Guest Posted September 17, 2013 Posted September 17, 2013 Hi All, I have a mixed half and half Reception /year one class this year. i know it's only been a couple of weeks but my colleague and I, (with parrallel class) are finding it really hard. we are really conscious of the pressure to do 'proper work' and teaching all day with the year ones. Consequently I have hardly done any baseline obs. on my new Reception children who currently do half days. I am not enjoying it. Feel I can't spend anytime supporting the Receptions in the provision and 'provoking' them. Not enjoying it. I love the creativity and freedom of Early Years and the 'let's see what happens' researching aspect. feel our year one curriculum is all planned up to Christmas!
Guest tinkerbell Posted September 18, 2013 Posted September 18, 2013 Hi Edlee Could I ask why there are 2 parallel r/yr1 classes instead of straight R and yr1 class? Could one of you have the R all morning and the other have yr1 and then have your own class in the afternoon for the year1 to get the benefit of continuous provision ?
Guest Posted September 18, 2013 Posted September 18, 2013 Good question. The reason is that we have 29 Reception children and we have quite a lot of movement of children during the year, Polish children arriving mid-year usually. obviously we need to keep the class size under 30 so the worry was that if we diid separate classes child number 31 would have to go in with all the year ones. We also felt it would be better for planning together if we both had the same mix. We have put the Receptions and year ones together at some points during the week. Maybe we can do that even more once all the Receptions have settled in and started full-time.
Guest tinkerbell Posted September 18, 2013 Posted September 18, 2013 Planning with someone is great. So often reception teachers feel out on a limb. I teach r/yr1 and my colleague teaches yr1/yr2 after this half term after playtime we do phonics and group the children by ability and all staff are involved eg 2 teachers 2 TA's. After the phonics my year1 stay in class 2 and do their maths with all yr1 and yr2 (30),.This idea may work for half a morning?....
Guest Posted September 22, 2013 Posted September 22, 2013 i have a mixed F!/R class but the year 1 spends its morning with yr1/2 (there are only a few) BUT although it solves the logistical nightmare of teaching two very diff year groups (as you are experiencing Edlee), it leaves me feeling that I do not have a good enough over view of their learning that morning. If a parent asks about something that has happened that morning I have to refer them to their morning teacher which i feel is not good enough! I think i feel especially protective over those year ones as they were in my registration group for a reason, they could really have done with a further term of the EYFS... i have to try and do that in the afternoon (alongside more of the year one curriculum)... exhausting and not at all rewarding. grrrr, i feel your pain...
AnonyMouse_48738 Posted October 12, 2013 Posted October 12, 2013 Hi Edlee, I hope this isn't too late- only just seen your post. I've been in Nursery the past couple of years but prior to that I was in a mixed f2/yr1 class for about five years. I attended network meetings with other schools with teachers in the same situation and we all agree it isn't easy!! It's all about finding a system that works for your class- but once you get that it can work like clockwork (kind of!!). Setting your classroom correctly is the biggest weapon! I found that having all my areas of learning available always helped. I would split my class into about 4 groups if possible. Each morning for numeracy/literacy I would allow 2 groups to work independently- the f2 group would access a learning area and the yr1 would do an independent task at their table and would the be allowed to access a given learning area when they had finished (the year 1s then saw this as being fair so they had a turn to 'play' too). Then the other two groups would work with a teacher/ LSA doing an adult led activity. Each day the groups would rotate so that each group would have had the opportunity to work both independently and with an adult. In the afternoons the f2s would do high/scope (choosing) with a TA and the year 1s would do topic based work. I found that this system allowed the F2s to still get their play balance and the year 1s to get their more formal approach. I hope this makes sense?! Please let me know if you need anymore help x 1
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