AnonyMouse_4544

Yes we often see very overweight children both in nursery and reception. So much so they have difficulty moving about and struggle to sit on the floor and once down there have great difficulty getting back up. Lots of "builder's bums" on display both boys and girls

Most people don't even realise they are doing it, or that there is an alternative!

 

http://www.usingmindmaps.com/speed-reading-techniques.html

Tony Buzan makes no claim that these techniques are suitable for youung non readers

because they aren't.

Literacy develops in stages much the same way as language and missing out the early stages is detrimental in the long term. There are a few children who are natural readers but they are very much in the minority (often children with ASD seem to have this ability ) but for the majority of children they need to develop each skill.

I don't mean 'sound out' in terms of blending them, what I mean is sound out whole words in your head as you read, rather than skimming across them without 'hearing' them internally. Most people do.

As I said I haven't encountered anyone who claims to do so unless it is with some obscure word they have never met before.

A very happy birthday

[q

But those who can (as in my daughter, see the original message) need to have the teacher differentiate, to ensure that they are not held back by being force fed synthetic phonics alone. Thankfully, her teacher does exactly that.

Sorry but I disagree totally

Of course teachers should differentiate but not by giving out sight words

Actually strong readers benefit from being force fed synthetic phonics just as much as those children who are just beginning the reading journey and I'm speaking as the mother of a child who was reading before his second birthday but struggled with spelling because he failed to grasp phonics.

English is such an irregular language, in some circumstances learning words by sight will be the simplest and most efficient method. If I try and 'decode' the last sentence I wrote by blending it would both take me forever and result in some very strange sounds!

You seem to be confusing language with the English orthographical system which has some irregularities (actually there are only 7 words don't follow any rules) as there are only 150+ phoneme grapheme correspondence to learn as opposed to approx a quarter of a million words to learn. If children are taught correctly they can quite easily decode what they read.

I take your point about the weaker readers, but perhaps it's the phonological awareness that is the key (developed through speaking and listening mostly) rather than the phonics themselves.

Something to think about:

 

When you read, do you 'sound out' the words in your head? Many adults do (having been taught that reading is about sound), even though there is actually no need to do so. This slows down the average adult reader, and it means that many read only a few books a month/year.

Actually I don't know any adults or confident child readers who sound out words in their head unless it is a totally unknown word.

Decoding words isn't reading it is a pre reading skill which enables children to become readers

Can I piggy back onto this one?

 

What is the current approach to hearing children read in Reception?.When I was teaching reception 10 years ago it was given huge priority when they(children) were ready to run with it. I know it's all guided reading now.

 

My son has been at school since September and was given reading books to take home in September as he knows the phonic code and is reading Oxford Reading tree stage 2. He has been at school for 14 weeks and no-one has ever heard him read.He has read over twenty school books at home in that time.

 

Is that usual nowadays?

We don't do guided reading shocking I know ... Children read everyday in the class as part of the phonics lesson and I always tried to hear individual readers as often as possible so that all children were heard at least twice a week. It isn't easy depending on staffing and school organisation

I think a part of the problem for many teachers is the fact they are being told to teaching reading using a systematic phonics method (synthetic) but not having access to appropriate reading books especially in the early stages. Once children are reading confidently they can read anything but faced with ORT which is a Look and Say scheme and words they haven't yet been taught the skills to read they are forced to guess and fall back on the idea of key word learning

Could you come and convince my colleagues, marion please, as Im failing with that one.

I'm winning with mine (since I became literacy co ordinator)

I teach the ones that are "tricky" in each phase while explaining which part is "tricky" so that when they meet words that follow the same rule they can apply it to decode.

Marion, I'm not sure exactly what you thought I meant but here is the L&S appendices with the HF word lists

missblinx I knew exactly what you meant what I disputed was that L&S advocates teaching "sight words" alongside phonics although many teachers seem to be stuck in applying the old reading strategies methods of teaching all the HFWs by sight when it is totally unnecessary.

in my understanding and practise with L&S it's not meant to replace learning to read by sight but to work alongside it. There are opportunities in the L&S activities to learn and use HF words too.

Sorry that is not the case and is why L&S emphasises the "tricky" words in each phase which once the child has been taught the "code" are no longer "tricky".

There are only seven HFWs words one, once, two, who, the, are and eye, that may need to be memorised as whole units i.e. are true, high frequency 'sight' words,all others are completely decodable once a child knows the "rules"

All our staff used the snow day as our PPA time. You could argue for your time but remember it is 10% of the time you have actually spent teaching so will be reduced.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/education/teaching/primary.html

http://www.sheffield.gov.uk/EasySite/lib/s...&pgid=84263

http://www.andrelleducation.co.uk/shop/by-...ory-starter-tv/

also announced

http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyou...ildrens-centres

The reforms include

* removing the requirement to offer full day care for Sure Start children’s Centres in the most deprived areas, which is largely unused and taking resources away from the frontline

* reducing bureaucracy for professionals in Sure Start children’s Centres in the most deprived areas by removing the requirement to hire someone with both Qualified Teacher and Early Years Professional status.

We were inspected Sep 2005

Our next inspection was Nov 2009 so over a year late !

We were inspected in 1999 then again in 2006 then 2007 then 2010

so basically they can turn up any time and it's no good trying to figure them out

Take a look at http://www.amazon.co.uk/But-Why-Developing...m/dp/1855391724 and Philosophy Bear

http://www.childrenthinking.co.uk/

Hi all, I was wondering if you could help me with a quick question?

