AnonyMouse_4562 Posted September 28, 2014 Posted September 28, 2014 Hi, Am just wondering how many observations others have of each child by now? (We are a setting where children attend 3 hours everyday.) I've always been quite happy to make by baseline assessments from a mixture of some observations from CI activities, some from teacher-led/initiated activities and some from knowledge of the children/best fit. BUT, with Tapestry showing very clearly the gaps in observations, I'm beginning to wonder if we have enough? However, we have done so many observations, I don't think it is physically possible to do anymore!!! Thanks Green Hippo x
AnonyMouse_51737 Posted September 28, 2014 Posted September 28, 2014 We have started tapestry and we do a First Day obs which is really nice for parents with lots of piccys, then we do general obs from then on; then I'm planning key workers do an initial assessment obs based soley on there proffessional knowledge at a point we feel represents a settling in period, as some kids are 3 hrs a week others are 15+ hrs per week so settling in differs. This will give us an assessment in every area, unless it's just not feasible! to assist in an even coverage of assessments being made each week I print off a thoroughness report and highlight children who have the least assessments also using the graph which areas we are lacking in for assessments which has been reading and the world over past week. This helps us focus on areas/kids we may have invertably missed
Guest Posted September 28, 2014 Posted September 28, 2014 we did quite a bit at the home visit, e.g. recording exact speech/inset puzzle/pencil hold/counting words used etc. i've done lots, but i know colleagues have done hardly any. we all do notes, so that helps. we give it 3 weeks from start roughly, as long as child settles quickly. but it is impossible to cover everything, so we use best-fit judgements x
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted September 29, 2014 Posted September 29, 2014 I have always said that there is no point observing just for the sake of getting a particular number of observations. You need to be more spontaneous and have a reason for doing it. Is this a new development for this child? Are you seeing a progression of skills? Is there an interest here than can be tapped into? Continuously observing and mentally ticking the same development statements doesn't provide anything other than a nice narrative for Mum to read, and that's ok, in it's place, but observing for progression can't be counted into specific numbers of observations that have to be done over a time period. I know I went a bit mad with Tapestry last year, and did WAY more observations than I generally do, but I didn't really class these as 'proper' observations, they were more 'look what we've been doing' and actually did show a good progression of skills over the year, but fewer, more in depth ones would have done just as well. I needed to be very familiar with the system in order to help my staff get to grips with it. 3
Guest MaryEMac Posted September 29, 2014 Posted September 29, 2014 We have just started using Tapestry and have gone slightly mad with obs. It was taking me hours to read and approve them all. Now the novelty is wearing off we have decided to do 2 meaningful obs per child per week. We will still have the 'wow' moments as they happen though. Mary
AnonyMouse_4562 Posted September 29, 2014 Author Posted September 29, 2014 Thanks everyone! We do go a bit mad with obs at the beginning of the year to try to get as near as possible an accurate picture of each child. After I've done the initial assessments this week then we will be recording significant learning/experiences. We don't set a number as such but check thoroughness to ensure areas and children are covered. This first assessment period is short compared to the others so it is quite intense! I'm having a bit of a problem with the assessments coming in from previous settings. Some has put children as high as 40-60 securing which just is not showing showing. Generally they are definitely at least at the expected level but not so far above expected! In the past the assessments seem accurate. My new member of staff has previously worked at one of the settings and told me that they really don't know what they are doing! Not suggesting that all the lovely people on here don't get it right as I know you know your stuff! X
AnonyMouse_42463 Posted September 29, 2014 Posted September 29, 2014 Definitely less is more, is the observation telling you something new about that child or showing progression. Also Ofsted are not keen on seeing practitioners with a clipboard and pen welded to their hand. We observe each child over a whole week once a half term with the aim of covering the entire EYFS including CoEL. We then assess this "long observation" and identify their strengths/ interests /learning needs and pinpoint their Next Step. For new children we record their first week in photographs for the parents and then give them a few weeks to settle in before observing them. I feel this give us a truer picture of where they are. However, my EYA told us we have to record starting points in their first week and should use their All about me forms to track them in the Prime areas. We have tweeked the All about me forms but it's still guess work to be honest and I can't help thinking that it's a complete waste of time.
