation done and/or recording it /filling in the profile etc. I would love any practical advice on doing thisthis as some people seem to have almost completed their profile's . I've heard post its? and laminated pages? Our head of early years is really panicking , she had a non-contact day today and tried to get a handle on it and is now really fed up + we are also due to be ofsted inspected this term!
Helen Posted May 1, 2003 Posted May 1, 2003 Hi Carol, and welcome to the site. I'm sorry you're under so much pressure this term To try and calm you and colleagues down, here's a few points: 1. All moderators (and I'm one of them!) should appreciate that, far from this being a pilot year for profiles, it has turned into virtually a pilot month, so teachers cannot realistically be expected to complete the profiles in as detailed a fashion as if they had had three terms. 2. Although records have to be kept on all children in your class, there is no legal obligation to complete the profiles in order to show the children's attainments. What recording do you do at the moment? Can it be used to transfer some of the information onto the profiles, so that you feel you are not starting from a completely blank document? 3. How do you do your observations/assessments of your children? Have a look at the previous conversations on this site; you'll find other practitioners have talked about how they do it. Get back to us, and we'll do all we can to help
Helen Posted May 1, 2003 Posted May 1, 2003 Hi Johnoy, You're right; lots of the statements do not match the stepping stones...whose brilliant idea was that then?!! I understand the QCA will be/ are currently inviting comments on the completion of the profiles on their website. Don't all rush at once..... Seriously, though, it seems ludicrous that practitioners have to teach to the stepping stones, then observe and assess according to different criteria, or at least differently-worded criteria.
Steve Posted May 1, 2003 Posted May 1, 2003 Hi Carolp - Welcome in, and thanks for posting. In addition to Helen's advice, we put some stepping stones documentation up recently. They're basically an alternative to the post it notes, which list all the stepping stones on an A4 sized bit of paper - you can then stick them up on walls, and scribble on them as you observe relevant behaviour, or you can carry them round with you during more formal observations. You can even laminate them if you want As a member you're welcome to download them from this link. Regards, Steve PS - Don't panic, and invite your fellow reception teachers to join us
Guest Posted May 3, 2003 Posted May 3, 2003 Hi there everybody,well it seems that we wont have to start the profiles until next year as various members of staff have problems with planning and anything new in general (also we are in Spain) ,so its great that we can take things slowly and also ive heard that ammendments may be made to the profiles! I hope to use this incoming year to improve and coordinate our methods of observation/recording and assessment-which are all huge areas!But until now each teacher has been doing their own thing and it needs to be more consistent..Laminating the stepping stones seems to be a good start and perhaps highlighting certain areas to look at each day? Good luck to all invloved
Helen Posted May 7, 2003 Posted May 7, 2003 Hi Johnoy, What kind of school are you working in? It would be interesting for all of us to find out about work in different settings The stepping stones are available on the site for you to print out and laminate as you wish. Hope they're useful.
Guest Posted May 8, 2003 Posted May 8, 2003 Hi there Helen, Well its a British school with 90 percent Spanish intake.We follow the National Curriculum,Early learning Goals ,Literacy/Numeracy Strategies etc,depending on the age you teach.I teach Reception and love every minute but have no non-contact time .There are 26 children in each class with an assistent,but i have 20 on my own most of the time ,which is ok this year as they are a great class,but as usual its difficult to do everything.Id like to improve our observation and assessment methods for next year in preparation for the profiles ,which we will be looking at but not carrying out until next year!Thank God! Id like to hear a bit more about your Nursery setting. Byeeee
Guest Posted May 10, 2003 Posted May 10, 2003 Hi again Helen Just been looking at you website fiddlesticks.Its great -i really like the way its laid out and the colours -I think working with children must rub off on us .Also its nice to see who im talking to!! Johnboy
Guest Posted May 12, 2003 Posted May 12, 2003 Hi, this is my fiist time on your message board and unfortunately I have bad news for the voluntary sector, i.e. playgroups etc. the Foundation Stage Profiles are statutory if you recieve funding for childrn through the Nursery grant. It is however only for those children in their final year of the Foundation Stage i.e. either those who will be five before the 31st August 2003 for this year and next year profiles will need to be started by all providers who have children who are already 4years old on 1st September 2003. Each September the next cohorrt of children will be started on the profile i.e. all children already 4 again. Many settings will only be required to complete one or two terms of the profile and it can be used to replace transfer records. However if you have children in your setting until they are five you will be required to complete and make returns to the LEA for those children. I hope this is clearer for you I am a Early years development teacherand Area SENCo working in the private and voluntary sector in Reading and delivering the training for both reception teachers and P&V practitioners.
