AnonyMouse_13453

You may find it a lot easier to do a thin crumb coat - it is just to trap the crumbs. Then once that’s chilled and set a bit, apply another layer of buttercream and get it nice and smooth with a knife dipped in hot water and quickly wiped dry.

I don’t know if these help at all. They’re mine from about 6 years ago. Hopefully they show how a small observational note can show many steps. It doesn’t need to be a short novel. It’s good if you can incorporate the child’s voice in the observation as it gives it more meaning.

6-8 children is easily manageable. My staff had about 14-18 each as children came for random sessions. That was the most complicated actually - trying to get an observation in for little Charlie who only came two afternoons a week etc. My key children were easier as they were the pre-reception year and came every day, either full days or every morning. I had 12 usually.

I’d start with a staff meeting and throw open the question about what they’re finding the most challenging at the moment, and hopefully they’ll say time for observations. That will open up the opportunity for you to ask if they think they’re doing more than you need. Then you can have a proper discussion about what they could change to simplify things. It would help if you’d got some of your own to show them what you mean. Some simple ‘snapshot’ obs where there’s just a picture with a sentence underneath tying to an area of learning that shows progression.

Have they lost the reasoning for obs? I used to have a sticker on the front of their notebooks to say something along the lines of ‘I need to record this because…. It’s an exciting development for this child, it’s a recorded ‘next step’ , it’s something I need to work on with this child’ Maybe having that, or something similar as a reasoning will help them to focus. Don’t be afraid to challenge observations - if you’re getting several that aren’t showing any progression, and are just recording the same statements each time, then they’re a waste of time. If you see obs being done, ask who and why, and what they’re hoping to see. Definitely reduce this number of obs. I’d be tempted to challenge them to just do a maximum of three GOOD Obs a week. One good observation is worth more than ten mediocre ones that show no progression. For Next Steps, they should really only be looking at one area at a time, it’s just not possible to hold six areas in your head for each key child! They’re making waaaaay too much work for themselves. Do you have progress meetings with staff to go through their children’s development records? They are really helpful for helping staff to focus their minds on particular things. If you do those, it also helps when you see observations being done, as you know what they’re meant to be looking for. I’d definitely start those if you don’t already do them. This term is a great time to start, so you can look at what has been addressed so far, and praise what’s really good, and look at what you want at the start of the new year. Get the staff used to you wanting some input. They might initially be a bit defensive, but if they see that they’re getting praise for what they’ve done, and some help in areas that they can reduce their workload, then hopefully they’ll not see it as an examination of their work in a negative way. Remember the praise sandwich - start out with some positives, then any improvements you’d like to see, and end with some good positives again. End on a high.

But as a duplo brick, it succeeds admirably 😂😂

Hmm. I think perhaps you just needed the dome bit of the mixing bowl, rather than the whole thing, it just needs to be a ‘blister’ on the top. Maybe apply another layer of buttercream on top of your thinner crumb coat, so you get a smoother finish.

No. Cream wouldn’t take it, you’re right. On bake off they used straight buttercream and dipped into the runny fondant, didn’t they? Hmm. The pudding basin is a good idea though, for the dome bit of the cake. If you put the top dome buttercreamed onto your square cake, that would give a perfect illusion of the cream dome.

It sounds good. Are you putting a buttercream layer under the dome too like a princess torte? There are ways of making buttercream that aren’t sickly sweet, or use a custard/whipped cream combo like a princess torte.

So how did it go? Did it work out well?

Yes I agree FM. Plus they don’t need to be long stories either. A simple ‘Jessica opened her own bag of crisps today. She told me that her Dad had shown her yesterday’. Maybe a quick picture of a delighted Jessica stuffing her face with crisps adds humour. Sometimes I would deliberately set up an observation when I particularly wanted to see something - how well Jessica was sharing with her peers, or a specific communication skill I felt I needed to see, but again, there was no need for this to particularly take a lot of time. Obviously when a new child starts, there’ll be more observations, possibly timed ones as you see how they engage around the room with things. Those are really the only observations that I feel should take any time within the running of the session. Anything else can be jotted on a pocket pad, a photo taken to jog a memory, or quick verbal mention to another member of staff, then written up later. Do you give your staff time to write up observations as non-contact time? Are you using Tapestry? Do you encourage parents to record observations too?

Yep. That was my modus operandi too.

That was very similar when I left. I was meant to stay as manager until the start of the autumn term, when my deputy would take over. This would give me the opportunity to deal properly with year end figures and set up the following year ready for her. So I was still nominally in charge of everything and there’d be a clean start for her on 1st September. Nope. Big O decided unilaterally that I was finished on 19th July, and my deputy was the manager from then! It left a mess, I can tell you! She was in trouble because she’d not done the health check thing, (that she had an appointment for over the summer break) and they didn’t have papers etc. It was all ridiculous and very high-handed. They think they have total charge of us, and that was really annoying as we were PVI.

You’re!!!! I can’t believe that went before I spotted it! It was only when Sunnyday quoted it that I spotted it!! Grovelling in apology now. 😳😳😳🤭

HAS to be Joan Hickson. She is just so absolutely perfect.

Er..... your a pussycat, jumping for a butterfly?

Goodness. They do put us through it! My naughty madam stole something for the first time, it had to be plain chocolate of course! We’d thought it was well out of her reach. The ignominy of having to be made sick by the vet is hopefully something that she’ll remember. Certainly her face after we’d attempted to syringe 15ml activated charcoal into her mouth is something that we won’t forget!

Your life will soon be full of ‘half term weekend’. Enjoy the rest of the summer term, my furry friend xxx

Oh that is a shame! I hope someone locked the door and checked behind the sofa! Did you pick up your diamanté balaclava, Sunny? It was on top of the table lamp

Does ‘Heads, shoulders, knees and toes’ count as nursery rhyme?

Thank you Jules.

Personally I wouldn’t marzipan unless I knew that the recipient liked it. And in my experience, GF cakes are lighter and lovelier than their Muggle counterparts! 😊😊😊🤪

My sister and her husband did the antibody test and were negative too!

Yes you can put cake in the fridge with the layer of buttercream crumb coat on. I do it. As to the watered down fondant, that’s the way they did it on ‘Bake off’ if you can find that episode. What GF flour are you going to use?

Froglet, if you have the space, it’s definitely the way forward. We had two rooms of children for just this reason. The older pre-reception group were with me in one room, and the younger and new starters were in the other. It was so successful. In the ‘Blue Group’ we were able to achieve so much, they settled really well and got on with things so much better. There was also the September excitement of transition into ‘Blue Group’ with me, knowing that the Red and Yellow groups and leaders were just next door and accessible when we all went outside together.