 

Our school is just beginning to use Letters and Sounds in Year One and Two. At the moment the teachers are assessing the children to see which phase they should be on. Some of the teachers seem to be asking the children to write the tricky words as part of the assessment. I always thought the assessment was just on grapheme recognition and ability to read and blend words, not to write them? (This is what we do in Reception).

 

Many thanks,

 

Carrots x

In phase 3 children should be able to spell/write phase 2 words and in phase 4 children should be able to write phase 3 words etc

The suggested activity

Learning to spell and practising tricky words

the to no go I

• •• • • • • •

Children should be able to read these words before being expected to learn to spell

them.

Resources

Whiteboards and pens, preferably one per child

Procedure

Write the word to be learned on the whiteboard and check that everyone can

read it.

Say a sentence using the word.

Sound-talk the word raising a finger for each phoneme.

Ask the children to do the same.

Discuss the letters required for each phoneme, using letter names.

Ask the children to trace the shape of the letters on their raised fingers.

Rub the word off the whiteboard and ask them to write the word on their

whiteboards.

Nice one, lolo!

 

I agree with you all, totally - indecent behaviour indeed! As you have all said, just an innocent 4-year-old remark.

And I've never heard that expression either.

 

Sue

She'd be horrified with our little dears who often say they have "sexed" each other when they mean hugged

I think it's wrong that advisors make sweeping judgements and pull numbers out of the air. Where is the evidence to suggest anymore than 60 is a detrement.

 

Like I say we are a 90 place but don't find PSED an issue - in fact because our children are able to access resources independently and have large spaces to play then PSED is actually a strength.

 

Truth is all FS settings, unit or non unit are unique and it's difficult to compare. Staff quality varies from school to school and resource issues vary from school to school.

It was certainly the general advice 5+ years ago that if numbers exceeded 60 to consider 2 parallel units rather than one large unit purely from logistical reasons

I'm not familiar with the term either (perhaps I should be as CP designated teacher) but I wouldn't be worried by the behaviour in the slightest and certainly wouldn't call it indecent in any shape or form.

I thought the ratio bit of the EYFS was statutory?

 

The whole TA covering thing was what unions raised when PPA was initially introduced. We need to be soooo careful that teachers don't get de-valued by being seen as so easily replaced!

 

Good luck with getting your PPA time properly covered.

Legal requirements for adult ratio EYFS

Children in reception classes in maintained schools

The EYFS does not place ratio and qualification requirements on reception classes in maintained

schools provided they fall within the legal definition of an infant class (i.e. a class containing

pupils the majority of whom will reach the age of five, six, or seven during the course of the

school year)2. Such classes are already subject to infant class size legislation: an infant class

must not contain more than 30 pupils while an ordinary teaching session is conducted by a

single school teacher

Infant class size legislation

‘School teachers’ do not include teaching assistants, higher level teaching assistants or other support staff. However, support staff may carry out ‘specified work’, such as delivering lessons to pupils, within infant classes in certain circumstances1. In each case:

•

the headteacher must be satisfied of the support staff’s skills, expertise and experience to carry out such work;

•

the work carried out must be in order to assist or support the work of a ‘school teacher’; and

•

s/he must be subject to the direction and supervision of a ‘school teacher’.

3. In practice this means that, although a school with infant classes must have sufficient school teachers to be able to teach its infants in groups of 30 or fewer per teacher, support staff, providing they meet the above criteria, may ‘teach’ infant groups when teachers are not available (e.g. when a teacher is away from their class on their Planning, Preparation and Assessment time).

4. Support staff must not be the main ‘teacher’ for an infant group and, where support staff are undertaking the more demanding aspects of “specified work” – particularly where they are working with whole classes – head

1 See the Education (Specified Work and Registration) (England) Regulations 2003)

9

teachers should have regard to the higher level teaching assistant (HLTA) standards in determining whether those staff have the necessary level of skills and expertise.

5. If a school were to use support staff instead of teachers to lead its infant groups, either as a permanent arrangement or for the majority of the school week on a regular basis, it would be in default of its class size duty.

Consequently, a school must employ sufficient teachers to enable it to teach its infant classes in groups of no more than 30 per school teacher.

How many children is a Teaching Assistant allowed to be responsible for by herself at any one time (in a reception class)? I can't find it in the EYFS Practice Guidance or Statutory Framework. Somehow in my head I've got the number 15? no idea where from! Does anyone know? And could you tell me where it officially says? Thanks!

A TA can be responsible for 30 children in reception for short periods if the head considers them to be competent

I thought this was ok until I read the eyfs guidance on p18.

 

'Where the size of a group of children aged 3 and over in a maintained school (except reception classes)exceeds 26, it is good practise to assign an additional teacher to the class. An additional teacher should always be assigned where the group size exceeds 30. If in a registered setting , the size of a group of children aged 3 and over exceeds 26, the ratio requirement of one adult to 13 children will only appl if 2 members of staff hold either Qualified teacher status or early years professional status or another suitable level 6 qualification'

 

I would really appreciate it if someone could clarify this for me.

I think the problem is that although this is included in the guidance document it is just that guidance and isn't statutory

The statutory requirements simply state

Children aged three and over in maintained schools and nursery schools (except for children in

reception classes)

■■ The early years provision in each class or group of pupils must be led by a ‘school teacher’1.

A teacher must be present with the children except during non-contact time, breaks and short term

absence.

■■ There must be at least one member of staff for every 13 children.

■■ At least one member of staff must hold a full and relevant level 3 qualification (as defined by CWDC).