Helen Posted May 12, 2003 Posted May 12, 2003 Hello Sara, welcome to the site and thank you for your first posting Your point about the profiles being statutory for voluntary sector groups is an interesting one, although of course most children reaching the end of the foundation stage will be in reception classes and not playgroups, pre-schools or nurseries. The confusion about obligation to complete the profiles is ongoing, isn't it? The handbook states, "Whether or not the profile is used throughout the year, assessments against the scales it includes should be finalised during the summer term, summarising each child's development at that point". Transfer of data (ie individual pupils' summary scale scores)to the LEA is then made electronically. It still isn't clear from this that the profiles have to be completed; just that the results/scores have to be made available to the LEA. There are still teachers in our part of the country who have not yet received the profiles, so they clearly are in a difficult position
Helen Posted May 12, 2003 Posted May 12, 2003 Hi Johnboy, I just knew there was a 'b' missing! Thanks for your comments about the nursery site; Steve and I have really neglected it over the last few months (I wonder why?- What else could have taken up all our time..!) I am now newly enthused to revamp the nursery site, particularly the info. to parents about the curriculum, typical nursery activities, photos, etc. Steve thought at some time in the future it would be great to add video clips of the children doing music and movement, etc. That's project number 473, I think Your school sounds great! Are you Ofsteded? That would be a nice job if you were an Ofsted inspector.......
Guest Posted May 21, 2003 Posted May 21, 2003 I haven't been on the forums in a long while - but it seems we're still going round in circles with these. I've been working on re-doing our Brave Little Bear baseline (Durham scheme) - which the LEA have worked to link up to the F/S profile statements - so you take the baseline highlighted sheet and if they have point x they get point y on the profile. They've also developed additional activities using Little Bear and the box for the points they couldn't fit up exactly - takes a lot of the work out of it Some schools only seem to be getting the training now on how to use the profiles - they're due into LEAs at end of June - that's not good
Guest Posted May 28, 2003 Posted May 28, 2003 Can anyone help me with what should be in the comments boxes, I am using the FSP as reports, so need to include targets.
Guest Posted July 18, 2003 Posted July 18, 2003 Sally.... I brought exactly the same issue up at the training that we had on the FSP. I wnated to know how we would be able to do observations on all the children for all the different aspects, and was told basically that we should be doing that already. At the moment, yes we do observe the children, but we record few observations due to lack of time. Having just recieved an 'excellent' from OFSTED, I presume that this is fine in their eyes! We do tracking records for our children anyway which cover the ELG's and have decided to continue to use these, and just fill in the recording system from the FSP as we feel that it is time consuming, and just means us writing the same information twice. Thank goodness I am in Nursery next year!
Steve Posted July 21, 2003 Posted July 21, 2003 Hi Emma - Not specifically an answer to your last post, but this seems to be the best place to put a kind of clarificatory document from the QCA on FSP's. Many of you may have found it already, but I'll attach it for those of you who haven't. There's an interesting couple of paragraphs under the heading Profile Completion, which indicates that schools only need to send the summary scores - here is the main paragraph: Many practitioners will already be using other written systems for assessing progress against the stepping stones and ELGs . So long as such systems conform to the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage and the Foundation Stage Profile Handbook, it is perfectly appropriate to continue using these systems. Schools can choose whether or not to use the printed or electronic scales booklet and there is no need to transfer existing records onto these. Schools and early years settings are only required to send for each child, the summary scores for the 13 scales to their Local Education Authority and not the 117 individual scores. Don't know if this is news to people?
