Guest Posted April 7, 2004 Posted April 7, 2004 I have currently been asked to review the current foundation stage and structured outdoor play policy at our school. I was wondering if anyone has any in their school or knows where to find good ones to look at? Thank you
Guest Posted April 7, 2004 Posted April 7, 2004 Hi Awen Welcome to the forum and thank you for posting. There are lots of policies ideas on the forum which can be found here. I don't know if any of these are of use to you but they may be worth having a look at. Linda
Guest Posted April 7, 2004 Posted April 7, 2004 I was looking for something similar myself, as they are updating the FS policy at school and I'm going to have an input in it, as I have some foundation stage children in my class. However that link that you gave has no Early Years policy in it. If anyone finds a good one, please could you post the link! Thanks
AnonyMouse_73 Posted April 8, 2004 Posted April 8, 2004 hi Awen, and welcome on board. Ill happily email you ours if it is of any help to you, bearing in mind that it is on our agenda to be updated this year as its quite old now. But it may give you a starting point. You would have to pm me with your email.
Steve Posted April 12, 2004 Posted April 12, 2004 Hi Awen and welcome to the forum! As someone who is not involved in reception/year 1 education I'd just like to ask a naive question which is, what would a 'Foundation Stage' policy be for (or possibly more accurately, what would it be expected to cover)? The clearest statement of the objectives of the Foundation Stage is in the Foundation Stage Curriculum Guidance document, and I would have thought that could be used as a policy. I'm not sure what you would use a high level policy on the Foundation Stage for if it didn't declare in fairly general terms what you are trying to achieve. I'm not trying to say it's not needed - I'm just not sure what it's supposed to accomplish!
AnonyMouse_73 Posted April 13, 2004 Posted April 13, 2004 Hi Steve, nice to see you back in flow. You have a fair point and I think you have asked a good question . (I had to think about how to answer that one) For us, a policy for the whole phase is a way of stating how a setting works, what we value (which isnt the same everywhere), how we plan, assess, staff, how we deal wth behaviour, special needs,and would include our procedures on thngs like sickenss, first aid, toileting, etc. (we would not need separate policies for these as you might do in the private sector) . We would be expected to have one for OFSTED, and they can be referred back to if there are any issues with parents. (for example when they are sick and the parents want them to come in anyway, we can use our policy statement to explain that they must stay at home until they are better). We found it a very useful exercise to write it beacuse it makes you think 'what matters to our setting', and as time goes by, you realise that there are things you may not have thought about which is why our needs updating). I think it also reminds all of the staff to be workng alng the same guidleines and singing the same tune, which is really important when you have a regular turn over of staff. Its also useful to students to show them how we work; and also to key stage one who often have no clue about FS. It is similar to having a maths policy when I was maths coordinator, I had to write one, even though we have the NNS which guides us as to what to teach. I hope that makes some sort of sense. That's how (and why) we do it, perhaps other memebrs do it differently.
AnonyMouse_1195 Posted April 13, 2004 Posted April 13, 2004 In our Primary school our Foundation Stage Policies cover each of the six areas of learning outlining how these will be delivered, assessed and reported, a statement (brief) about inclusion etc. they are not large documents but make our philosophy clear. We also have a brief statement about the entry policies for Nursery and then Reception. These are scrunched into a booklet which is available for parents and of course OFSTED, and although we could just use the FS guidance document it is less personal to our school. Having a separate booklet also emphasises that we are a Key Stage and our curriculum policies have a much value as the NC policies, and the co-ordinator has as much responsibility as in any other key stage! We do not include policies on Behaviour, Child Protection, Inclusion, Assessment, attendance, homework etc. etc. etc because these are whole school policies and refer to the FS within them.
Steve Posted April 13, 2004 Posted April 13, 2004 Thanks Mundia - (wish we had a little lightbulb smiley, it would be useful now! ) That makes sense to me. What we have which is probably most similar is an Operational Plan. This gives an overview of some of the practicalities of running the setting, and is accompanied by a set of detailed policies (as JacquieL has just mentioned), which we've got available on this site. Awen and Nichola, you're welcome to have a look at this if you'd like - don't know if it will help or if it's too basic. It was always listed with our original set of policies, but I don't know how easy the link is to find now, so you can find it here. Let me know if it is useful and I'll push the link back up into a more prominent spot.
AnonyMouse_2127 Posted May 25, 2004 Posted May 25, 2004 When assessing my staffs training needs, we discuss what courses would be beneficial to them and the Pre-school but nothing is in writing. Apparantly I should have a proper form outlining a programme of training that is agreed between us. Does anyone have any ideas of how to set it out? Sue J
Steve Posted May 25, 2004 Posted May 25, 2004 Do you have a formal 'appraisal' session Sue? And is the session recorded (Personal Development Plan or something similar)? This can be a good place to store training needs and plans - we have an article and forms on this which you've probably seen anyway?
Guest Posted May 25, 2004 Posted May 25, 2004 The Curriculum Policy in policy section of this site is brilliant and sets out clearly and simply how the setting covers the Foundation Stage.
AnonyMouse_2127 Posted May 25, 2004 Posted May 25, 2004 Steve I don't have a formal appraisal I have an informal one - it is something I have been meaning to get round to - but haven't done so yet and nothing is in writing either. Could you remind me where the articles and forms that you mentioned are please. Sue J
AnonyMouse_2127 Posted May 25, 2004 Posted May 25, 2004 Thanks Steve, I have seen the article before but 'forgot' it was there! I've printed off some copies and will use them for my staff. Sue J
AnonyMouse_1027 Posted May 25, 2004 Posted May 25, 2004 We actually dont have a cirriculum policy(must tell the chair - that will please her) But in our prospectus we do have a statment about the cirriculum and what we cover.
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