All in a day's work - happy with our planning
Friday, November 9, 2012
It's time to make the planning work for us, say Nicola Bushell and Hayley Cannell, joint managers of Oakey Dokeys Pre-School in Essex.
How each setting plans its days can cause lots of debate, but we feel happy and secure with the work we have done around planning and it's now really working for our whole team.
Our planning has always been based on observing each child. We look at where the child is in terms of their development, and we take into account their particular interests and then plan fun, exciting, interesting and simulating activities.
We are pleased that this approach is embedded in the revised EYFS because our planning has always been organic, with daily reflection at the end of each session. This is when we talk about special moments, what worked, and what didn't. The difference now is that each key person is responsible for recording their own planning for their key children.
This change has evolved from an overall planning folder, which it wasn't possible to use as a working document, so it became more like a paper exercise. Nowwe have developed a weekly sheet entitled 'Weekly planning for my key children', which each practitioner keeps in their folder. This sheet focuses on identifying new interests, strengths and learning gained as well as development needs and possible next steps. We feel this makes our planning more personal to each child and practitioner.
ALL ABOUT ME
We still have a broad overall plan of the next few months, which is displayed on the wall for parents to see. Celebrations that we are hoping to cover are listed as are the seasonal opportunities that we wouldn't want to miss, such as making the harvest soup.
This term and maybe beyond we are also covering an 'All about me' project. On the overall plan, we have written some ideas of experiences that we could offer and which we feel relate to the project. But in true organic style, we may follow another path if the children lead us that way.
Consequently, we don't seem to spend lots of unnecessary time writing lengthy observations. All practitioners are confident about where their children are with regard to their learning and development, so a quick photo then some note-taking at the end of the session is ideal in keeping the children's learning journeys up to date.
Having the confidence to try different tactics is sometimes the key to improving areas of your practice and how we now document our planning feels right to us.