AnonyMouse_44838 Posted September 29, 2014 Posted September 29, 2014 Definitely less is more, is the observation telling you something new about that child or showing progression. Also Ofsted are not keen on seeing practitioners with a clipboard and pen welded to their hand. We observe each child over a whole week once a half term with the aim of covering the entire EYFS including CoEL. We then assess this "long observation" and identify their strengths/ interests /learning needs and pinpoint their Next Step. For new children we record their first week in photographs for the parents and then give them a few weeks to settle in before observing them. I feel this give us a truer picture of where they are. However, my EYA told us we have to record starting points in their first week and should use their All about me forms to track them in the Prime areas. We have tweeked the All about me forms but it's still guess work to be honest and I can't help thinking that it's a complete waste of time. Hi we are in the middle of changing our all about me forms so we can do our starting points, would you have a copy of yours so I can see if on the same wave length. as i have from all the staff what they want what they dont and im starting to give up to please them all... Emma x 1
AnonyMouse_7120 Posted September 29, 2014 Posted September 29, 2014 We sit around 50 on register and staff have added 307 observation in 3 weeks ....which is why I am not going to be printing them off....do you think the novelty will wear off soon ? Lol
AnonyMouse_42463 Posted September 30, 2014 Posted September 30, 2014 Hi Emma I don't know how to attach documents but I'm happy to email it to you ? Lydia 1
AnonyMouse_12805 Posted September 30, 2014 Posted September 30, 2014 mouskeeter- with 50 children thats only around 2.4 obs each per week. So not too bad. I'm with Cait on this, I really dont think you can have a prescribed amount of obs. You could have 10 telling you 'z is happy at preschool' or just 2 that tells you loads.
AnonyMouse_7120 Posted September 30, 2014 Posted September 30, 2014 Doesn't seem a lot put like that, when you have to read/edit most of them due to awful spelling and silly mistakes it feels like a lot more and a couple of new staff so picking up statements they've missed to show them how much more they can pull from the ob....
AnonyMouse_12805 Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 Well..... I counted up our obs (just out of curiosity after what you had said) and with 27 children on there we have done just a few more than your setting, since start of term. Admittedly if i had to proof read them all, I think I would probably feel differently!. 1
AnonyMouse_7120 Posted October 1, 2014 Posted October 1, 2014 (edited) lol you don't need to count them lynned55...if you go to analysis it tells you how many, how many have media attached, how many parent replies etc.... 390 observations of the active children have been made Of these observations: 261 (67%) have EYFS assessments 381 (98%) have attached media, of which:369 (97%) have a photo 1 (0%) have a video 279 (73%) have a note 15 (4%) were submitted by a relative None were replied to not sure why it says none replied to, lots are Edited October 1, 2014 by Mouseketeer
AnonyMouse_44838 Posted October 2, 2014 Posted October 2, 2014 Hi Emma I don't know how to attach documents but I'm happy to email it to you ? Lydia Hi Lydiathat would be fantatastic if you could thank you so much.... Emma x 1
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted October 2, 2014 Posted October 2, 2014 Emma, you should really only send your email address via private message. To do that, click the persons name above their icon and a page will pop up with a link to send a message. You will know if anybody sends you one as there will be a little red indicator on the navigation bar next to the little envelope symbol. 2
AnonyMouse_64 Posted October 3, 2014 Posted October 3, 2014 I've edited the post to take out the email address. As Cait says, you can use the messaging system on the forum to send private email addresses etc. 2
AnonyMouse_44838 Posted October 8, 2014 Posted October 8, 2014 Emma, you should really only send your email address via private message. To do that, click the persons name above their icon and a page will pop up with a link to send a message. You will know if anybody sends you one as there will be a little red indicator on the navigation bar next to the little envelope symbol. Thank you x
AnonyMouse_44838 Posted October 8, 2014 Posted October 8, 2014 I've edited the post to take out the email address. As Cait says, you can use the messaging system on the forum to send private email addresses etc. thank you x
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