Steve Posted July 21, 2003 Posted July 21, 2003 Whoops, sorry - forgot to attach the full document! Foundation_Stage_Profile_Requirements11.doc
Guest Posted July 21, 2003 Posted July 21, 2003 helen you are a star, i need to be off the hook, i dont think my brain will take too much more assessment work, we have just started the psla accreditation process and if i had to do the fsp as well, i think i would be moving to the checkout at u know where!!!! also thank you steve for the email to tell me that my question had moved, i would have been searching for it for days, if you hadnt said. good site by the way, will tell others on my travels to pop in, , thanks again for the answer. kim Dear Kim, I am just about to ask for my inspection on my accreditation - have got most things up and running now - let me know how you get on - I am in Surrey and I am sure if they are anything like Ofsted whiilst they all have the same guidelines they all have differing - lets say - styles! when are you going for your inspection. Let me know Nikki
Guest Posted July 31, 2003 Posted July 31, 2003 Hi sueflay I've just discovered this site and saw your note. I have to say that I completed the profile AND full reports on each child. We recieved our training in March and our booklets did not arrive until after Easter. I scoured the fsp folder and couldn't see another way round it. The language in the profile is not in parent speak and we had already covered 2 parent evenings. I did the profiles first and then my reports. I have a good headteacher who gave me decent non-contact to complete the profiles and accepted my reports a few days late. I will not be doing reports next year, but using the format suggested with the parent meetings. Not sure what the parents will think though. They like that bit of paper.
Guest Posted August 1, 2003 Posted August 1, 2003 I think that there is a chance that the profiles could help parents understand what is being worked on with their children. The differences between counting and reciting numbers etc. that many think are the same. As you use the profiles with parents throughout the year if gives the perfect opportunity for these things to be explained properly. Helping the parent understand and feel that they are included in school life from the beginning. A real problem in most areas!
Steve Posted August 3, 2003 Posted August 3, 2003 Hi Gillian - (Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting by the way! ) It's really interesting to hear a positive view (of sorts) of the profiles from you and Makesensetome. I guess it all depends on how they evolve. The ability to use them for some quite detailed feedback to the parents is obvious from what Makesensetome says - but some kind of softening up needs to happen to give the personal touch that parents obviously want to see for their own children. You cannot present a purely objective MOT style list of passes and fails to parents - it needs to be balanced with something that indicates the complexity of small human beings. They need to know that their child's endearing character is recognized and valued, and they need to be reassured that the teacher actually recognises their child through, for example, references to their likes and dislikes. None of us are objective when it comes to our own children (or at least I'm not and I hope I'm not the only one ) It is trying to build all this sort of information into an integrated report that will determine how well FSP and reporting processes will be received in the future. Isn't it?
Guest Posted August 3, 2003 Posted August 3, 2003 totally agree,,steve. You have to get the balance right! The booklets themselves have the areas for comments, discussions with parents etc and this is how I envisage them being used - to make them individual etc. These things are probably best acheived by each setting designing their own and adding sections that they feel will be best suited to their children/parents, and of course this is allowed.
AnonyMouse_63 Posted August 4, 2003 Posted August 4, 2003 Hi I have a child in my pre-school group who has been deferred due to SEN needs (he will be 5 years old July 2004) and instead of starting school this september he will be starting school in September 2004. That means that I will be required to fill in the foundation stage profile for him. I have worked in early years for approx 8 years so I feel confident enough to fill in the proiles, however when the profile training was avaliable in our area we were told it was for Reception teachers only as pre-school groups would have no need for the training. I have very good communication with the reception teacher so I can get help should I need it. Carol
Guest Posted August 7, 2003 Posted August 7, 2003 Last year I anticipated the probable difficulties of tracking children through the stepping stones and the FS Profile and have therefore developed a database using Filemaker Pro. Using a simple shortcut it allows you to insert today's date next to any stepping stone you judge to have been reached by a child. The profile statements are integrated with the stepping stones. You can view individuals or the group. It can print single profile elements in colour or the full monty in black and white but at present this still prints 13 pages per child. There is also a section which allows you to make notes about chosen individuals in any of the six areas where you feel it is may be useful. It is navigated through with a simple point and click. It is being used in my school successfully be we all have Mac laptops! This was developed on a Mac but as I understand it should work on a PC if you have Filemaker Pro. It took a great deal of work to put together
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