AnonyMouse_31752 Posted July 2, 2013 Posted July 2, 2013 Hi all I know there have been many threads around learning journey's but I am a little confused about what should be in mine now. We changed ours and have received nothing but praise for them we considered them one of our strengths. Now I have had a comment about them (long story) which has made me think we made need to change them all over again. In addition I do have staff that struggle with work load so although they meet their deadlines anything that made them simpler would be welcomed. what do people put in their journey's and how often and how much? This is what we do: we have a kind of social style learning journey really where we look at what skill a child is trying to learn or what their interest is and then we work with that, extending in whatever way is most relevant each week so across the half term we have a real journey appear. A photo of each stage, a brief description of what is going on how it has been extended (therefore how they have moved the learning on) and then at the end we come up with next steps etc... on top of this we then capture any wow moments, maybe three of four other things they may have been up to that is not necessarily linked to the larger journey we have been following but might still be relevant. We write a summary that is a report like comment in each area at the end of every term which we felt brought the whole thing together. This information is then charted on our cohort sheets so we can track progression and any children that may need extra support or any area of provision that is consistently missed is picked up and can be addressed the following term. For the leavers we provide transfer information with current assessments and a brief description in relation to COL's and a copy of the summary sheet. Planning is informed by observations, journey needs and children's interests/support needs every week (we meet as a team) COL's are identified in the adult focus activity and I have over view sheets of how the continuous provision meets the COL aspects too as well as learning areas. Now I thought we had cracked it with this system, that there was clear links between observation, planning and assessment etc... and all the outside professionals that come in to check these things from all the various professional supports organisations all felt this was a strength for us. However it may be this is not the case. So what does everybody else do? do you write summary reports every term? what goes into your journeys? If we were to write more of an analysis of the learning such as: by completing this learning journey child X was learning about...... moving from emerging 30-50 months to secure 30-50 months, Then maybe just had each of the seven areas with a box that could be ticked to show where they were and didn't do the summary until the end of the academic year more like a report, would this be better? or again would this not be enough? oh very confused!!!!!! I feel actually when I look at the examples in EYFS we are not all that different really and yet it doesn't seem to be enough!!!
Guest Spiral Posted July 2, 2013 Posted July 2, 2013 Hi there Johanna1, why do you think you aren't doing enough? It sounds like you are. Maybe consider what it is that has made you feel like this....I know in my case I panicked about a couple of children who were being moderated - but I was wrong to do so and ended up doing more than I should have! Re-read your post - is there an aspect that you can see is missing and if you can, I'm sure you'll find you cover it elsewhere. Spiral :-)
AnonyMouse_31752 Posted July 2, 2013 Author Posted July 2, 2013 (edited) To be honest Spiral I feel this is my problem I do not feel we have missed anything I felt it was as it should be. However we have very very recently had our Ofsted inspection and although the report is not yet with us, this was one point she made. No matter what I showed her and how I described what we did she still felt that she could not see the full cycle of what we do. I have been told by children centre manager that my cohort information and the way we record was above what we should be doing and therefore to make sure Ofsted saw it which was what I did. The only thing she said to me was that rather than just do the observation and then write what it linked to in EYFS I.e. observation and then underneath psed 30-50 (emerging) or making relationships psed 30-50 (emerging) we should do an analysis after the large journey I have described above. So by engaging in these activities child X was working on her personal and social skills, her speaking etc... However we feel that we do the analysis in the summary sheet so if we do more of it in the body of the learning journey what do we write in summary? will we be repeating things? the staff already struggled a little as we feel the COL's are implicit in practice and they had been writing about them in the summary and we were told by children centre manager that we should record this separately which we did and they felt then they were saying the same thing all the time!!! We are a little disheartened that all our hard work wasn't enough and that we may have to do yet more! Honestly our folders are lovely I know that sounds big headed to say but they really are everybody says so!!!! Edited July 2, 2013 by Johanna1
AnonyMouse_19762 Posted July 2, 2013 Posted July 2, 2013 We are a little disheartened that all our hard work wasn't enough and that we may have to do yet more! Honestly our folders are lovely I know that sounds big headed to say but they really are everybody says so!!!! They sound lovely to me :1b Why not wait and see if this is mentioned in your report and if it is then note the wording and take it from there - do come back and let us know.......... It's rotten to be left feeling 'disheartened' when you put so much effort in - I'm sure most of us have experienced that Do remind yourself who you 'do it for'.........we all want the best possible outcome from an inspection I understand that - but that's not who I 'do it for' :1b 1
AnonyMouse_31752 Posted July 2, 2013 Author Posted July 2, 2013 thank you for that sunnyday will let you all know xxx 1
AnonyMouse_5970 Posted July 2, 2013 Posted July 2, 2013 Hi Johanna. I certainly know what its like to be disappointed by the outcome of an Ofsted inspection, but that's a whole different story! I think your learning journeys sound fabulous and it sounds like a lot of other people think so too. We do an 'analysis' of each observation, although that is rather a grand word for what we do. I ask my staff to identify the learning in each observation. So for example "this shows my concentration and eye-hand co-ordination are developing and I am able to stay with an activity to the end." (We write our obs in the first person) We use what we call the "so what?" rule. So you read back the observation you have written and ask yourself "so what?". If you can't identify the learning/development then there's no point in using the observation. We use Tapestry so we write the observation including identifying the learning, add photos if there are any, make an assessment, show a CoEL if appropriate and its done. I think there are so many ways to create Learning Journeys, there really isn't a right way -it's whatever works for you, the children and families and your staff. 3
AnonyMouse_31752 Posted July 3, 2013 Author Posted July 3, 2013 thanks for this Beehive its horrible when you think you have done something right and then feels like you haven't. We could easily identify learning with our obs I am not really sure what she is getting at apart from making it separate completely rather than part of the observation!!! may have to go and look at some others by other settings and maybe the school it may help or like you said may just be different!!! oh well I wish we could use tapestry
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