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Continuous Provision


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Hi, How do you organise continuous provision in a reception class? At present we have quite a formal maths and literacy session, every morning. During this time we have a group of children accessing continuous provision. If, for example, it is the maths session should the continuous provision relate solely to maths or should the children be able to access provision from the other areas. I would be grateful for any advice as Ofsted is looming, and we want to provide the best for our children. Thanks

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We have recently had Ofsted and were commended on our balance of adult/child initiated activities. If your morning is quite formal with both mathematical and literacy based tasks I would suggest the children should be able to self select activities from your continuous provision. Why not try it for a while and see how it goes. Good luck:)

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mj-led, would you be willing to share how you organise your day in terms of adult/child initiated? It is something I am currentlyy in discussion with my job share colleague!

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Our routines alter as the children progress through their reception year - so in term 1 children do access all provision areas. In term 2 we build in short periods of time when children can only access areas set up with lit/num linked activities (so could include sand/water/paint). In term 3 we introduce a simple lit/num hour.

 

However, having had 2 Ofsteds where inspectors seem to have little awareness of the foundation stage curriculum I wouldn't like to advise as to what the big O might want to see.

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I think Ofsted 'results' very much depend on who you get! I don't alter my provision through the year and in my school the Reception model of working is adopted up until Christmas in Y1. I've had quite a, um, 'professional debate' with my Y1 colleagues about NOT getting children 'ready' for Y1 but allowing children to adapt to the new classroom and having a gradual change that happens in Y1 rather than in Reception. After all, some children will only just be 5 when they start in Y1 - that's still a baby! Plenty of time for worksheets later on but I digress...! :o

 

We were Ofsted-ed about 5 weeks before the summer holidays and the inspectors spent quite a lot of time in my classroom. The children were free to choose from a range of activities on offer that linked into our theme for that week which was 'Aliens'. There was at least one activity for each area of learning. While the children were 'free-flowing' myself and my TA pulled children out to work on adult directed tasks. My organisation is based around a line on the Standards Site which states that all areas of learning in the Foundation Stage are of equal importance and inter-related and inter-dependent. I interpret this as meaning that we shouldn't put more effort/time/importance into teaching CLL and MD aspects. However, I know this is very difficult when you've got pressure bearing down on you from people worried about KS1/2 SATs.

 

In my school Foundation Stage was singled out for glowing praise in the Ofsted report BUT, and it's a big BUT, I read about people on here who, from reading their posts, I know are excellent teachers and provide their children with first-rate education and experiences and they've been 'done' and haven't come out that well. I also speak to colleagues in my area who have been Ofsted-ed and their inspectors have obviously been looking for completely different things than ours were. I find this VERY annoying and I think it makes it impossible for us, as teachers, to really work out what good practice is.

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I don't think having a knowledge of the Foundation Stage curriculum is the quite the same as being an Early Years inspector. What I mean by this is the gentleman that inspected us last year had never worked with children of the age range found in the Foundation Stage and certainly didn't interact with them however I'm sure he was well aware of the content of the curriculum. The inspector we had in our previous OFSTED had many years experience as an early years practitioner and knew how to talk to the children to get a response.

The guidance from OFSTED says "OFSTED does not require schools or settings to organise themselves in a particular way in respect of assessment, planning or any other aspect" so guess thats why there is such a variety of expections????

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i have a range of continuous provison despite what im teaching. i often try to set up activites that relate to the topic and have some child intiated going whilst i have a focus group rlated to my input to the whole class.

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